Although I've had a Twitter account for a long time, I've never embraced tweeting as I have using facebook. I tried different accounts and following different groups of people. I followed all the Real Housewives and Dance Moms that I could find on Twitter and realized that one reason I wasn't invested in Twitter is because I was bored - surprisingIy (to me), I didn't really care about what the Real Housewives or Dance Moms were tweeting about. I kept forgetting my username, my password, which email account I used to set up the accounts, so I wiped the slate clean and started over. I've started a new account and follow what is really interesting to me lately - teachers, technology, creativity and exciting new educational trends. And now? I love Twitter.
The most exciting thing I've discovered on Twitter in the last few days is QuadBlogging. I may be late to the QuadBlogging party but I am fascinated and hope that I can convince a teacher to try it out in the upcoming school year. I haven't done a lot of research on it so far but I love what I have learned. QuadBlogging is a group of four classrooms blogging together. These four classrooms can be from countries on the other side of the Earth! The classes each have a blog, and each class has a week of being the "it" blog for the quad. They blog and post and ask questions, and the other three classes comment, answer, add information, etc. Once each class has had its turn being "it," the cycle starts over again. This is one of the coolest uses of a blog that I can imagine. One teacher, somewhere in Great Britain, is QuadBlogging with her four-year-olds. They are interested in learning the languages of the other classes with whom they are blogging, they are very excited about writing items that will be blog-worthy, and they are passionate about the communities. Here is a link to a blog entry from the teacher who is QuadBlogging With 4-year-olds. The teacher of the class, Nicola Fitzpatrick, found out about QuadBlogging on Twitter (she's a new Twitter user, like me!) and found herself in a quad. I love what her pre-kindergarten students are doing with it, and I can't begin to imagine what our high school students could be doing in History, English, Science - ANY class - with QuadBlogging. Here is a quote from a teacher whose class is engaged in QuadBlogging. It's a long quote, but it showcases the most awesome aspects of QuadBlogging. “Collaboration amongst learners is something that we strive to achieve in our classrooms and quadblogging has helped me to achieve this in a way I could never dream possible. The children are enthused and excited by their blogging buddies from around the world and their learning is no longer confined to the four walls of the classroom or indeed by me as their class teacher. The children are so motivated by the comments from other teachers and children and these motivates children to blog even more, comment more and therefore learn even more about so much more than is in my planning. Engagement and motivation is raised as children become the teachers and not just learners, teaching others about their cultures, religions and school life. The key to a successful blog is of course the audience and this is where quadblogging has the biggest impact for our blog. It helps to build up those wonderful learning collaborations, as well as help to increase the audience for our blog and for the rest of our schools fledgling blogs. The children love visiting a school a week and this helps to further inspire them when it is their turn in the blogging cycle, giving them a chance to show off to their new ‘friends from around the world’. The children continue to visit each other’s blog long after the cycle has finished once again showing that quadblogging is a powerful tool in the development and continuation of our blog. We have a saying in my classroom ‘Neurons that work together, fire together’ and with quadblogging we are certainly able to get those neurons firing.” Cherise Duxbury High Lawn Primary School Does that make you as intrigued as it does me? This kind of blogging, this interaction with students and teachers from all over the world, reaches outside of the four walls of the physical classroom and offers our students 100% authentic education from their global peers. QuadBloggin is my most recent exciting discovery on Twitter - as I continue to hesitantly make my way into the Twitter community I look forward to other awesome and amazing ideas and practices!
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AuthorMom to two sons, married 23 years to college sweetie. Instructional Technology Specialist for a vocational high school. Educator for 20+ years. Love to read, do anything crafty, and spend time with friends and family. Passionate about education, technology, and the combination of the two! I'm a proud foster-failure with Big Fluffy Dog Rescue, having fallen head-over-heels for our first foster and adopting her :) Archives
September 2017
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