An Ed Tech Tip for Administrators - School Twitter Feed

A lot of people in the education world still wonder about Twitter and what it is all about.  They can't quite grasp the concept.  In reality, Twitter is gaining a lot of steam in the social media and education world.  Several educators are using Twitter to connect with other educators.  Teachers are using it to connect with students to provide an avenue of communication for homework assignments, extra credit, and reminders.  It is simple to use and with so many students having access to Smartphones and iPod Touches, it makes sense to use Twitter, which can easily be accessed through an App...for free.

What about using it at the school level?  Most administrators will tell you that visitor statistics to their school website is probably low.  It is a long URL address to provide to parents and sometimes can be hard to navigate for the average user.  Twitter can be the connection you need to bridge the gap between your school webpage and your parents.

The best way to use Twitter is to create an account for your school.  Students, parents, teachers, and community members could follow the school account.  Through this account you could share so much information:   School closings, sports scores, announcements, scheduling changes, etc.  The best part is that the messages are short (140) characters and it takes very little time to sit down and type the message.  Using an App or 3rd Party Software like Tweetdeck, you could easily share stories and links from your school website, thus increasing visitor traffic.

Often it is tough for an administrator to always know everything that is going on and be at every event.  You could easily provide the Username and Password to fellow administrators, Athletic Directors, coaches, and teacher leaders, and make it a collaborative effort to share information with parents and the community.  Therefore the school Twitter account does become a school wide effort. 

More Twitter Resources:
10 Tips for Twitter in the Classroom
So You Are New to Twitter
Twitter Chats


Previous Ed Tech Tip for Administrators Blog Posts

Weekly Core Subjects Resources

I hoped to have these earlier today....but it appeared that Blogger had other ideas!  It was also interesting to view my blog and see post from the previous days missing.....that are still missing by the way.  In case you missed them I wrote about 280 Daily and a couple wikis Wikis: Mobile Learning 4 Special Needs and ICT Magic.  Got to love Technology.

English

1.) 280 Daily as shared above is a online journal that is compatible with mobile browsers that allows users to write daily journals in 280 characters or less.  There are several other features of note, so I recommend checking it out. 

2.) Invitation to World Literature is a website that provides videos of resources for books of literature from around the world.  Source: Free Technology 4 Teachers (Although the Blogger issue has removed it)

3.) Poetry Forms is from the Educational Technology Training Center and provides users with forms for various forms of poetry.  Each form is digital with a text box that you can use to fill in your poem.  Great for students who struggle with poetry.

4.) Reading Worksheets from the Busy Teachers Cafe provides printable reading comprehension, book reports, vocabulary, and other materials for teaching reading. 

Mathematics

1.) Sumdog provides games and activities to improve numeracy skills.  This would be a valuable website for special education students struggling with high school math as well. 

2.) "Math-o-mir is a software tool designed to write and edit mathematical equations as easily as possible. The goal was to achieve the same level of simplicity as with pencil and sheet of paper. It is designed to act as your personal math notepad where you can write down your quick and informal calculations." 

Science

1.) From Scientific American comes Bring Science Home which provides information and procedures for scientific experiments that students can do at home.  There will be a new experiment for each day in the month of May.

2.) LabWrite is a website that provides students a useable interface for writing a lab report from the beginning all the way to submission.

3.) ChemSense studied students' understanding of chemistry and developed software and curriculum to help students investigate chemical systems and express ideas in animated chemical notation. You will find resources for both on the computer and in the classroom.

4.) Science on the Simpsons is a great way to catch your students attention.  It provides video clips and explanations of when science was used in the cartoon.  Each clip provides a description and a time stamp for how long the scene is.  Source: Larry Ferlazzo

5.) Another great link for Virtual Cell Biology Animations.  There are several different animations available from the Big Bang to Mitosis.  

6.) Edheads are interactive scenarios that students can virtually participate in using scientific approaches to solving problems and answering questions.  You will find activities for Forensics, Physics, Technology, and Anatomy.

7.) Human Body Maps provides 3D models of the human bodies; both male and female.  You can click on a part of the body and it will zoom in closer to show you the various aspects of the organ.  Similar to Google Body Browser, but Flash is not needed.  Source: The Whiteboard Blog

8.) Planet Quest and Alien Safari is a website to learn about some of the most rarest organisms in the world.  Source: iLearn Technology Blog

Social Studies 

1.) Real Lives 2010 is a software that you can download or email to get a free copy.  A license for a computer lab or school will cost more.  The software is an educational simulation that allows users to take on the role of a person born in this world from any demographic and then see how they survive through time based on national averages and those characteristics.  Seems promising and interesting.

2.) The National Jukebox makes historical sound recordings available to the public free of charge. The Jukebox includes recordings from the extraordinary collections of the Library of Congress Packard Campus for Audio Visual Conservation and other contributing libraries and archives. Source: School Library Journal Blog

3.)  Teaching History with Technology is a website that provides lesson plans, activities, projects, games, and quizzes that use technology. Explore inquiry-based lessons, activities, and projects. Learn about new and emerging technologies such as blogs, podcasts, wikis, ipods, and online social networks and explore innovative ways of integrating them into the curriculum. Find out how others are using technology in the classroom.

4.) Medieval Period is a website that provides resources and information about this time period in history.  For AP World History teachers this would be a valuable website.  Source: World History Educators Blog

5.) Political Cartoons in U.S. History is a valuable resource when using them to teach social studies.  It is pretty much a gaurantee that they will be on test, so it is important to provide students chances to interpret them.  Source: U.S. Government Educators Blog

6.) Osama Bin Laden is dead and of course with that comes Politcal Cartoons...and some good ones I might add. 

YouTube Movies

YouTube is now offering visitors the ability to rent movies from their website directly.  They are trying to compete with Netflix and Hulu and I can't say I blame them.  There is a huge demand for streaming movies.  The benefit of YouTube Movies is that they are also offering several free movies as well.

To access the free movies, visit YouTube Movies and then at the top of the screen you will see an "All Categories" drop down menu.  If you click on that you will see "Free Movies" to the left.  Click on that and then you will see all the free movies organized by categories (DISCLAIMER: It is important to note that several of the free movie selections are completely inappropriate for school, but I did not want to ignore sharing these resources because of that.)  Since the movies are free, there is an advertisement before the movie shows.  However, you can still use sites like Safeshare.tv and ViewPure and it will start the movies without the ads (Hopefully YouTube doesn't create a fix for this!)

I tried to use one of the sites that lets you download YouTube Videos...but there was no success.

There are several great movies for education that are free, especially in the Documentary and Biography section.  Otherwise, here are a few examples of movies that are available:

Supersize Me

Down From The Mount

The Patriot

Home

The Battle of Britain

Fuel

To Kill a Mockingbird

21 (For you Math Teachers)

First Orbit

Thanks to Edudemic for sharing this with me.

So You Are New To Twitter...Part II

 

I have been on Twitter for about a year and a half.  In that time frame I have picked up over 2000 followers and followed over 1300.  With a change in position coming next year, I decided it was time to organize those 1300 into lists so that I could easily see what people were saying related to subject matter or specialty.  I made a mistake in thinking that would be a simple and quick task. 

So here is my suggestion to those of you that are new to Twitter and starting to buy into the process of a PLN.  CREATE YOUR LIST NOW!!!  Even if you are not following someone to include in a list, you will.  I created about 15 list.  I have some for subject matter, some for administrators, some for educational technology, etc.  It took a lot of time to put people into those list.  My PLN life will be so much easier now that I have done that. 

Another reason that I did this is that I wanted to be able to easily see some of the latest Tweets from people I follow that are not involved in education.  I also wanted a way to easily follow some of my favorite educators on Twitter. 

You can see my original "So You Are New to Twitter" post HERE

Syncdocs

There is a movement in education for schools and districts to use Google Docs.  For many teachers, the thoughts of moving from one software to another can be a daunting task.  Syncdocs is a free software download that makes it easy for users to transfer files from your desktop into Google Docs.  Simply select a folder on your PC, like “My Documents”, and Syncdocs copies it online and across all your computers, automatically. This folder is then kept in sync.  All file formats are preserved and so is the folder structure.  There’s no complex interface to learn because Google Docs is mapped as a network G-drive and your files are synced automatically.  For more features, click here.

For more information, watch the video below: