WEEK 11 Review: WHAT I LEARN FROM TWITTER & HASHTAGS
This week I searched through Matt Miller's suggested - or, from his opinion, required - Twitters & their handles! I found 3 different featured teachers from the list that all had cool, interesting, and helpful resources I wanted to share here:
David Geurin:
Mr. Geurin has a bunch of tweets (like 40 per day!) that have inspirational tones to them, which I really appreciate. He shared a resource called "Piktochart in the Classroom: Infographics & Education," which is a blog post on how to create Piktocharts and how to use them in the classroom. It also covers how to use visuals as supplemental materials.
What is Piktochart?
Piktochart is a way to create cool, engaging, and visually-pleasing presentations and projects. Its use is for students AND teachers! Its goal is to allow people to create projects that will be engaging to their audience with their fresh, up-to-date appeal. Piktochart has all of the benefits and purposes of making physical posters, paper and pencils, model presentations, etc.
The blog contains many different resources within it to click on and to further explore. One spot has "Tips and Tactics for Teaching" with about 11 different tips and tricks to click on to further delve into Piktocharts and their use. There are helpful examples that show the resource's capability and all of its different uses in the classroom and for which situations. Essentially, Piktocharts are personalized stylized posters that you can make to spice up your lesson, organize your subject, put information all in one spot, and create presentations.
David's TWEET with the Piktochart Resource is at the bottom - check it out for yourself!
Joy Kirr:
Joy Kirr shared her own resource on her front page of her Twitter page - it's called "Genius Hour!" It's Ms. Kirr's BLOG that has a bunch of different resources on it. There was one that caught my eye, that I wanted to share. Her big thing as a teacher is assessing students without giving GRADES - sounds kinda hard to do, huh? Many teachers have that same dream but can't get past the requirements of grades... so how does Ms. Kirr make it work? She uses "Feedback in Lieu of Grading" and tracks her class' progress to show that what she is doing is working and effective for her individual students' needs. The resource she shared - quarterly updated blog that keeps viewers up-to-date on how her new form of assessment is working for her - has student witness, charts of tracked stats, and percentages of student achievement.
This is a helpful resource for a few reasons. One, the simple fact that this tactic Ms. Kirr of doing away with grades WORKED is encouraging! And must give hope to other teachers who dream of doing the same thing!
Secondly, this same type of experimental process could be replicated - with the use of charting results and getting student feedback - to make your case strong and powerful to your Principal or Administration who aren't quite sold on the idea.
Check out the button with MY OWN GENIUS HOUR resource connected to it!
Carrie Baughcum:
Mrs. Baughcum has some good resources on her Twitter page, and I enjoyed reading through her response tweets to people - she clearly has lots of excitement, spunk, and genuine passion surrounding what she does! She is a Special Education teacher, which makes me excited because that's what I want to be, too!! : )
She retweeted off of a tweet by Allison McDonald (@NoFlashCards), sharing this blog that has a list of 10 picture books for younger children that teach EMPATHY. What a great thing to be teaching students these days, especially the younger generation, since that generation is the children of the Millennials. Entitlement tends to be a defining characteristic of my generation, and I can't imagine what the next generation will be like, being brought up by the Millennial generation. I think the topics of empathy, compassion, care, and mercy are extremely important to bring up with students, and really open up those discussions with them. These books seem like great jump-starters for conversations about those topics!
I especially like the sound of the book "The Spiffiest Giant in Town." The synopsis of this book goes like this: a giant's appearance is a little rough around the edges, so he decides to trim up his exterior with some new clothes! He's feeling pretty darn good about how he looks as he walks through town, when he comes across some little friends that need help. He offers up his new clothes to his friends who need the articles more than he does, and slowly but surely he gives away his spiffiness. But he learns the treasure of generosity and valuing others' wants over his! Beautiful. : )
Click on the button below to check out the blog with the 10 empathetic books!
This week I searched through Matt Miller's suggested - or, from his opinion, required - Twitters & their handles! I found 3 different featured teachers from the list that all had cool, interesting, and helpful resources I wanted to share here:
David Geurin:
Mr. Geurin has a bunch of tweets (like 40 per day!) that have inspirational tones to them, which I really appreciate. He shared a resource called "Piktochart in the Classroom: Infographics & Education," which is a blog post on how to create Piktocharts and how to use them in the classroom. It also covers how to use visuals as supplemental materials.
What is Piktochart?
Piktochart is a way to create cool, engaging, and visually-pleasing presentations and projects. Its use is for students AND teachers! Its goal is to allow people to create projects that will be engaging to their audience with their fresh, up-to-date appeal. Piktochart has all of the benefits and purposes of making physical posters, paper and pencils, model presentations, etc.
The blog contains many different resources within it to click on and to further explore. One spot has "Tips and Tactics for Teaching" with about 11 different tips and tricks to click on to further delve into Piktocharts and their use. There are helpful examples that show the resource's capability and all of its different uses in the classroom and for which situations. Essentially, Piktocharts are personalized stylized posters that you can make to spice up your lesson, organize your subject, put information all in one spot, and create presentations.
David's TWEET with the Piktochart Resource is at the bottom - check it out for yourself!
Joy Kirr:
Joy Kirr shared her own resource on her front page of her Twitter page - it's called "Genius Hour!" It's Ms. Kirr's BLOG that has a bunch of different resources on it. There was one that caught my eye, that I wanted to share. Her big thing as a teacher is assessing students without giving GRADES - sounds kinda hard to do, huh? Many teachers have that same dream but can't get past the requirements of grades... so how does Ms. Kirr make it work? She uses "Feedback in Lieu of Grading" and tracks her class' progress to show that what she is doing is working and effective for her individual students' needs. The resource she shared - quarterly updated blog that keeps viewers up-to-date on how her new form of assessment is working for her - has student witness, charts of tracked stats, and percentages of student achievement.
This is a helpful resource for a few reasons. One, the simple fact that this tactic Ms. Kirr of doing away with grades WORKED is encouraging! And must give hope to other teachers who dream of doing the same thing!
Secondly, this same type of experimental process could be replicated - with the use of charting results and getting student feedback - to make your case strong and powerful to your Principal or Administration who aren't quite sold on the idea.
Check out the button with MY OWN GENIUS HOUR resource connected to it!
Carrie Baughcum:
Mrs. Baughcum has some good resources on her Twitter page, and I enjoyed reading through her response tweets to people - she clearly has lots of excitement, spunk, and genuine passion surrounding what she does! She is a Special Education teacher, which makes me excited because that's what I want to be, too!! : )
She retweeted off of a tweet by Allison McDonald (@NoFlashCards), sharing this blog that has a list of 10 picture books for younger children that teach EMPATHY. What a great thing to be teaching students these days, especially the younger generation, since that generation is the children of the Millennials. Entitlement tends to be a defining characteristic of my generation, and I can't imagine what the next generation will be like, being brought up by the Millennial generation. I think the topics of empathy, compassion, care, and mercy are extremely important to bring up with students, and really open up those discussions with them. These books seem like great jump-starters for conversations about those topics!
I especially like the sound of the book "The Spiffiest Giant in Town." The synopsis of this book goes like this: a giant's appearance is a little rough around the edges, so he decides to trim up his exterior with some new clothes! He's feeling pretty darn good about how he looks as he walks through town, when he comes across some little friends that need help. He offers up his new clothes to his friends who need the articles more than he does, and slowly but surely he gives away his spiffiness. But he learns the treasure of generosity and valuing others' wants over his! Beautiful. : )
Click on the button below to check out the blog with the 10 empathetic books!
3 hashtags Matt Miller Shares with 3 Resources:
#weirded I found a Podcast called Being Weird with Doug Robertson AKA He’s The Weird Teacher Transformative Principal 023 by Jethro Jones with Doug Robertson. This podcast is a discussion between Jones and Casas on how to be a weird teacher in the classroom. Robertson is a Principal in Hawaii, who believes that teaching is a position where teachers/principals need to be THEMSELVES, who like have fun and do "awesome things in the classroom," and who engage in innovation through engaging their own personalities, their own pedagogies, and their own odd quirks and idiosyncrasies that connect with kids! #tlap I found a tweet with a link of "20 books by teachers, for teachers, to inspire your teaching," which is a pretty sweet resource to have to look up many inspirational and innovative perspectives of many teachers who have years of experience under their belts. I think that teachers learning from other teachers is one of the most powerful ways to grow and develop as an educator, because you're hearing how to do things in a wonderful way from people who have the stories and experiences to back it up! This resource seems to be a jackpot for teacher-to-teacher help! #gafesummit This hashtag has tweets of a global initiative done for teachers. I found a resource by - shocker! - Matt Miller himself, about how to use the resource "Google Classroom." I had never heard of Google Classroom, but it sounds like a very technological supplemental tool for teachers. Matt goes through all the steps of how to create the Google Classroom in not just a step-by-step process, but in a process that gives helpful hints and tips and tricks that will make your own Google Classroom exceptional! It's really great! |