Fantasia Barrino overdose an apparent suicide attempt, according to police - Reality TV World - News, information, episode summaries, message boards, chat and games for unscripted television programs

Fantasia Barrino overdose an apparent suicide attempt, according to police - Reality TV World - News, information, episode summaries, message boards, chat and games for unscripted television programs

My New Classroom Idea✎

Twitter-Tweet Tweet-Homework?
The idea of having assignments sent to a cell phone is introduction enough to students. I would still want students to be responsible and write down assignments and my Twitter feed should only be used as a "reminder" as to what assignments are due or a reference as to what assignments were due previously.
Students can access daily assignments by subscribing to feed via text messages
Students who choose to be added as a "friend" on Twitter, can also ask questions about the homework assignment through messaging the question or referencing my username in their post.
Another good aspect of Twitter is that students only have 140 characters to type, so students have to pre-think what they want to write and how to get their point across in a certain amount of space.

As with any new technology, one must be prepared for difficulties and challenges. But the hope is the reward is worth it. Students must have a cell phone with text messaging and unlimited texts would be even better. But since I teach in a low income district, this could be a problem. I am hoping the my administration backs me in this idea and hopefully this can be something that more teachers use in their own classrooms. I am interested to see if homework completion gets better once students subscribe to the tweets. I could see this being a cool classroom study.

In this article by Greg Ferenstein, he states that it seemed that students who used Twitter in the classroom participated more in class as well as becoming a leader in their own education. Students want to learn when social networking sites become a part of the lesson.
http://mashable.com/2010/03/01/twitter-classroom/

These are 2 videos that I found showing Twitter being used successfully in classrooms:

Roosevelt High School Example:


Ideas for furthering Twitter in the classroom


Additional links:

http://janeknight.typepad.com/socialmedia/2009/08/twitter-in-the-classroom-10-useful-resources.html

http://prezi.com/jev9ny1qogvj/using-twitter-in-the-classroom/

http://www.edutopia.org/poll-twitter-classroom

http://mrslwalker.com/index.php/2009/03/29/nine-great-reasons-why-teachers-should-use-twitter/

http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6708199.html

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Almost school...again

So, as I am sitting in my workshop, I am trying to figure out how to use blogger with my students. Even if I do, will my school allow this to happen? There is so much potential with using a blog with students. They practice reading, writing, thinking, responding, and some higher level skills. If you have any ideas on how to use a blog for a junior high math class, please comment! Thank you!

Types Assessment in Inquiry-Based Learning | eHow.com

Types Assessment in Inquiry-Based Learning | eHow.com

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WebQuest, Oh how I love thee!

A WebQuest can be a powerful learning tool for students. It can introduce them to a skill or have them practice something they have already learned in a new, exciting way. With that being said, there is a lot of work that goes into creating one. I am still having some nightmares about creating this WebQuest. As I was thinking about this WebQuest and what I wanted the students to learn, I was having trouble determining what was higher order thinking and what was just finding resources to answer a question. I wanted the students to understand budgeting and learning to live on a certain salary scale. To add a higher level skill to the WebQuest, the students will have to research how to keep their cars and apartments as well as buy food and necessities for their "families" after they loose their jobs. I want the students to really understand the stress that real Americans feel everyday when trying to survive after a crisis like loosing their jobs.
As far as actually creating the WebQuest, I would have to say that when it is finished, or at least finished for this class, I will be very proud of myself. I have learned so much about creating web pages and making the page easy to navigate. I only wish that I had the time to implement this with my students because that is how I will know if things about the WebQuest need to be changed.