Twitter

How do you feel about Twitter in the classroom? 

Many think it is good for nothing but finding the latest Kardashian gossip (and yes, it IS great for that).  However, Twitter is also a powerful tool for classrooms.  It is another tool that teachers are using to stay in touch with students. How? Make a Twitter account with your district login and then use a hashtag for your class (like #APHugp6isthebest). Then students can follow you and teachers and students alike can post using that hashtag.  It is also a great tool to use for sending out a quick message to your class (like don’t forget the test tomorrow), but has so many other uses for the classroom. You could pose questions for your students to discuss on Twitter, have them do short writing assignments, reactions, quick formative assessments, daily logs and reflections.  It is a great tool to increase writing (our school goal, woot-woot) on a forum that many teens enjoy.

Here is a video about how teachers are using Twitter: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOlS69JUoE4:  

Communicating with Students

Greetings from the Library!

This week, we'd like to share a bit more about communicating with students outside of class. This post will be especially helpful for coaches and club advisers. Here are two possibilities:

1. Twitter: Twitter can be a great way to communicate with students using a platform most of them already use. See the post on Twitter to learn more about how to use this fun social media platform and how to create a class hashtag.
   
2. Remind (formerly Remind101) is a safe, secure method of communicating with students and parents without having to give out your phone number. Students and parents can sign up via text message or email to receive announcements from you. You can create separate group for each of your classes and teams, as well as schedule your announcements for specific times and dates. Take a look at the video below to learn more!

New features for Google for 2015-16 school year

Google has added some new features for the 2015 school year.  

   Google Classroom: See the short video that I made about it below.  Highlights: Use the + button at the bottom-right of your screen. From there, you can re-use a post from another current class or an old class. You post a question for students to respond to you and they can also respond to each other.  Also, you can go into "about" at the top and add an additional teacher to your class. 

Voice Typing in Google Docs. In Google Docs, on the Tools menu choose "Voice Typing." You must "allow" your microphone, then you can speak and Google will type. Great for students who are struggling to type for any reason.

Voice typing short video: