Virtual induction: A novice teacher's use of Twitter to form an informal mentoring network

• The majority of the alters had expertise in teaching mathematics.
• The two primary informal mentors were secondary mathematics teachers.
• The closure of the network increased over time increasing the social support.

This study is an examination of the evolution of one novice's teacher's informal mentoring network on Twitter. The study followed a novice mathematics teacher over a nine month period as she transitioned from student teacher to full-time teacher. The mixed-method study uses both qualitative and quantitative methods to analyze the interactions and structure of the mentoring network. Results indicate that the novice teacher's network was used primarily to seek information from other professionals and decreased in size over time. The differences and similarities between Twitter and face-to-face networks as well as areas with potential for further research are also discussed.