My Beauty Best Teacher

Ginny Fleck, a teacher from Green Bay with 30 years of experience, is among nearly 5,000 teachers who retired recently after all the hysteria in Wisconsin- double the amount that normally retire. "It wouldn't make sense for me to teach one more year and basically lose $8,000," she said (the Huff Post is the source). Fleck would still be paid $52K/year to teach German, but under the new laws, she would have to take part of her $60,000 annual salary to pay for a part of her own healthcare and kick in for her own plush retirement, and that would add up to 8K/year.

Fleck is a great example of the sort of entitlement that is reflected in public employees- while the rest of America struggles to hold jobs and people face reduced salaries and reduced hours, she would rather quit than take a pay cut of 8K a year. Rather than say 'I'm just happy to still have a job in this environment and would love to continue to be paid 52K/year to teach young children German', she sees making 52K but not 60K as 'losing 8K'. Although she doesn't teach math, it is clear she has eaten up liberal rhetoric which regards growing the budget at slower levels as 'cutting' and believes that 'Bush cut the size of government' (which he did not- he grew it by large amounts with his unsustainable spending).

An Angry Entitled Teacher Waves a Union-Made Sign Instead of Doing Her Job and Teaching Children

Ginny Fleck, according to ratemyteacher, "did NOT teach us what we needed... she tought the wrong way to say everything." As you can see from the picture at the right, Ginny Fleck took time out of the school day to wave union-produced materials and yell hate filled comments rather than teach German to young middle school students for 60K a year.

According to the Huff Post, the departure of 69-year angry liberal entitled Ginny Fleck has now opened up a position of employment for a young, technologically savvy teacher trained in new methods and just eager for the chance to teacher. 'I would love to have a job teaching middle school students German for 30K/year plus benefits plus retirement plus vacations' this new hypothetical teacher might say.

In Green Bay, Fleck said about 140 out of 1,700 of the district's teachers retired this year. She said another 50 or so planned to retire in the middle of this school year, cashing in vacation days saved over the years to retire in January and yet be paid their full salary until the end of their contract year (do any of you have this sort of set-up in your jobs?), and leaving the district in a scramble to hire long-term substitute teachers to fill the loss.

But above all, Fleck bemoans the fact that "All of the leadership is gone"- as if by leadership she means people like her who illegally strike to demand higher wages and salaries while refusing to pay anything for retirement and healthcare, at a time when Wisconsin's economy, like the rest of the nations, is struggling. Her leadership of screaming hate at people so she can keep her own is the kind of leadership that apparently will now be leaving Wisconsin, being replaced by professionals who will perhaps be more willing to work with the community and more recognizing of the situation that others from Wisconsin are in.

Thank you Huff Post for posting this article and bringing my attention to Ginny Fleck, a great example of everything that is wrong in the education world, and someone who I think should be lucky to continue to be making a fine retirement package paid for by the taxpayers.

Hello, again! If you've been following me through my Twitter in the Classroom series, welcome back! If you're just stumbling onto this link, you may want to consider visiting {Part 1}, {Part 2}, and {Part 3} before reading this post.

In any case, here is our discussion topic for today:

• How Do I Set Up a Classroom Twitter? 

How do I Set Up a Classroom Twitter?

Step 1: Get an account by going to www.twitter.com. You'll see a page similar to the one below (click on it if you need to enlarge it). Notice the area with the circle around it. All you have to do is enter in the required text in those three fields and click the yellow "sign up" button.

From there, follow the step-by-step directions until your Twitter is completely made. You may have to check your e-mail and confirm your registration through an e-mail link (I don't remember, since it's been so long since I've signed up!).

Step 2: Once your account is made, you get to do a little bit of customization. When you go to your home page, you should see your username a small but colorful picture of an egg in the top, right-hand corner. Click on that and a drop-down box appears. It will be similar to the picture below, but keep in mind that my Twitter account has already been customized, so some of the things on my website will not appear on yours (yet!).

Once you click on the "settings" link, you will be taken to a page with 7 different tabs running across the top. The default tab is "Account," and it should list your name, username, e-mail address, etc. You may want to toggle with the time zone changes if they aren't already correct.

At the very bottom, you should see an option to "protect my tweets" (shown below). It is entirely up to you on whether or not you check this box. Let me tell you what it means: if you check the box and indicate that you want to "protect your tweets," that means your tweets are private and hidden from the public. If you "protect your tweets," every user that wants to see your updates must request to follow you, and you must approve of them (one-by-one) before they have access to your tweets. I can see the pros and cons of each side of the argument, so it's really up to you on what you'd like to do.


Step 3: If you want to connect your Twitter account to your cell phone (so you can text updates to Twitter without accessing a computer), you'll want to take a look at the "Mobile" tab. Type your phone number into the phone number field and click "start." Twitter should send you a confirmation text (or two) to make sure that your account is successfully connected to your cell phone.

If you ever are unsure as to how to get someone's updates sent to your phone, mention someone in your tweet, etc. you'll want to refer to the "Twitter commands" column on the bottom, right-hand side of the "Mobile" page. You'll see the beginning of them pictured below.


You can memorize those commands, print a copy, make a note of them in a note-taking application on your phone...whatever. But to do more than just update your Twitter status with your phone, you'll need to know those commands. To get some more answers about Twitter and your cell phone, check out the FAQ page created specifically for Apps, SMS, and Mobile Devices.

Step 4: Update your profile by clicking the "profile" page. You can see in the picture below that I've filled in some of the fields, but not all. It is completely up to you what you display and what you keep to yourself.


