Twitter Power

Twitter is a powerful tool. Do not underestimate its potential for teachers and students! Those in the know are harvesting the many benefits. Twitter is a source of constant information regarding education pedagogy, Common Core, flipped classroom, educational technology, content specific connections, and more. In a recent Twitter chat I commented that I wish I had joined in sooner- no joke! 

Twitter is also a way to connect with our students. One of my students forgot what time we were meeting yesterday for out practice AP exam and Tweeted me to find out the info. They will tweet me articles or info they find. Sadly, I just started using it with them...watch out next year. Just the other day I saw another teacher, Tara Becker-Utess (@t_becker10) conducting a review session via Twitter- yes on Twitter.   

Also, by connecting with other teachers and following Twitter chats you can collaborate outside of you site and subject. I am constantly amazed by my Twitter peers and wanting to challenge myself and students more. So come on and join the Twitter community. The steps are below along with a tutorial video. Please forgive the video, it is my first attempt- they will get better.

Step 1: Go to Twitter. Enter your name, email, and create a password. I would suggest not using your district email, but rather a alternate email account. Also, I would suggest creating a Twitter account to use with students and another to network with educators (PLN).

Step 2: Create a username. Twitter will automatically generate a username- don't be afraid to change it. Try to create a username with your last name and school/subject/mascot to make it easy for the students to remember. When creating a user name to use with educators keep it classy. Scroll down to create and hit the button to go on to the next step.

Step 3: Add people and groups/organizations to follow. You can add people by name, Twitter handle (@username), or type in a topic. Select organizations by category or select Skip (it's in very light font under the selection menu) to continue.

Step 4: Create your profile biography and insert an image. Select an image from your pictures folder to use. It does not need to be an image of yourself- use a school image, animated image, etc...anything is better than the generic Twitter egg. Type in a little background info about yourself and include a link to your website or blog if you have one.

Step 5: Congrats your on Twitter. Send out a Tweet and explore!

Tutorial Video:

US History Student Review Resources

It is that time of year again...race against the calendar and testing. At the same time, it is getting warmer and the students are getting more excited about the prospect of summer vacation. With this excitement comes the restlessness and lack of focus sometimes, along with fatigue. This can create anxiety and stress for both teacher and students. State testing is here and AP testing is around the corner. For me, I'm setting up review resources for my AP US History class that can hit the different learning styles, be engaging, and provide access on the go for our mobile and sometimes over scheduled students. I came across some great resources for my students and to share with my fellow teachers.Some are general review videos and some include practice quizzes. You could also use them with middle school and for CST prep.

Education Portal (review movie and short quiz)

bubbabrain (online practice quizzes- multiple grade levels & subjects)

US Key Dates & Eras (You Tube video)

Hippo Campus (video review with transcript & more)

Crash Course US History (You Tube videos)

Review Sessions via Twitter

The other day I was going through my Twitter feed and I came upon Tara Becker-Utess (@t_becker10) conducting a review session. My jaw dropped...SUCH AN AMAZING IDEA! I have used Twitter to communicate with my students for a variety of reasons and events, but I had not thought of conducting a review session. This is such a great idea, especially when you have students involved in after school activities.  I am most definitely going to be doing this in the future. What was even better was that her students were also answering questions...EDUAWESOME! To help my self remember and to give you an idea, I created a Storify of the review chat.  By using Storify you will create a "story" archive of a discussion based on the hashtag used. The archive flows from the most recent post. Scroll to the bottom and move upward to view the great review session.

Here are the steps you will want to take:

• Set up a Twitter account to use with your students. Try to make the username related to your name, school, and or class- this will make it easier for the students. 
• Show your students you Twitter account in class and encourage them to follow you. You may also want to create a student account randomly or have a student volunteer to do this in class.

• Create a hashtag (#word) to use for the class. Be sure to practice searching for it in the search bar. If you are getting hits, select something else. You will want a unique hashtag for your students to follow during a chat. Again, best to create a hashtag related to your name, school, and or class- this will make it easier for the students.
• Practice Tweeting a few to model for the students with your hashtag at the end. Then follow it in the search bar.
• Create an account with Tweetdeck, Hootsuite, or another Twitter management system.
• Model creating a column/following a hashtag for your students.

