Using Twitter and writing blogs in class
This year I am teaching 30 enthusiastic and talented first year high school students. I think they agree that their first weeks assignments have been different this year. Inspired by last year’s students and the exciting Connected Educators month, this is how we started the year:
- Establish and write on a blog for school work,
- Set up a Twitter account, if you do not already have one.
How to get started
Before you introduce blogging and Twitter to your class you need to start first! Once you started writing a blog, you will find that it is a great way to connect with other educators.
When I introduce Blogging to my class I let them chose between WordPress or blogger.com. But I’m really flexible here. If they find another suitable provider, that is okay with me. Twitter is a great way to connect with other educators. I have to say I learn something new every day. Is it time consuming? It can be. Be mindful on how you spend your time online. Looking for how to start? This is a great resource. How I found it? On Twitter!
This week I made a pretty ambitious plan for my class. Especially considering they would be sitting alone working for some time. (Had an important exam meeting to attend!) As always when I introduce new technology in class, I write on the LMS (learning management system) what I want the students to do, wait 15 minutes and then ask; did anyone figure this out. I usually get 4 ,5 students. The same happened this time. They become the class experts and their job is to help the others. I might be lucky but I never ever have students refusing the role of class helpers. I then left the class to work on their own!
Result: when I looked at their blogs the day after almost all of them had managed all the tasks and everyone had managed some of them. You can see the list of tasks below and look at the student blogs listed on my web page! Pretty amazing, I have high hopes for this school year!
My question to you is; Would teachers at your school be able to do this? Would you?
Lesson plan:
- Create a Twitter account (if you already have one use it), follow the rest of the class on Twitter.
- Register for a clustrMap and connect it to you blog.
- Embed the code on your blog and include a widget for blog stats
- Link your Twitter account to your blog making it click-able for those who want to follow you, use a Twitter image or text
Objectives:
- Connect with students and teachers in different countries
- Collaborate and learn from students in different countries
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