I will say, though, that the more information you provide, the easier it is for others to find you. So if you want your students to find you, you may want to put "Mr./Mrs. X's Class Twitter at BlahBlah Junior High School" or something in the "bio" section. This ensures that students/parents/families from your class are connecting to the correct Twitter. This is also the place where you can replace your profile picture and get rid of that silly egg. :)

Step 5: Click on "design" to see options of how to change the background of your page. If you ever had a MySpace page back in the day, this will be pretty simple for you. You can either choose one of their 19 premade designs, or you can upload an image of your own. You use the search terms "free Twitter background" if you're looking for a unique pattern or picture. Keep in mind that students who access your page from their cell phones (either by text or by application) will not be able to see the background you've chosen. So I wouldn't stress about this step; it's definitely not that important!

Step 6: Get acclimated with the website. If you click "home," you'll see a blank box at the top underneath the heading "what's happening?" If you want to send a tweet to your followers, type something into that box. A "tweet" button will appear underneath the bottom, as well as a character count so you can keep track of how long your message is. Keep in mind that you cannot send out tweets that are longer than 140 characters!

You'll see some tabs right underneath that, and then you'll probably have a blank spot. This blank spot will be filled with status updates once you start following other Twitter users. Look below for an example:

In the picture above, you'll notice that my "Timeline" tab is highlighted, and that means I'm viewing tweets of users I follow. @AngelaMaiers is the first tweet on the feed, and @ASCD is the last tweet you see on the screen (I could scroll down for more). You'll see the tweets of whomever you follow. Keep in mind that, unlike Facebook, there is no "hide" feature. If you're following someone, you will see all of their tweets until you decide to stop following them.

If you click on the "@Mentions" tab, you can see a list of tweets that were meant for you. The other tabs are pretty self-explanatory. Just play with them a little bit and you'll get the hang of it!

Searches are conducted at the very top of the page. Feel free to experiment with it by typing in "Teacher Garden" and see what pops up!

Step 7: Allow students to connect with you by disclosing your Twitter username. If a student or family member does not want to register with Twitter but just wants to read your updates, he/she can access your page (if the tweets are unprotected) by typing www.twitter.com/ [insert your username here] into their web browsers. For instance, if I wanted to give people the exact link to my Twitter account, I would tell them to visit www.twitter.com/TeacherGarden. You can search for your students and begin "following" them first, in order to make it a little easier for them to find you.

If a student want to connect his/her cell phone to Twitter, just have them follow Step 3, and pay particular attention to the tips and commands located in the right column of the "Mobile" page.

Now...that wasn't too painful, was it? :) I wish you the best of luck in using Twitter in your classroom! If you have a free moment, leave a comment and/or send me a tweet about how your Twitter in the classroom experience is going!



Source

As an English teacher, one of my standards requires me to teach students to write friendly and business letters. It doesn't matter what grade you teach; it is almost inevitable that you will see this standard on your list. (And even if it's not "on the list," isn't it a useful skill to teach, anyway?)

When I teach (or review) how to write a letter, I always start by showing them an example of a finished letter with all the necessary parts before asking the students to write a letter of their own. This website seems like it would be good to use in between those two steps. Letter generator is a nice scaffolding tool for getting students -- young or old -- to write letters correctly.

When you go to the Letter Generator website, you are immediately asked to type in your name. Then you're taken to a screen that asks what kind of letter you're looking to write: friendly or business? Each option explains a little about who would be on the receiving end of the letter so that students can better assess which type of letter they need to write. Students can click on either option.



No matter which option is chosen, students are taken through the letter-writing process step-by-step. Each screen presents a new step with text fields to complete. Letter Generator does a nice job of making sure students understand what should be written in each field. At the end of the letter writing experience, students are shown a preview of their letter and given three options: print, save, or share. There is an also an extra feature that shows students how to correctly address an envelope! Nifty.

Besides the great scaffolding, one feature I really like about Letter Generator is that students can practice writing friendly and business letters in a completely paperless way. I love that final letters can be e-mailed or downloaded for grading! Way to be green, Letter Generator! Here's a screen shot of my friendly letter sample. (Colorful boarders can be added to the friendly letter, but not to the business letter.)

Software should be viewed holistically, in my opinion. I know that in 4 years most of my students will not be using the same version of any software I teach. I do want them to have deep knowledge of many different programs, however, I want them to know that no matter what software or "apps" come their way that they are able to take the app, understand the app's purpose, an utilize it in a functional way in a very short period of time.

Instead of the standard 4 software application program 2 semester program that I ran 10 years a go when I started this job, we start off with a bootcamp using software that I know they do not know. After learning a method of how to intuitively learn new software and viewing a video that introduces them to the concept of building a PLN, we embark on our "software exploration" project. I thought I'd share that with you today.


Software Exploration in a Nutshell

After introducing the ClickSmart method of learning new software  I have them set off to learn about new software and explore the software on the computers in our lab. (ClickSmart(tm) is a way I invented to look at software holistically- and yes, I need to publish that in detail - several publishers want to publish it but they want me to do things to the book I'm not willing to do so I WILL be self publishing hopefully sooner rather than later.)

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Before we began, I showed them the video about Dantae Thrash, the Evansville Indiana student who linked himself into the Lego Brick Filming online groups. We talked about help files built into software programs but the importance of building a Personal Learning Network when you have something you are passionate about. We pulled up a few message boards for on of our programs to show how to determine which message boards and forums have things going on, which do not, and how to join in.

