Tweeting Here in Maine

Yesterday I posted about a teacher in Kentucky who is using Twitter with her students for the purpose of review and introducing new vocabulary.  Today I received an email from Jim Moulton with a link to a great use of Twitter here in Maine.

The Auburn School Department hosted a national conference in November on iPads in the elementary grades. Middle students from Auburn Middle School attended as reporters.  They tweeted important ideas as they listened to the various speakers.  What a marvelous ways to engage students and get them thinking about what they are hearing!  As the article reports,

“Donny Peterson said covering the conference will help him in the class. It sharpened his listening skills.

“After this experience of paying attention, I can listen better,” Peterson said.”

I urge everyone to take time to read this article and then think about ways to adapt this strategy for use in your school: http://www.sunjournal.com/news/city/2011/12/12/young-tweeters-act-reporters-turn-heads/1123599.

Twitter–An Instructional Tool!

Happy New Year!  Going back to school in January always got me thinking about ways to surprise my students with the unexpected!  A little novelty went a long way in engaging students in a lesson or a task.  I read an article in ASCD’s SmartBrief (a free resource where I can track educational ideas and trends from around the country–I used to get ideas for my classroom all of the time here.) about a middle school teacher in Kentucky using Twitter.

Ella Bowling uses Twitter to:

• Help her students review for tests
• Introduce new vocabulary.

Read the entire article at http://www.maysville-online.com/news/local/article_25248d90-f343-54b3-a388-a90c81e6ce04.html

I immediately started thinking about ways I would use Twitter if I was still teaching language arts, and how I might incorporate it into my presentations these days:

• Exit slip–summarizing the big ideas of the lesson/presentation
• Asking questions that could be addressed the next day
• Writing different types of sentences (sentence variety practice!)
• Using new words in sentences.
• Messages to the next class or presentation group about what to be prepared to discuss
• Questions to me prior to the class or presentation that I should address during the class/session.
• Sharing of related resources.
• Assuming the role of a literary or historical character and tweeting an appropriate message.

I’m thinking Twitter has a multitude of positive uses in the classroom, and I’m just a little jealous of those who can try them out!

I’m curious–how are you and your students using Twitter and other social networks in your classes?