Student Blogs

I am so excited about a new site that I found last night! I was on my Twitter page when I saw a link from one of my teacher connections about blogging. The title was "Ten Things Your Students Can Blog About Today." I clicked on the link to get some ideas for my students and was very happy with the result! A Geeky Momma's blog provided me with great ideas, but even more exciting was the new site that she introduced me to!

I clicked on her link to kidblog.org and was soooo happy to finally find a way to set up my students with their very own blogs without them having to have an email account!! So many times I have found great sites to use, but it would require my students to have an email address. Since my district doesn't provide them with emails until high school and most of my students don't have computers at home, that is very difficult for me to do. KidBlogs.org let me set up my entire class with individual blogs and lets me keep them all in one place! I can preview their posts before they are published and I can approve comments as well!

I was so excited that I set up my class right away and we have already started posting!! I introduced blogging to my students this afternoon and showed them some great examples. We talked about the purpose of blogging and how it can be used for the learning environment. They were all so pumped up that we went straight to the lab and started typing away! I don't think I've seen them this happy in awhile!

We would love for you to swing by and read some of our posts! Please feel free to leave a comment. I set up our class so that I have to approve comments and you have to log in to leave a comment. I have set up parents with their own username and password, but I also created a guest username. You may chose "Team Turner Guest" from the drop down menu and enter "guest" as the password. Please make sure to leave your name in your comment so that we know who you are!

Turner's Learners Blog

More Twitter

Here are a few more Twitter resources to help you along your new journey! =)

* This first link is an article from Tech & Learning magazine that was published last April. This article was written by Laura (Walker) Doggett and provides educators 9 reasons for using Twitter.

http://www.techlearning.com/article/17340

*After reading her article again the other day I found her blog, which was full of great information on Twitter. This particular link is from her blog and provides a link to a "How To Guide" created by another fabulous educator Tomaz Lasic.

http://lauradoggett.com/2009/04/twitter-howto-teachers/

*This blog post is about what to do after you have signed up for your Twitter account.

http://lauradoggett.com/2009/04/twitter-now-what/

*This last link is an article on the productive tweeting. It provides you 4 ways to ensure that you are getting the most out of Twitter and social media.

http://mashable.com/2010/01/12/zen-social-media/#

Hopefully this will get your started and I'm sure it will keep you busy for awhile!

Why Tweet?

I'm sure most of you have heard of Twitter, but how many of you know what it actually is?

Twitter is a social networking site that gives you 140 characters or less to keep your followers updated. Still unsure? Watch this short video created by CommonCraft.com, which by the way is another AMAZING resource to help guide you in your technology integration. (I'll explain more about them later.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddO9idmax0o

So, you can see from the video that Twitter is a great way to keep up with your friends and family, but I have actually found it so much more beneficial. In fact, I haven't been using Twitter for the personal aspect as much as I have to help me with education! I have learned so much just this week from the connections that I have made via Twitter. I learn something new every day and sometimes it's much more. This has been a great tool for collaboration and can be used even with your students. Many people are using them for their students and creating Twitter accounts specifically for their classrooms. There are many possibilities!!

Here are a couple of links that you may want to take a look at.

1.) http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1902604,00.html This is a great article about Twitter by Time Magazine.

2.) Twenty-Nine Interesting Ways to Use Twitter in the Classroom Great presentation with ideas for using Twitter in the classroom.

Now that you are all super excited and want to rush over and set your account right now, add me when you get there. =) You can find me at: amandafaye. Once you've added me, take a look at some of the people I'm following to find some great educators that you may wish to follow as well. I've created two lists, one of which is for education. If you click on my education list, you will see who I am following that helps me in tech integration. There are a few great teachers that are in my friends lists that you may want to follow as well. They are always providing me with great resources!

I will add some how to videos to get you started and if you have questions, let me know. I'll be glad to help you out!