It has been quite a fascinating journey and today will be their last presentations. Just wanted to give you an overview of the software that we've plowed through the three days in the first class (they had 2 days of prep time to explore and document the software in our class One Note notebook which doubles as our textbook.)

One Note Notebook
Below you can see the Online view of the One Note notebook. It has a little less functionality than the offline version but still means that students can access the information anywhere.

View on One Note notebook in Skydrive from a computer that does not have One Note Installed

We had a challenge signing up for Windows Live ID's -- Windows Live ID service only allows 2 people from one IP address to sign up for their service in a 24 hour period! It took us 2 weeks to get my 90+ students into our one note notebook!  You can, however, use Microsoft's Live@edu setup which is their alternative to Google Apps for Education. We've been on Google apps, though with no plans to switch at this point and so live@edu setup by importing a csv file was not for us. To work around this problem, the only solution they could offer was for me to bring in my mi-fi hotspot. I had students register on my iPad on the hotspot and reset the hotspot every 2 sign ups. YES, it was cumbersome. It is worth it for me, but I don't recommend it for you. Needless to say, we had a great discussion about IP addresses, spammers, and how the Internet routes data.

AFTER Windows works through this problem, I highly recommend that every class have their own class notebook. As much as I love Evernote for keeping my files, nothing compares to One Note for taking notes in class. If you want to link One Note on the ipad, the One Note app is decent but right now Mobile Noter is a better app for this.

You can see the project page for this assignment.

the software exploration assignment and on the left you can see some of the programs my students shared.

Blender - A student showed the basics of Blender, the 3D object creation software and also showed a famous movie filmed entirely in Blender. We discussed machinima. I noted that there is a lot of interest in this but mentioned how the mesh objects here could be exported and imported into our Open Sim Island and also the Jibe worlds that we'll be working with this year. (I'd like them to have their own 3D virtual world embeddable on a  web page in their personal portfolio using Jibe. Great tool.) The students agreed that this is definitely a higher end program. We also discussed Geometry and how the x,y,z axis are important in 3D work. They seemed surprised to see that Geometry had real-world uses.

Google Sketchup - Another 3D object creation tool, the students shared with their friends. The students LOVED how you can import 3D objects stored in the special google search engine for 3D objects. They were excited to pull in these objects and realized that they can export them into virtual worlds just like on Blender.

After this student presentation, I took the boat that they pulled in and figured out how to export as 2D (I wanted them to see how I figured this out as I haven't used Google Sketchup before) - I adjusted the camera a tiny bit and took about 10 pictures that I exported into a folder entitled "boat zoom" and pulled them into Pinnacle Studio to make a small 1 second clip zooming in on a boat. This was a demonstration of how easy it is to film machinima - just moving objects a small bit at a time and exporting the image. I think this is something they now see and feel is doable.

Audacity - This group demonstrated how to hook in our M-Audio Podcast Factory microphone into the computers and imported some audio and showed how to record over, edit the voice, remove things, and apply filters. They also demonstrated how to run an instrument app on an ipad or ipod Touch and record into audacity.

(I had to take a side trail and talk about what a male to male, male to female, etc. cables are and how to tell and ask for them -- it is a 'fact of life' that they need to understand the different kinds of cables (pardon the pun)).

I have to get a splitter so they can hear what they are recording as they are recording it because for some reason our MAudio box isn't letting us record the ipod/ ipad through the mixer box although you can hear it through the headphones. The presenters shared a song that they had remixed and I talked about how the award winning cheerleading squad from last year had mixed their own music in the computer lab using audacity.

We also spent time talking about DRM protection and a student with an ipad shared some about mixing in Garage Band on the ipad and Mac and how it is different from Audacity. We also talked about how to understand file extensions and look up what various types of files are. (This takes CONSTANT reinforcement.)

TuxGuitar - This group went all out. This program is for writing sheet music off of guitars and was a new one for me. You play the guitar shown on the screen and the program writes sheet music. This team also showed how to find midi music and import into Tux Guitar and to turn off and on tracks. We then hooked the computer with Tux Guitar into another computer running audacity and they realized how they could write, edit, use midi files on one computer and then record the track into another.

Synthesia - This game was brought in by the Tux Guitar students. They had learned everything about Tux Guitar and wanted to bring in this program. This teach-yourself piano game uses the computer keyboard but could use a real keyboard. They talked about how you can learn how to play almost any instrument.

So, I took them to one of my favorite Kevin Honeycutt videos about using the ipod/ iphone as an instrument. We discussed the evolution of music.

Whew! Just two days. Note that all of them have screenshots and instructions for the "computer user manual" we have built in one note.

Then, we went into photography with Picasa, learning how to take pictures on our webcam and a discussion about resolution (or rez), Picnik (the online photo editor integrated with Picasa) and also about the sort of scary "Face finder" service now integrated into Picasa. We discussed how our Face is now a fingerprint of a sort.

 We then moved into Skype. It was fun on the Skype session as I have the whole class get up on Skype. This is important to me because if I am ever out of town or home sick (or home taking care of a sick child which is more often the case,) I am able to skype into class to help students with issues. I'm really always "there." We learn how to group skype, but then I take my iPad and three boys into the library and have them skype back to the class. Then, I give them permission to take the class on a 4 minute tour and they take my ipad around and say hello to the librarian, the teacher coming from the copier. We discuss the mobility of VIDEO connection. This is a fun conversation.

Oovoo - The students asked that I install Oovoo on several computers because they wanted to compare and contrast Skype with oovoo which lets you do 12 way video chat. The kids say they really like Oovoo and are using it heavily.

