Comments on: Teaching From Afar: Using Twitter While Absent

By: Michael Werner

Michael Werner — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 15:27:55 +0000

Hi Heather:

Wow! Absolutely loved this story!

Would you mind if we interviewed you and recorded it for podcast at our blog?

http://simplek12.com/blog

Guessing it wouldn’t take more than 15 minutes and we can work around your schedule.

You may respond to me directly at mwerner(at)infosourcelearning.com, if you like.

Thanks!

By: BITS

BITS — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 16:22:06 +0000

And would you believe our local school board almost voted to BAN the use of Social Media sites by teachers to communicate with students? I started a massive push back and they went from “Shall Not” to “we discourage” which isn’t saying much.

The actual reason given by the Superintendent of the District was he felt the administration needed to protect the teachers from potential inappropriate situations with students like somehow sending a text message is going to stop a teacher who sees a student 5 days a week from doing something they shouldn’t be doing in the first place.

Using Twitter, Blogs, Facebook and of course email I connected with parents that saw the potential for how engaging students in a media they use could provide another vehicle for teaching vs. burning the books which it sounded like the board was wanting to do. Comments like “teachers shouldn’t ‘friend’ their students” or “we can’t monitor Social sites” showed how out of touch the Board and Administration actually is.

By: lkm

lkm — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 12:45:37 +0000

I’d sure like to read the Twitter exchange. What’s the account?

By: tweenteacher

tweenteacher — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 01:19:13 +0000

OK, nest step is to involve classes beyond those at your school. Plan “playdates” of sorts so that you have an open window into different classrooms. Also, you might want to consider subscribing your class to things like “The Quirkels” which is a science twitter account, or awesome stories which brings primary news footage of historical events to the classroom with every tweet. You can ignore them as they come in, or you can stop things for a brief, spontaneous mini-lesson to give their brains a little jar.

Sounds like your first step into Twitter was a success! Thanks so much for sharing. I love that you used it a la Remote Desktop, a way to use it I hadn’t even considered.

Take care and keep on sharing!
-Heather Wolpert-Gawron
aka Tweenteacher

By: Eric Biederbeck

Eric Biederbeck — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 22:34:18 +0000

Here’s my report:

Things went very well by using twitter- first time for the kids really so they were learning as we went- didn’t really get the @ reply button but not a big deal as I was able to follow just them as I went. Also, as they were working on math (and playing math games) they weren’t tweeting as much as say I would (but really should I expect that anyhow?) I was able to resolve a couple small discipline issues (had the students come over to the computer so we could “tweet” back and forth about what they “should be doing” Also was able to answer questions for the special ed teacher who was covering my class as well as some general questions from the students (can we use calculators for this exercise for example)

I was also very pleased with this small bit of ingenuity that the girl in my first period math class did- the laptop froze up on her- so instead of doing nothing or rebooting and making me wonder what was going on- she simply went over to a desktop nearby, fired up twitter and started tweeting again-

Overall I was very pleased with the process and not only will I be using this when I’m out again but both of my teaching partners are planning on using it too (which will be great for one who is out for a 3 day conferences in December!)

I highly recommend getting kids involved in something like this- the interest level is high and it really makes you feel like you are still “there”

By: tweenteacher

tweenteacher — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 13:27:57 +0000

I want a full report when you get back! Thanks for visiting and commenting on tweenteacher. Hope to hear from you again.
-Heather WG
aka Tweenteacher

By: Eric Biederbeck

Eric Biederbeck — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 03:50:31 +0000

Absolutely love this idea as I’ve been out a bit this year and hate missing that much class time. I’m gone again tomorrow (Nov. 12th) and Nov. 13th and I’m using this idea to some extent. My class has a twitter account and my “twitter captains” are using that account and I’m using my normal account to keep in touch

By: Ina L

Ina L — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 15:24:34 +0000

This is so funny and such a great use of technology!

By: Anthony

Anthony — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 03:03:47 +0000

I regret not getting the time to sit down with you more while at the ranch. I have a few things I’d like to ask and learn from you with regards to speech and debate, as well as podcasting.

In the meantime, I look forward to following your blog and twitter posts.

Keep up the inspiration!

By: Kati Delahanty

Kati Delahanty — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 23:45:47 +0000

I loved meeting you, learning from you, and laughing with you!
I can’t wait to keep up with your blog. I’ve learned so much already!
You’re amazing!