Twitter Chat

http://www.business2community.com

This week I participated in a Twitter Chat with #edchat on creativity and literacy. The conversation turned more into a debate about creativity than literacy. There was a lot of talk about can creativity be taught and how do you assess it. There were some good conversations and some thoughtful tweets. Some of the participants posed some really good questions and ideas, which sparked some great conversations. The content was interesting because creativity is something that we want to encourage our students to use.  My favorite tweet was “@barbarawmadden Creativity is subjective as well. Consider Picasso. His mother probably wondered what would become of him.”

There were a lot of participants in the chat, and the conversation was hard to keep up with at times. Most people seemed very passionate about the topic and contributed a lot to the conversation. I did not follow anyone from the Twitter chat, but I noticed some of the people in the chat started following me.

 

I am glad that I followed a chat a couple of weeks ago so that I was familiar with how the chat was going to be. It was a little bit challenging because I participated in the chat through my phone, but I’m glad a that I participated. I also kept forgetting to add the # when I commented on tweets. I think the more chats I participate in the easier it will be to follow and participate.

Collaborative Tools

I am familiar with several of the collaboration tools in the reading this week, but I have not used some of them enough to consider myself an expert. The book mentioned two of my favorites: Wordle and Voki. I never thought of these as collaborative tools, but I agree with the Web 2.0 book that Voki is a great motivational tool. My students love creating them! Here are some Vokis that my students have created. Warning! Both of them have spoiler alerts!

Mackenzie

Nick

https://twitter.com/evernote

The tool that I explored was Evernote. I actually already had this app on my iPad, but I haven’t used it. The iTunes description of Evernote is “an easy-to-use, free app that helps you remember everything across all of the devices you use. Stay organized, save your ideas and improve productivity. Evernote lets you take notes, capture photos, create to-do lists, record voice reminders--and makes these notes completely searchable, whether you are at home, at work, or on the go.” Being able to have everything in one place is great. This would have made taking notes in high school and college a lot easier! I’m sure I could find ways to use it with my 5^th graders, but I think it would be more beneficial to the upper grades and college students. Follow them on Twitter: @evernote

METC 2013

https://twitter.com/METC_CSD

My district asked a few people to attend METC13 and I was one of the lucky few who got to attend! I was excited about this for two reasons: One, the sessions they were offering were things that I have learned about in the MET program and I am eager to see how others are putting these tools into action. Two, I finally get to create a screencast of a lesson for the sub to use while I am gone, which I got a message from my aid that the kids really enjoyed it. I can’t wait to hear their feedback tomorrow!

The conference was awesome! I've never seen so many technology savvy educators in one place! Coming from a building where I am ahead of the rest and it's like pulling teeth to get some of them on board, it was exciting to meet people who love technology and are excited about the possibilities it brings to the classroom. I chose sessions that I wanted to know more about or I wanted to see how other teachers were implementing it in their classrooms. There were a couple of sessions that I wanted to see more than one presentation. Most of the presenters had links to their presentations, so I'm sure I can find the ones I didn't attend.

I’ve been using my personal iPad in my classroom this year, so I was really interested in ways to use it more than just an extra electronic during centers. The first session I attended was “Appy Hour,” which my friend said was a perfect place for me to start, I think she may have misunderstood me (Ha ha). I have used a couple of the apps, but I love hearing about new educational apps to use with my students.

Another session that I attended and was able to walk away with things to use in m y classroom was “Motivated to Write.” The presenter gave us some ideas on how to go through the writing process through different graphic organizers and websites. One that I look forward to trying out is Cube Creator by readwritethink.com. The students choose a cube to use to write about something before they write or after they read and the program provides them with a template breaking the writing process into 6 parts. They can print and fold the cubes when they are finished. This will be a great differentiation tool for my guided reading groups.  

 

My favorite session was “Creative Movie Making with the iPad.” My class has been working on personal narratives and we are ready to make them into digital stories, so I was hoping to pick up some apps or programs to use. The presenter was great and had so many ideas that he uses with his 6^th grades, I wish the session would have been longer to learn more! There were so many cool ideas that he gave with us that I will have to create a new blog post to share.

 

Social Networking

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I joined Facebook to keep up with friends and family. I have educators in my friends list, but I don’t use them for networking. Used appropriately Facebook can be a great tool to use in the classroom for research and connections, much in the same way as Twitter. Here is an article by Edudemic on 100 Ways to Use Facebook In Your Classroom.  

www.educatorstechnology.com

I love Pinterest! Our district finally unlocked Pinterest so we could use it at school. It is a great resource for anything and everything you might need ideas for. I have used it a lot this year to get some new ideas for activities I do with my students. It is a great place to get inspiration. TeachThought posted an article on 37 Ways Teachers Can Use Pinterest In the Classroom.

Before taking this class I hadn’t really thought about using Facebook or Pinterest as a PLN. Now that I we have started learning about PLNs and the ways they can be used I see how social networks can be a great tool and how both Facebook and Pinterest can be used to build my PLN.