Google Plus - Seeing some similarities between Oovoo and Google plus, it was then that I took them into Google Plus and ended up with a whole side conversation about tagging people. (See My Google+ Lesson Turned into a Whole Lot More than I had planned.)

We are just getting into the other class but I'm excited that three of our young ladies have jumped into Scratch and are loving it. They will teach the class today.

What is the purpose?
Before this, I have already laid the groundwork of my paperless classroom, how to print to PDF from word or any application, how to open into Google docs and save down from Google docs. How to move files around and organize them.

With this project, I am:

1. What is this class of students interested in? How do I reach them
2. Do they already have any prior knowledge of a program that I can build upon
3. Can they learn to use forums and help resources when they have no prior knowledge? If not, I guide them in the learning process about how to FIND resources and people when they don't have prior knowledge.
4. I set the stage for students-as-teacher and discuss presentation skills.
5. I let them start and share with each other and then I build upon that with certain things I want them to know.
6. We set the stage for super fast student-empowered learning where the tool is less important than finding a tool that will do what you want. The artifact we are trying to create becomes more important than the program we are using.

Surely, such planning seems like chaos to many, however, since I've started the year with this, I've found that I'm spending less time at the front of the room droning on and more time actually getting into the meat of the projects that make this such a fun class to teach.

I want them to be master of technology NOT the other way around.

Where this will lead.

The Freshman Project
I've gotten approval for a "Freshman project" of the student's own deciding due next May that will take 30-50 hours of time (I will give 30 hours of class time) that will be self-directed independent projects of the student's own choosing. This is modeled after the "senior project" idea in Evansville, Indiana that inspired DanTae in the video at the top of this blog post.

We must find student interests and help relate technology to turbo charge their careers and lives before they even graduate.


Flawed and imperfect as it is, the 6 class days required to do this activity start my year well and with a powerful message that we are in this together. Learning together.

Pushing forward into a future that is not yet written we will lead and no longer complain when our software is upgraded on us because we have powerful decoding skills that will let us master any app in our digital destiny.

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In my post Graph: Non-Defense Spending Relative to GDP, Color-Coded by Party in Power, or the Obama Hockey Stick, reader Levi commented "Which policies (of Democratic President Barack Obama) are stunting the recovery?"- he doesn't believe that Barack Obama is pushing any sort of policies that are slowing our economic recovery.

Levi probably isn't a regular reader of my blog, since he has obviously missed posts from just this month detailing Obama's efforts to harm our economic recovery, ranging from his banking policies (Obama Pressuring Banks to Give High Risk Loans to Poor and Minorities) to regulations that the EPA has put in place (Latest EPA Rules to Cost 1.4 Million Jobs and a 12% Increase in Utility Bills) to executive orders that add to the cost of doing business in America (Government Does Not Create Jobs; In July Alone It Added $9.5 Billion to the Cost of Doing Business). These stories were well-researched and filled with details, but perhaps Levi and progressives like him need more evidence. I can provide that.

Via Powerlineblog:

The Justice Department’s raid on four Gibson guitar factories is in that category. The raid took place last Wednesday; this Memphis Daily News story, published this morning, is a good place to start:

Around 8:45 a.m. Wednesday, Aug. 24, agents executed four search warrants on Gibson facilities in the two cities [Nashville and Memphis]. They seized several pallets of wood, electronic files and guitars.

But Gibson’s CEO says his company has not been told what it did wrong and that he assumes the allegation is that some of the wood being used to manufacture the company’s guitars is illegal.

“Everything is sealed. They won’t tell us anything,” Juszkiewicz said, never raising his voice but pulling no punches in his defense of the storied guitar maker.

He valued the equipment and raw materials seized from Gibson at almost $1 million. At one point, the chief executive said he’s letting the U.S. Justice Department know he’s telling his employees to keep making the instruments. …

“We feel totally abused,” he continued. “We believe the arrogance of federal power is impacting me personally, our company personally and the employees here in Tennessee, and it’s just plain wrong.”

Now, it may turn out that Gibson's has broken some obscure portion of the Lacey Act, a piece of legislation that is designed to protect exotic trees by putting burdens and fees and regulations on US companies, who extract a fraction of the exotic trees compared to other nations (Gibson's imports only 5% of the rosewood, while an unburdened China that shows much less respect for the environment is encouraged by progressive laws like the Lacey Act to extract 95% of rosewood). If this is so, one wonders why other companies are not also being punished- companies like one of Gibson's principal competitors, C.F. Martin & Company, which engages in the same practices but isn't raided (it's CEO is a big Democratic donor), or Michelle Obama, who gave French First Lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy a Gibson Hummingbird acoustic guitar with a rosewood fret, in clear violation of the Lacey Act.

But the point is that the President and his administration are not helping businesses navigate these useless and harmful laws; the President and his administration are not working with Americans to produce more goods and products in a more efficient and profitable manner; and the President and his administration are not helping our nation to recover from the recession. No, he is instead harassing legitimate businessmen on frivolous ground that are motivated perhaps by political malice and smell strongly of the misuse of federal power. He is not helping America recover- he is acting to hurt our recovery and make a recession into a Depression through his policies.

If you've been following my Twitter in the Classroom series, you know it's time for {Part 3}! (Catch up {Part 1} and {Part 2} here, if you need to!)

