This is going to be a big week for trying a few new things in my classroom. Next week we are taking the Achievement Tests. That means this week we will be doing some intense practicing and preparing. Of course, we do this all year, but I hit it pretty hard the week before. That usually means we will have a few more free moments and opportunities to try new things.
I’ve been in touch recently with a teacher discussing Moodle. She had some great ideas on journal writing within the program. So this week I’ll be introducing using a forum. They will need to respond to a question and respond to another student’s entry.
I’m also using Twitter with them. If that raises your eyebrow, I know. Mine did too. But if you visit my twitter page, you’ll notice the kids never actually log in to the twitter site. It is all done through my website. They update through a plugin I found at twoxit. In fact, anyone can! Try it. I put a widget for each student on my page, as well as a feed that puts them all together. Pretty slick and secure. I’m hoping it will suck them in and become another opportunity for them to write and express their ideas. We’ll see how it goes. I also started a twitter account for this blog. You can follow it at twitter.com/smartboardandem. The widget in my sidebar doesn’t seem to work, but I hope to have updates posted here as well.
Finally, we may stream a class. Ustream is a free and very easy service that allows you to broadcast live content on the web. I’m thinking this Friday we may broadcast a lesson. A little fun and excitement to get their minds off taking these tests! It should be a big week. I’ll be sure to post my thoughts as we move along.
