Tweet!

I have officially joined Twitter. Quite a simple process and my first thought was "It's Pinterest, but less photos and more explanations." After a little more exploration, I'm not sure that first thought was accurate. Here's my take on the initial experience: 

1. I like a specific topic. I participated in a few different chats and was drawn more to the ones focused on specific subjects, like PLCs. I found some links to great articles and it was neat to read what other people wrote about their work in their districts. I was not a fan of general education chats because people were posting about a wide range of topics and it took me much longer to find something which held valuable information to me.

2. Professional Literature. While I was exploring different chats, I found great readings on several different topics. This will definitely be a site I visit when I have questions regarding strategies and best practices. I like that I can somewhat filter my searches with hashtags and then search those chats for pertinent information and suggested ideas and readings.

3. Additional Resource. My usual go-to to is Pinterest. Although this site has cute ideas on how to teach a concept, I know an important part of teaching is understanding best practices and I feel I can find more resources on Twitter to support my instruction. Pinterest is for my students, and Twitter is for my teaching.

I'm excited to spend some more time exploring Twitter and getting used to navigating the site. There is a limitless amount of information I can gain from great conversations over really any topic!

New Literacies

Thinking of incorporating the new literacies in my classroom and it seems obvious that the most beneficial way to show first graders would be through the Internet Workshop. It’s easiest for me to go through the list one at a time, so here goes what I think would be a great learning opportunity for my students:

Asking Questions: This works perfectly with our reading essential questions each week. I’ve wanted to take my class to a dairy farm outside of Lincoln and have put in a grant in the Fund-A-Need project but it was unsuccessful so why not create somewhat of a virtual field trip that answers the question, “Where Does Food Come From?” This could be the first workshop and once students are more familiar with the concept, they could take over the questions and create their own.

Locating Information: Given my students’ age and knowledge of the internet, I would provide specific web pages that students would visit to answer our question. This could go several different ways… We could explore one topic in depth. For example, students could learn about how milk is made, specifically. Going through the milking process, the heating process, bottling, etc… OR we could skim the surface of many different kinds of products and focus on how they get from the farm to the table. So many options! And although I will provide the resources, it’s important to discuss with my students why I chose them and how I know that they are good resources.

Evaluating: This literacy correlates perfectly with our Habits of Mind sourcing strategy where students look at a document and answer questions about who created it, when, and why they created it. Students are familiar with this skill and can apply their knowledge when looking closely at webpages. It would be meaningful to find a website with false information so that students realize not everything they read on the internet is true.

Synthesizing: This literacy seems to produce the greatest challenge for students at this age level. It would be easy to just set students free on a search engine to find information but that would be extremely unethical to do and would create chaos. In order for young students to practice this skill, I would have to create a limited amount of websites for students to visit and learn through. Possibly along the lines of a Symbaloo page. Then students have choices in which sites they use and can build that external text, but it’s a safe search for them as well.

Communicating: Throughout this process, students will be gaining available insight into how food begins and what happens to it along the way, just before we see it in grocery stores. Students will share this information through a workshop session where they can present their information to the rest of the class.