Here are our {Part 3} discussion topics, if you're ready:

• Tweet Suggestions (For Teachers)
• Twitter Projects/Activities (For Students)

Tweet Suggestions (For Teachers)

Here are some suggestions for things you can tweet to your student/parent audience:

1. Reminders about assignments that are due or upcoming quizzes/exams/projects. 
2. Reminders about snow days, picture days, sporting events, field trips, spirit days, etc. 
3. School events and/or their outcomes (plays, musicals, art shows, academic meets, etc.) -- especially ones where your school won/did well or is playing a rival!
4. Hints about how to complete an assignment or project.
5. Bonus points that can only be aquired through Twitter. (I've tweeted, "Go to the class website and scroll to the bottom of the page. The first student to describe to me the newest object at the bottom of that page gets 5 bonus points." The purpose of this, of course, was to get students to view the class website and the newest important tool on it!)
6. Helpful websites that could assist them academically (StarFall, CliffNotes, Online Calculator, etc.)
7. Apple/Blackberry, Android apps they might find helpful. (I recently tweeted about Flashcards+ and Sundry Notes!)
8. Books you recommend (I always have some students who have a hard time finding something interesting to read. I read books from my classroom library and tweet short blurbs to interest students in the book!)
9. Vocabulary words/definitions in a Word of the Day (#WOTD) format.
10. A poll to help your classroom/planned lessons (I recommend using Twtpoll!)
11. Exit ticket answers. (If students ask a question on an exit ticket, you could answer it on Twitter. This allows everyone to benefit from the answers without taking up any class time. Afterwards, you could copy/paste the updates and post the dialogue on your classroom website so those that couldn't access Twitter at the time can still get the knowledge. (For instance, I did exit tickets after an introductory lesson about courtroom trials, since my students would be conducting a trial about the characters in a book we'd just read. Some students were still confused on the process of the courtroom, and I gave them a chance to anonymously ask any question they still had. I answered these questions on Twitter, and it was a hit!
12. Motivational/inspirational quotes

Twitter Projects/Activities (For Students)

For all of these activities, there are a couple of ways you, the teacher, can keep track of students' answers and assess, if need be.

1. The main way is to create a hashtag just for your class. For instance, I might specify #MrsKEng1 for my 1st hour English class. From that point forward, if I wanted to find my students' tweets, I just type #MrsKEng1 in the search bar and read away! (Certain Twitter apps allow you to save search terms for quick retrieval. Just something to check into!)
2. Another option is to create student lists. You can create a list for all of your students, and then divide them by class and/or subject. When you want to read their tweets, just click on the name of the list on your right sidebar. 
3. Ask students to "mention" you in every single classroom-related tweet. 

With that in mind, here are some projects/activities I've thought of that use Twitter in the Classroom:

1. Schedule a chat. For instance, I might specify the #MrsKEng1 hashtag and assign a start time of  7 pm. Ideally, at 7 pm, students would log on and use the search box to find our class's hashtag. We can then have an online discussion of classroom topics outside the walls of our classroom. Whether you make this an actual assignment or an extra credit activity is, of course, up to you. You could discuss anything from an in-class topic to a President's speech on television to a movie you all went to see!
2. Peer-to-peer tutoring. Encourage parents/students to tweet questions. Other students/parents could check the hashtag and answer peer's questions. We learn best when we teach! I'd definitely suggest monitoring this activity to ensure that all questions are answered accurately.
3. Exit ticket. At the end of class, ask students to whip out their cell phones and tweet a quick exit comment/question to the cyber-world. Hopefully, these tweets generate a discussion or other students answering their peers' questions. (Of course, you would want to make sure all students had access to texting before you proceeded with this experiment. I've heard that you can use Google functions to text, but I haven't tested it yet.) You also get a quick evaluation of who understands the material.
4. Summary of the day. Whether you've just taught a math lesson or you've just finished another chapter in the class novel, students can tweet a 140-character summary of the day's lesson. In order to make assessment easier, you might consider having students either tweet this as a "reply" or include the class hashtag. (Just so you know, both options lessen the number of allowed characters/tweet.) Students could "re-teach" the jist of today's lesson. 
5. Short answer quiz questions. Of course, <140-characters/tweet is a short short answer! But if you're able to explain/answers something in such a short and concise manner, you're probably more likely to understand it.
6. Twitter as bellwork. This feeds off the last suggestion, but immediately upon entering the room, there will be questions or a discussion prompt on the board (or tweeted by you). Students must respond to the question(s)/discussion prompt while you take care of those mundane "house-keeping" duties (attendance, lunch count, etc).
7. Summary of text. After reading a chapter in a novel or expository textbook, ask students to tweet  summary of what they just read. 
8. Timeline report. Follow a celebrity or company and track their tweets over time. Then write a report over their day-to-day life. This could work as a biography project or even for a business class. 
9. Find students in another school/state/country with whom your students can tweet back and forth. It would be challenging to convey all information in 140-character segments, but that might create more concise writers. 
10. Create a class story. One student can start by tweeting the beginning line to a story. Students then take turns to tweet a class story, one line at a time. This collaborative project works on writing skills, creativity, and sharing.
11. Getting to know you. As a back to school activity, ask students to describe themselves in 160-characters or less. If students' Twitter usernames weren't easily recognizable, you could even play a game where students must guess which student belongs with which tweet!
12. Character tweet. After reading a novel, students can pick a character from the story and tweet, say, 5 status updates throughout the day. Each status update should be written in the 1st person format, as if the student were actually the character. 
13. Historical tweet. Feeding off the previous suggestion, you could ask students to pick a person from history and impersonate them on Twitter throughout the day. What would Abe Lincoln have to say if Twitter was available during his time? A website called Historical Tweets might help with this!
14. Hashtag timeline. Monitor the hashtags over a period of time to see the trends of our society. This would be great for a history or current events class. 
15. Hashtag quick write. On a random day, write the current trending topics on the board. Ask students to write about a curtain hashtag either individually or as a group. They could write their thoughts, create a story, etc.
16. Personal story. Using the 3 parts of a story, ask students to write an entire story in 420-characters or less (140 for the beginning, 140 for the middle, and 140 for the end). 
17. Micro-research paper. Ask students to create a micro-research paper using the Twitter guidelines. The intro paragraph must be 140-characters, the thesis must be 140-characters, the first paragraph.... you get the idea. Each part of the micro-paper must comply with Twitter character count rules. 
18. Spelling race. Tell students a word in class and see who can tweet the correct spelling the most quickly. (You could also do this for math problems, science/history trivia questions, etc.)
19. Vocab race. Tweet a word and see who can reply with the correct definition the most quickly...or vice versa.
20. Vocab sentences. Tweet a word and ask students to reply with a tweet that uses that vocab word correctly in a sentence. 
21. Synonym game. Call out a word and ask students to tweet synonyms.
22. Book club. Students tweet book blurbs in an effort to get other kids to read great books.
23. Attendance. Some days, give yourself a break from taking attendance and do it on Twitter. My suggestions: use the bellwork response tweets as a way to take attendance. You may still need to double-check this one because of two main reasons: 1) present students could text the bellwork question to an absent classmate, who would then tweet the bellwork in a timely manner. 2) Present students who don't participate would be counted absent. :-/

