Week 10: Twitter/ Hash-tags

Section 1: Learning from hashtags

Learning about Twitter this week was very interesting for me. I am involved in social media such as Facebook, Pinterest and Snapchat, but I was not very familiar with Twitter. After exploring the different kinds of hashtags that were on the list, I found the hashtag #engchat very interesting. I am a first year teacher that covers English in a fifth grade classroom and finding resources that help me in the classroom is very hard. However, after reading the different kinds of posts that different people wrote and attached the hashtag, I found many good resources that help me inside the classroom, one of them had hash-tagged strategies on how to become a better reader. This was a very good useful tool that helped me in my classroom because I was able to research a person (https://twitter.com/Alex_Corbitt) who tweeted a flyer that gave the key point and some strategies/details on how to accomplish that goal. Since I was able to download the flyer itself, I feel like it would be a useful thing to send out to parents and have them work with their kids at home. Another tweet that I found amazingly resourceful and awesome is by the same person (https://twitter.com/Alex_Corbitt) and it tweeted an awesome resource that contained different technology applications that could be used depending on the activity or ability they want them to do. It is super amazing because those resources are categorized depending on the technology skill that you want to target either yourself or with the students and does not only apply it to English classrooms, but to any kind of subject and classroom grade level all together. After reading several posts with the tags that I chose, I found it is an amazing idea to hashtag the posts because in a way they are being categorized based on the hashtag and even give you related hashtags or tags that have similar posts to the one chosen.

Hashtag:

1.     https://twitter.com/Alex_Corbitt

2.     https://twitter.com/internet4classr

Section 2: Ideas for using Twitter for teaching and learning

Connecting with other teachers around the world

One of the ways that I would use Twitter in the classroom would be for myself as a 5th grade ELAR teacher. Since there is so many people using social media these days and so many different styles of teaching and methods that people are using around the globe, connecting, following or simply browsing different kinds of tags such as the ones we were able to explore with in this weeks’ assignment, will help and bring in new ideas that will reform or reshape classrooms all around the world. Having teachers connect worldwide is an amazing thought and even those who are not teacher, but who have amazing ideas either through their own programs, homeschooling, companies, or simply because they have a creative imagination.

Following the teacher through Twitter

            Another way that teachers can bring in Twitter into the classroom is having students follow their own teacher through social media. I see this as a new way of having students catch up on their daily assignments because the teacher posts the different concepts taught in the class, and also by having classroom resources in the internet can help the students in a way that it allows them to access it at any time rather than just when they are in the classroom or having them carrying all their notes around. This kind would most likely be for a high school ELAR setting classroom.

Researching and getting ideas from different followers

            A third way that teachers are able to implement Twitter into the classroom is by having students research through hashtags new concepts that are being taught in the classroom in order to see how that same concept is being taught throughout the world. By doing so, it will give them different perspectives as to how they are able to learn or retain the concept instead of just the teachers way of teaching. I would definitely use this for kids to follow in my 5th grade ELAR and Social Studies classroom. 

EDMODO

After watching the Lynda tutorial on how to use Edmodo and playing around with it during this week, I was able to see the different kinds of features and programs we can use with Edmodo and try to apply it to the classroom.

QUIZZES

One of the ways that we can use Edmodo in the classroom is to give quizzes. Although there are other programs such Google Forms that we have already seen that help you create quizzes, Edmodo has the ability to not only store the students’ responses, but to also grade them and show them the correct answer. I really liked this and I could see myself going into my 5^th grade Reading classroom and integrating it in my lessons so that the students start using the Chromebooks provided by the district and stop using so much paper.

POLLS

I really love this part of Edmodo because I as a 5^th grade teacher sometimes have a lot of questions to ask the students. Whether it is something that I want to ask them that has nothing to do with what we are studying, or maybe it can be strictly related to what we just finished covering in our Reading block, the poll can be used for a quick way of questioning them and keeping track. This can also be used as a ticket out from class. I have tried to do different kinds of ticket outs from time to time to make sure the students understand the concept, or to simply see who well they are able to grasp what was just taught, and this is one way that definitely saves paper and time from passing out the papers, explaining the answer, collecting the data and separating all the information as to who answered who.

GROUPS/TUTORING

As I have two sections of 5^th grade Reading, Writing and Social Studies classes, it becomes really difficult for me to deal with and separate all the papers according to the section and subject of the assignment. I believe that if I were to use Edmodo in a more detailed way as to where it separates my sections, subjects and maybe even tutoring groups, then I believe that it will be a lot easier to target and assign specific structured work for those students who are struggling in specific skills.

Although Edmodo reminds me a lot of Google Classroom, I will try to use both programs because Google Classroom works great, but after working with Edmodo, I believe it will be more easy for students to use and it clearly offers more options as to create assignments, polls or quizzes. It can all be done and graded within Edmodo!

Blog Post 9

http://prezi.com/4rrsaizumj6y/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy

Blog Post 10

One of the educational technology blogs I signed in was very interesting to me. It called to my attention as the blog was called “10 common mental health problems students face.” I decided to read it because it was very similar to a case I am going through with one of my students in my classroom. It is very sad to see the students struggle in my English class, but it was even sadder to see that the mom wants to deny the facts of the struggle that his own son is going through. This blog talks about the different mental health problems that the kids face, and in times it is not that they are wanting to disrupt the class by constantly getting up, but because it is a mental problem that needs to be taken care of. I really liked how this blog mentioned the most common mental health problems and not only described them in medical terms, but also described them as to how they look inside the classroom. It was depressing to hear the parent say how most of the blame was on the technology that the student uses and move away from the possibility of the child having some mental issue that needs to be diagnosed by the doctor.

            Another blog that caught my attention was called “Teaching Kids to Build Computers.” This was an eye opener blog to me because it made me realize the things that were going on around me that I was not focusing on or paying attention. Many times I have told my students that they need to make sure that they pay attention and that they understand the concept of what is being taught to them because that is what they need in order to be successful in life. Yet, the century of students that is in the classroom today feel more connected to have some sort of device on their hands and many times as teachers we see it as a negative thing. Those were my thoughts before reading this blog. After reading the blog, I realized that they do indeed need math, science, reading and all the core subjects that are required by law to be taught, but in side of that, they also need to be updated to the world around them which is technology. Many times, many of the students develop an interest on different type of things at a young age and it is our duty as teachers to bloom those interests and curiosities that they have because it will help them in the future.

http://www.edudemic.com/student-mental-health/

http://www.edudemic.com/teaching-kids-build-computers/