Twitter, you say? In the classroom?
Yes, absolutely! Yes, the second graders at All Saints Catholic Academy are tweeting. Now, don’t worry, we’re not using Twitter for following the latest Hollywood gossip or checking out each other’s current status. We are using it to make connections all over the world.
I know, you’re still questioning how Twitter has a place in the classroom. Don’t worry, I got that same look on your face from many a colleague and parent today when I told them I introduced Twitter in my classroom today. In fact, I even had that questioning look on my face up until If kindergarteners were doing it, than surely I could do it with my second graders.
So what is it that we are learning by using this social media in the classroom? First of all we are using it to collaborate and make global connections. Currently, we are following second grade classrooms in all parts of the United States, across the pond in Ireland, and even with our neighbors to the north in Canada. Today, as I introduced some of the classes that we are following, we mapped and labeled them on our giant classroom world map, and the kids asked questions such as “Does it snow there?”, “Wow! I wonder what they learn in school?” These will be great future tweets I told them in which we can connect with these classes and learn more about our world around us.
Twitter can be used as another vehicle to communicate with parents if parents are utilizing Twitter. I can easily send a quick tweet letting parents know that book orders are due tomorrow or tomorrow is dress down day, not to mention tweets about our day and what we learned. We can use Twitter for research. We are not only following classrooms from around the world but famous children’s book authors like Max Lucado, Mary Pope Osborne, and Mo Willems. And oh yeah, we follow the Pope too! If we read a book by an author who we follow and we want to ask him a question, we can tweet it and hope we get a quick reply.
But is using social media in the classroom safe? Yes. I am teaching the kids how to be safe using social networking sites. We have talked about how we won’t use names in our tweets and only tweet as a class. We talk about what we would like to say before it is posted. Choosing what to say is also a skill they are learning. Tweets can only be 140 characters so we have to choose our words carefully.
So yes, the second graders are tweeting and they are loving it. Come follow us at @gradetwoinvt!
Do you have any creative ideas for using Twitter in the classroom? Share them in the comments below.
Posted by Mrs. Nordenson, 2nd Grade