 I'm all tapped out of ideas for now. What suggestions do you guys have? 


Continue: Twitter for the Classroom {Part 4}

If you haven't already read Twitter for the Classroom {Part 1}, it might be worth looking at! :)

But if you've read it and are ready for more info about this amazing little classroom tool, read on!

Our {Part 2} discussion topics:

• Why I Advocate for Twitter in the Classroom
• 5 Personal Success Stories from Using Twitter in the Classroom

Why I Advocate for Twitter in the Classroom

• Twitter is free to use. It doesn't cost anything to register or use on a computer. The only way it would cost money if you're using the texting feature is if you don't have a text messaging plan. The only way it would cost money if you're using it on an application (on a mobile device) is if you opt to purchase the app that costs money. There are plenty of free Twitter apps available!
• Twitter is easy to use. Everything is pretty self-explanatory, so even the students who aren't proficient in technology can muddle their way through Twitter. If a user is having a particularly hard time figuring Twitter out, he/she can explore the Twitter FAQ section. 
• Because the limits are set extravagantly high (250 direct messages/day, 1,000 updates/day, and 2,000 followers before error messages occur), there's no way a teacher would ever "go over" the allotted limited, like what might happen if you're using a paid subscriber service through another company. 
• Because the limits are so high, parents, grandparents, and other family members can follow the class Twitter with no repercussions. This helps entire families stay connected, even though they may be states away!
• Students who don't have the Internet at home can use a computer to set up his/her Twitter one time, and then he/she can access it via cell phone and text message or mobile device and app.
• Students or parents who are worried about getting tweets during school or sleep hours can manually set which times to allow Twitter to send updates. 
• There are features to ensure that students who do not want to be contacted by people beyond the "approved followers list" will get the privacy they need. 
• Because it's a social networking site, students can find each other on Twitter and collaborate online -- both for assignments in my class and for other classes!
• Because it's a social networking site, students can follow other educational Twitters or students from across the world to gain cultural, educational, or career insight.
• Students can easily reply to you. If you tweet something that doesn't make sense, a student can reply immediately and ask a question. When you tweet something that requires an answer, students can answer via reply tweet. (This has come in handy for me on several occasions!)
• Shy kids get a voice. A kid who might be too shy to ask/tell you something in class may have no problem voicing it online. (There is something about a keyboard and a screen that makes humans automatically become a little more courageous.)
• Today's society does not have a long attention span. Twitter's quick, 140-character messages are perfect for sending out small but important doses of information!
• There are several Twitter-based projects for classroom use that I think would work well to teach and engage students. {Learn more about those in Part 3!}
• Teachers can relay a wealth of information via text, picture, or video link. {Learn more about these in Part 3!}

