Week 11 Review: What I Learn From Twitter and Hashtags
This week I'll quickly mention a handful of useful educational resources I've found on Twitter.
Dave Burgess, author of "Teach Like A PIRATE," promotes the hashstag #booksnaps, in which teachers take photos of quotes they like in their favorite books using the app Snapchat. This strategy for saving, displaying, and sharing good passages is convenient and fun, thanks to the variety of options and the popularity of Snapchat. Teachers can use whatever mobile devices they have handy to quickly and easily distribute useful and inspirational advice to their various social media networks.
Edutopia shared a link to a particularly helpful article on their website, titled “Aligning the Projects With the Standards.” It describes step by step how teachers at Crellin Elementary in Maryland plan their project-based learning activities, while still ensuring that students will meet the standards set by Common Core. Over seven steps, teachers consider possible outcomes, focus on process, integrated studies, outside resources, student-centered learning, projects that evolve, and student documentation, to create lessons that will engage students and give them the skills they need to succeed in every area.
Mind Shift shared a link to another article about a topic very important to me as a future parent and teacher: “Why Late Nights Lead to Crankier, More Emotional Teens.” This has interested me since I was a cranky, emotional teen who wanted nothing more than to feel fully-rested. School (and parents, under the delusion that I was being lazy) often prevented me from getting the sleep I needed to perform well, or even to WANT to perform well. This article includes research from leading pediatricians who firmly believe school should start later to allow students to sleep when they need to.
Doug Robertson has established the hashtag #WeirdEd, in which every Wednesday night at 7 PM, teachers across the country answer a number of questions he has about certain topics, to create a nationwide, education-based discussion. On October 26, they tweeted collectively about opening up about their failures, and speaking honestly about teaching. It seems to be a great opportunity for everyone to chime in and interact.
#whatisschool is another scheduled chat-based hashtag on Twitter, about the evolving state of education. Teachers are welcome to share their ideas and projects, and they add dozens of tweets to the tag every day. My favorite tweet was a series of pictures showing a 10th grade English class’s efforts to recreate meaningful covers for "The Great Gatsby," which they shared in a “gallery walk.”
#hyperdocs is my favorite hashtag so far, as it allows teachers from all grades and all disciplines to share their interactive digital lessons, called “hyperdocs.” They come in all shapes and sizes, for students and teachers alike to play with. I saw some educators sharing entire units this way, while others were looking for completed lessons to use. Most, but not all, seemed to prefer using Google apps. Others liked Keynote, Pages, etc.