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A Fake Sense of Urgency
We are constantly bombarded with information. We get text messages, social media alerts, and emails that we feel need to be attended to. It’s hard to ignore a ringing phone or beeping alert. Our devices can seem to hold us prisoner. We are at their beck and call. But is this a good thing? In…
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Teacher Hashtags and Inspiration
The ending of The Kindergarten Teacher has been haunting me. I don’t want to spoil it for you though as I am sure there are many people who have not yet seen the film. I wrote about it last week and how it can inspire us to nurture the talent we see in our classrooms.…
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Comic Strip Newsletters
I went to a workshop last week and a fellow teacher told me that she does her newsletters in a comic strip format. I thought it was a great idea for several reasons. It’s Visual! Large blocks of text often get ignored in this fast paced world. A comic strip is something that can be…
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How I’ve Been Using Facebook in My Teaching
As an experiment this year, I decided to embrace social media to help open the lines of communication with students and parents. It’s only three months into the school year, but I thought I’d share with you my progress thus far. I started up a professional Facebook account this summer. This account was meant to…
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The Gay Insult
Describing things as gay has become the latest all-encompassing insult. “That’s so gay!” I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard those words or a variation of them. Kids, in particular, are using it a lot and it is starting to cross over into regular media as well. I read a blog post this week…
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Teaching Tip Tuesday – Twitter in the Classroom
I found this cool document that gives you 29 ways you can use Twitter as a learning tool in your classroom. I think teachers should be embracing technology and bringing it into the classroom. I have found that the students respond really well to it. That is why I hope you will look at this…
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Twitter Tip – Creating a Threaded Discussion
One of the most frustrating things about Twitter is trying to have a conversation with someone. When you reply to a tweet, it isn’t threaded at all. There is no subject heading so it can often be unclear as to what post you are commenting on. I know there have been times when I’ve stared…
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Laughs in the Mail
I got this letter in the mail on Friday and I laughed out loud. It’s not often a letter can evoke laughter from me. Laughter that brightens up my whole day. Laughter that was desperately needed that day. Before I show you the letter though, it needs a bit of set-up. I hope you’ve been…
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Please Think Before You Tweet
Twitter is a great platform. It allows you to express yourself quickly and succinctly. You can connect with other people and share your thoughts or observations, all in less than 140 characters. The only problem with it is that it is almost too easy. Any random thought can be quickly typed out and published. I…
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Love Story Meets Viva La Vida
I so love Twitter. Ryan D. Scott posted this message up yesterday: “Jon Schmidt, Steven Sharp, Taylor Swift and Coldplay = holy fantastic. Thanks @jonschmidty http://bit.ly/BjfHR” I follow Ryan because he is a good blogger and posts some interesting thoughts, observations, and links on his Twitter page. I followed this link in particular because I…