 5 Personal Success Stories from Using Twitter in the Classroom

1. When I taught 8th grade, I had a young lady who was involved in pretty much every club, sport, and organization the school had to offer. Every Thursday night, I had a habit of tweeting a reminder to study for the vocab quiz that would take place the following day. At the end of the year, this student revealed to me that my Thursday night updates were very helpful to her. She would inevitably be on the bus, coming home from yet another after school, extra-curricular event, and her phone would buzz. It would be Twitter, sending her a message from with the reminder about the quiz. She would immediately study the words the rest of the way home...and she nearly always made an A or a B on the quizzes! I like that she was able to use our classroom updates as a reminder/calendar service of sorts. 
2. Also when I was teaching 8th grade, I had a boy who would sit in the back corner of the room and refuse to participate in anything. Most days, I had to wonder if he was even conscious. I'd learned a long time ago that asking him to sit up or participate would just lead to a verbal escapade...which would then lead to me sending him tot he office to calm down...he would get In-School Detention (which did nothing for him), and come back to class the same as ever. This was one of my "pick your battles" moments. My class was reading a novel, and although the novel was on his desk, I was pretty sure he wasn't listening or following along. One night I sent a tweet to the effect of, "if you're bored with the novel, hang on! Tomorrow's chapter gets exciting!" Class the next day came and went, and he never said a word. But that night, I tweeted to my students to ask them what they thought of that "exciting" chapter. He actually replied, "I don't like reading, but you were right. That chapter was good!" ...And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why I teach. :) I would have never even know he was paying attention had he not sent me that message. It renewed my spirits and I was able to use Twitter to draw him into the classroom novel discussions. 
3. Also while teaching 8th grade, I had a parent who was very concerned about the well-being and success of her son. Her son rarely opened up to her, but she was desperate for a glimpse into his personal and school life. I helped her connect to the class Twitter, and she was able to see all of our state updates. Doing this helped ease the tension between her and her son because she no longer had to pry information out of him (about my class, anyway)! 
4. I was  having trouble with my classes saying rude things. I genuinely believed those students meant no harm in saying what they did; they simply didn't know or didn't think about how bad the words sounded before letting it escape their lips. So I was on this kick about tweeting "life lessons" and "character motivations." One Tuesday night, I randomly tweeted that our first "Wednesday Challenge" would begin the next day. Their first challenge was to say something nice to every person they talked to that day. No students reply or mentioned it in class that morning. I spoke to a fellow teacher at the end of school, and she said one of her students (we'll call him "R") said something strange in class. He's normally a very quiet kid, but today, he was complimenting all the girls. The coworker asked, "what's gotten into you today, R?" He smiled and said, "It's part of Mrs. K's Wednesday Challenge!" ....Are you getting those "warm 'n fuzzies" yet???
5. One evening, I tweeted something about challenging my students to do something nice for a stranger over the weekend., and included a #PayItForward hashtag. One of my kids replied, asking what "pay it forward" means. I got the opportunity to explain the concept. That term would probably have never come up in my day-to-day teaching, because, let's face it, I'm too swamped trying to cover the massive English objectives to be concerned with teaching my students the "pay it forward" concept in class. But social skills are an issue, and they need to be taught! So I was able to squeeze in that little "mini lesson" to all that followed the class Twitter. And even though I replied to that one student about the meaning of "pay it forward," all the other students could read the reply, so I felt like I was explaining it to them, too.  

Continue: Twitter in the Classroom {Part 3}

Twitter is one of my favorite classroom tools. Because I have so much to say about it, I'm going to break my Twitter posts into parts. Obviously, this is Twitter for the Classroom {Part 1}, and I promise to give you the link to the next part at the end of this post. :)

Our {Part 1} discussion topics:

• What Is Twitter?
• Who Uses Twitter? 
• Ways to Generate More Classroom Interest in Twitter  

What Is Twitter?

The Jist
Twitter is a free social networking site. But what's it all about? How does it work?

Twitter is comprised of users who send out short status updates (called "tweets") that are 140 characters or less in length. Tweets can also include links to picture or videos, but are usually shortened to avoid hitting the 140-character limit.

Users sign up and begin updating their status. They find users they know or that represent popular companies, bands, etc. and "follow." Like Facebook, once you "follow" someone, you will see their status updates in your "news feed" immediately upon logging into your account. Unlike Facebook, friendships can be one-sided. That is, you are free to follow to someone and they are free, in turn, to not follow you.

Lists
Users can sort the people they follow into lists, which are categories created by each individual user. So if I was following three educators on my Twitter, I might create a list called "Teachers" and put them all in that list. This allows me to quickly see updates from users in related topics.

Hashtags
The "hashtag" is very popular on Twitter, and is shown as the pound symbol (#). A hashtag might also be called a "trending topic." Users insert hashtags into their tweets before a popular word or topic is discussed. Once submitted to the Twitter feeds, any user who searches for that particular topic will see your tweet, even if your tweets are "private." For instance, if you tweet this message: "Stuck in traffic. #IHateTrafficJams" the words "IHateTrafficJams" will become a link in your tweet. You can click on those words (or "the hashtag") to be taken to a feed other other users who have used the same hashtag. (Click here for a current list of users who have used the #IHateTrafficJams hashtag!) There is no rhyme or reason for hashtags; they are completely user-generated. That means that there are times when you will search for a hashtag that no one has used. This also means that you have a chance to connect with like-minded tweeters via the hashtag search function (keep this in mind, as it is very important. We'll discuss it in a future post.)

Privacy
Users can protect their tweets or leave them unprotected. "Protected" means that potential followers must submit a "follow request," and you must approve or deny each and every one of them. In turn, only users whom you have approved will see your tweets (excluding tweets with hashtags).

Mentions/Replies
Users can talk to each other by putting the @ symbol and the username of the person they'd like to talk to somewhere in their tweet. If someone types the @ symbol and your username before tweeting a message, you will see that tweet appear in your "mentions" tab; this serves to let you know that someone is talking to or about you in a status update.

Direct Messages (DMs)
Users can speak to each other privately by using the direct message (DM) feature. These messages are still limited to 160 characters each, but are away from the prying eyes of the public.

Connecting to Your Mobile Device
Users can connect their Twitter accounts to their mobile phones. One great thing about Twitter is that users do not have to have Internet access to use Twitter on their cell phones. Twitter, like Facebook, can be updated via text message. Twitter does not charge users for having status updates sent through their phones; the only charges that apply are the ones issued by your individual cell phone service provider. Thus, if a user has unlimited text messaging, then absolutely no charges are made to update Twitter through a cell phone text message.

If you link your mobile phone to your Twitter account, you do have some options to customize. You can request that status updates from particular users be sent to your phone (in a text message). You can request that no other users' status updates be sent to your phone at all. You can reply to users' tweets and/or mentions via text message, as well. Twitter is pretty functional via text message!

