Twitter world

According to the teachers guide to twitter, there is a study system that is useful for twitter. Sometimes people are absent from class for any number of reasons. Twitter can keep everybody informed on class news and assignments.  The article states, "Our digital kids like to get immediate rewards and feedback from teachers and peers. Use Twitter to send out feedback quickly." I think that is very cool because students are so into social media that would maybe influence them to want to work on there homework. The instant feedback to someone directly also gives that person accountability in order to respond because now they are on the spot as other students are waiting on them. Twitter allows students to express themselves if they are more shy to speak in class. Twitter has 140 character limit which also challenges students to express themselves properly in an exciting space.  I think it would be cool for the class to pick a motivational quote they like from twitter each week to set the tone for a productive week. I found it very interesting that the hashtags open up a whole new world of things to look up. The hashtags are useful to find information quickly related to what someone wants to research. I would be able to follow other fellow educators and get some ideas from them. Twitter is very useful for networking for students as well. I think its amazing the connections you can make via social media, I do think that twitter is catered to a older age group such as middle school and up.

The use of twitter can be good and bad. I think students are able to reach out and have a streamline of communication with their teacher and other students in the class. Something that I am on the fence about is the fact that it takes away from the face to face interactions that I feel is vital for students to have in the real world. Twitter opens up a lot of avenues for creativity within the classroom and teaches students how to use social media effectively. Twitter allows students to be exposed to current events and things that are going on in the world, but this also raises the issue of believing what they see on the internet.

I found learnings for 2nd graders through cool video resources from McGraw Hill. This video is very creative with cartoon characters and different colors as it introduces a unique spin on comparing and contrasting characters in a story. They use vendiagrams to compare and contrast. I enjoy this website because its visual pleasing and very kid oriented for the student to learn but also enjoy what they are watching to keep their attention. I found an app that is useful for students to have fun while learning their site words. The app Uses all touch features which kids love with playful sounds and professionally recorded voiceovers, this is a complete learning experience for any child who is beginning to learn Sight Words or looking to enhance vocabulary and memory. 3 built-in games make is seem like a play act the whole time while the child is learning each word with repetition.