With frequent, troubling headlines about cyber bullying and the increasingly pervasive quality of social media in our daily lives, how do schools foster and support positive social media experiences for their students and staff?

The University of Iowa College of Education’s Teacher Leader Center will host a panel discussion, “Tweet the Good: Positive Social Media in Schools” from 5 to 6 p.m. Wednesday, March 27. The discussion will take place in room N140 Lindquist Center and is free and open to the public.

Panelists will include a high school principal who believes social media can contribute to learning, a teacher who has witnessed positive social media in her own school, and three local high school students who have made a positive impact with social media.

Jeremiah Anthony, Zack Nullmeyer, and Ben Nelson are students at Iowa City’s West High School. Using Twitter handle @WestHighBros, the friends tweet random compliments to students and even teachers at their school.

A recent tweet read, “you bring positive energy with you where ever u go. You don’t leave without being noticed&putting smile on someone’s face.”

Their effort was featured on NBC’s Today Show and the teens now have more than 5,000 Twitter followers.

Melissa Nies, a social studies teacher at West High and recent UI College of Education graduate, will provide a teacher’s perspective about the students’ effort and describe how her school has responded to and supported the West High Bros.

Josh Ehn, principal at Melcher-Dallas High School, earned his master’s degree at the UI College of Education in 2011. He embraces social media at his school and will discuss how he incorporates it into his life as an administrator and how teachers and students in his school use social media in a positive way.

“A lot of people would call them distractions, but I believe we have to think about it in a different way, as a new way to engage students in active learning,” Ehn says.

The panel is part of a year-long series of discussions and workshops offered in the College of Education’s Teacher Leader Center called Stop the Bully, Find a Solution. To learn more about the series, visit www.education.uiowa.edu/services/tlc.

Individuals with disabilities are encouraged to attend all UI- sponsored events. If you are a person with a disability who requires a reasonable accommodation in order to participate in this program, contact Cristina Cardenas in advance at 319-335-6111 or cristina-cardenas@uiowa.edu.