What's more, you don't have to have a cell phone OR a computer in order to access Twitter; there are Twitter apps all over the place! Some are free, and some cost a few dollars because of the extra features, but they all do the same thing: allow users to connect to Twitter and communicate as they would if they were on a regular computer. If you own an iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch, there are lots of Twitter apps you can download. I know there is a Blackberry Twitter app, and I'm sure there's one for Android, as well. Tablets that have Internet access can find a way to connect to Twitter easily.

Who Uses Twitter?

Twitter is like Facebook: you can find virtually any one or any company using it.

For example:

• @Barack Obama
• @ChickFilA
• @Sephora
• @ESPN
• @DallasMavs

 I could go on for days. Tons of radio stations, TV shows (#DanceMoms is pretty popular right now!), celebrities, athletes, and even schools are participating in the Twitter craze.

You can find almost any one, any company, any organization, and any cause on Twitter. Part of what makes Twitter so great is that so many people use it.
  
Ways to Generate More Classroom Interest in Twitter


Eventually, we want to develop intrinsic motivation in our students to do the class activities. But if your class needs a little push, here are a few things you could do to "inspire" them to participate more:

• Record grades for any or all of the Twitter activities
• Allow students without a Twitter account to sign up for one during class
• Make sure the Twitter website is unblocked on school computers (tricky!)
• Offer bonus points if students register and/or participate
• Make sure posts are worthwhile and helpful to students
• Make it "cool" to get educational tweets (Good luck with this one. When you figure out how to do it, let me know! :)

Continue: Twitter for the Classroom {Part 2}

At the beginning of the year, I like to send home a "parent inventory." The kids think it's hilarious that their parent has homework, and I can glean some useful information from just this one sheet of questions!

Source

If you're teaching an elementary class, of course, you can just send this with your parent packet. If you're teaching secondary, it might be best to attach this to the back of your syllabus and insert a signature line indicating the parent/guardian has read and understands the expectations of [teacher's name] room. I find that keeping a paper like that on file all year long is really helpful in the event that a parent insists he/she didn't know that his/her child has to do [x] in my class. (I hate to think negatively, but it's best to "watch your back," so to speak, and document everything!)

This Google doc is an example of a parent inventory I would send on the first day/week of school.

Although I find all the answers helpful, there are two answers in particular that I look forward to reading.

The first is the parent's signature. It's great to get a copy of the parent's signature in a relaxed and non-threatening environment, and to keep it on file all year long. Sometimes the little ones try to devise notes so they can go home with their BFF. Sometimes the older ones try to forge signatures on report cards, etc. So I love that I immediately have a copy of the parent signature on file, right from the beginning of the year.

I particularly love the last question: "In a million words or less, tell me about your child." That is the spot where I get the best answers. I have learned about students who are supposed to be wearing glasses but purposely don't bring them to class. I have learned about students who are such perfectionists that I should expect them to cry when/if the student doesn't understand a new concept the first time it's taught. I have learned about reading struggles from the past. Most of all, there is a lot of love that shines through on this question. It reminds me that most parents only want the best for their kids and will do anything to help them.

Whether you choose to get answers orally, written on paper, or via online survey, I urge you to conduct a quick inventory of your students' parents. You will learn so much!

Many in the media are gibbering away at how the recent hurricane that struck the East Coast of the United States is some sort of sign that mankind is permanently warming the entire globe in a horrible way through their energy production and driving habits, but the truth of the matter is that hurricanes have hit the East Coast in the past and are going to do so in the future, regardless of what sort of activities that humans engage in, and that people are just talking about global warming right now because it is still warm in the Northern Hemisphere.

But in the Southern Hemisphere it is cold and winter still, and in some areas of the world they are experiencing record snowfalls. As citizens in these areas freeze and suffer and crops and food is destroyed by the frigid temperatures, they are not begging government to control their behaviors and punish them for using heat and power and technology, but rather they are suffering through record snowfalls that are a result of changes in the suns gravitational field (see my post "Bombshell" Experiment: Global Climate Change Caused by Cloud Cover for more information on my logic and evidence for this theory).

Many, including Democratic-nominee for President Al Gore, believe in the religion of man-made destructive global warming, and want humans to stop 'warming the globe.' But in many ways, a warmer globe will mean higher crop yields, less starvation, and lower numbers of people freezing to death, although if the globe does warm more people will have more to eat and will be warmer, which some people feel is bad.

Regardless, let's gain some perspective on the issue by reading this weather report from New Zealand from this August:

Heavy snowfall in New Zealand essentially brought the country to a standstill on Monday, hitting majorcities including Wellington and Auckland.

Snow fell in downtown Auckland for the first time in 72 years as the city faced its coldest day on record, according to the New Zealand Herald. The weather and temperatures are slated to get
worse in the coming days.

William Neeley, 26, an American living on a farm near the town of Clinton, south-southeast of Dunedin on the south island, said “there’s about a half a foot” of snow. “We have to dig through the snow to find the carrots” on the farm, he said and adding that “it’s awful.”

UPDATE: I just saw on memeorandum a story that reports that parts of Britain experienced the coldest summer that it has had in nearly two decades. Now, I know many people believe that as global warming gets worse that parts of the world will get colder and that snowfall will be higher and stuff like that, but if it is colder in the south and in the north the explanation very well could be that me driving my SUV isn't making the entire globe warmer, and that sometimes it is cold and sometimes it is hot, and that what drives these changes is the sun.

Here is a link to the story about cold weather in Britain.