The Class That Tweets 

We introduced a class twitter account to our Year 5 students in 2012 TrustedLearners  and have just set up our year 3 twitter account for 2013  year3dom 

Once you begin using twitter in the classroom, you will wonder what you were thinking when you weren't accessing this great tool!

What can I say? If you don't have a class twitter account- SET ONE UP NOW !

Here's why:


1.  THE GLOBAL CLASSROOM: Just as we teachers now have access to the global staffroom, our students are members of the global classroom.Our students follow classes in Australia, the UK, Ireland, America, Canada and Yugoslavia.And they follow us! It is quite amazing to read the tweets of other kids in the world because guess what! They aren't  that much different to us!  
We follow NYCity5thGraders
Has been great to follow their tweets and send them a message of support during Hurricane Sandy. 
Great too to follow the tweets of our Prime Minister and Leader of the Opposition!
 We've also found that every children's author of note has a twitter account and are well worth following.
 
2. CYBERSAFETY ON THE GO: I have used  some great cybersafety courses and resources  through ACMA but truly believe the best cybersafety lessons happen on the go as children are using social media, apps and on line "games". Our class twitter account is a locked account and each day when we bring up our class account on the IWB, we accept  or deny follower requests based on class discussion. "Do we know this person? Yes, its Amy's mum. She wants to know about our learning. She can be our follower." 

3. LEARNING INTENTIONS: Twitter is a great tool for clarifying exactly WHAT is going to be happening in a particular lesson. (aka learning intentions) Having your students tweet "We are learning to..." to your followers (which include parents, the Principal and other teachers!) really helps you to clarify learning intentions and ensure they actually become reality! Accountability plus!

4. SUMMARISING LEARNING: At the end of a lesson, its great (and eye-opening!) to tweet what's been learnt. Great for checking for understanding and stating learnings in a succinct manner. (140 characters only!)

5. AUDIENCE: Ive found that when children tweet, they are very aware of the 40/50/60  people who will read their message. Our classroom rule is "Show a teacher before you press the tweet button". Attention to correct spelling, grammar conventions and a high interest message with great vocab  have significantly improved.

I could go on,,, and probably will in my next post!  
Set up that classroom twitter account now!