ED PLN

Game

13. When teaching about the properties of friction, use KS2(9) for interactive projects you can do in small groups or as a class using a smart board. You might ask your students slide down the hallway first in their socks, then barefoot, and have them journal about the different amounts of friction

While many of his 25 ways to use Twitter in the classroom in the Talk and Produce section are geared towards Middle and High School, I believe that all the “Watch” examples are stepping stones for our younger students who are tweeting as a class.  In the “Talk” and “Produce” sections, I can also see ways that the examples can be tweaked and adapted for elementary grades.

7 Online Polling Tools to Help You Collect Student Feedback

Poll Everywhere c

I’m sure you are coming to realize the awesome power of Twitter and your PLN. But you may be finding it a bit hard to keep up. Given the global nature of your PLN, you have information coming at you 24 hours a day. Not only that, but from several different programs. I have profiles on LinkedIn, Facebook, MySpace and Twitter. I save myself time by streemlining all my inboxes to one nifty Social Media Dashboard. A Social Media Dashboard allows you to view all your incoming messages in one place, but also allows you to filter incoming messages and send messages to multiple social networks simultaneously. I personally selected TweetDeck (see the screencast below) for its ease of use, but there are other programs out there. HootSuite is another popular option. Select one that suites your needs and use it.

Remember, it’s all about baby steps. All this new information can be overwhelming. It may seem as impossible to conquer as climbing Mt. Everest at this point. DON’T give up! DO pick 5 tools to use consistently through the year.

Regardless if you choose to blog with your students as suggested above, reflection is a critical process in learning. Blogging is, in essence, a reflection: your inner thoughts about your experiences (and a great way to demonstrate your own digital literacy skills and expectations to your students).