For Tweetdeck:

• Type your class hashtag into the search bar and search.
• Once your results come up, select add column to follow tweets with that hashtag.

Priceless... one of those AMAZING days

Some days a student says something to you which strikes at your heart and affirms why we do what we do. Today was one of those days for me.

Let me go to the beginning. I believe in being transparent and explaining things to my students. Since I began teaching, I have stressed writing and critical thinking in my class- I'm not a "packet" teacher. My classroom is messy and loud- organized chaos I like to call it. Students need to be challenges and supported. After all, "a mind is a terrible thing to waste" I tell the students. Despite some teachers being apprehensive regarding CCSS, I say bring it- we have been doing it in my classroom already. I started the year of talking about the Common Core and our modified flip that we would engage in. It was a struggle at times. I was and still am constantly mentioning Common Core. Many students were used to what I often refer to as being "spoon fed" and "packet" teaching. I let them know in the beginning that WAS NOT this class. We would be exploring history, thinking, using our brain, integrate technology, and challenge our selves. Of course there were groans and some days it was a challenge.

At the semester, I had a substantial amount of movement and received new students. My students would say things like "she's cuckoo bananas for Common Core." They soon learned just what they meant. A couple of weeks back we had our WASC visit. One of the WASC members came into my sophomore World History class and chatted with a couple of table groups. The gentleman asked what they were working on. Noah responded and included "Common Core in his response." The WASC observer asked him more about Common Core. As I was helping another table group, I was eavesdropping....I was so proud of Noah's response. He had it down perfectly.

Noah was reluctant at the beginning with my chatting up the Common Core. Today, he touched my heart. As I was leaving work today, I came across Noah and a couple of friends walking across the parking lot. My school took the California STAR (state standardized test) test today for history. Noah came over and had this to say; "I hate to admit it but the Common Core works and I get it. We learned and the CST test was easy. Don't tell anyone I said it." I smiled and got in my car. I was proud of this realization, despite all of the griping and making fun of me for being so crazy and animated regarding the Common Core. This and a birthday drawing from Erick with John Lock (one of my favs), Common Core, an A on an essay, and the Cold War symbols from our current unit made my day! Great student gifts!!!

Blogging 2.0

I started this blog at the urging of Debbie Granger as a way to share resources and ways to integrate technology with history in the classroom. This week I participated in the #flipclass Twitter chat. The topic was blogging. It was in this chat that I realized I was just scratching the surface. I reflect on my teaching, but wasn't using the blog to its full potential. There is so much to gain by writing our reflections from class down as educators for ourselves, other teachers, and our students. Blogging gives an opportunity to reflect, grow, learn, inspire, and much more.

Writing about our adventures in the classroom gives support to other teachers, ideas, allows a platform for assistance and development, models good teaching practice of evaluation to our peers and those entering our profession. More and more teachers and administrators are joining the charge of blogging.

Additionally, and more importantly, it serves as a model to our students. What better way to encourage and model lifelong learning than for our students to see us as "students" in life as well? Students sometimes dismiss what a teacher says as be irrelevant or "do as I say." Blogging serves as an authentic piece of evidence that we are not just "talk" and are in the journey of learning along with them. I know I am constantly learning and being inspired by my students. This helps to build rapport and builds a safe learning environment.

However, blogging is just not for teachers, why not have your students blog? Blogging is a great way for students to reflect on their learning and share their voice. There are a variety of ways to set this up- exit pass, a weekly recap, answer an essential question, reflect on a or set of primary sources, relate a topic of study to a current event...and on and on. Also, blogging supports the Common Core. Why not take it a step further and comment/connect with another class on your site or off site. If you are looking to go off site, go on Twitter. With a mention of wanting to connect with another class, I found three teachers in ten minutes. The possibilities are endless!

This blog was established to provide a venue to communicate ways to integrate technology into the classroom. It will continue to do so, along with highlight resources- Common Core and history related as well. I encourage you to set up a blog. I will also be posting on my classroom experiences/reflections on a personal blog if you would like to join.

Flipping March Madness

Why should basket ball have all the March fun? I decided to flip March Madness for my AP US history class for a review.While surfing the internet I came across a political March Madness at In the Capital and came up with the idea. Why not turn this into an AP/EOC review? I enjoyed the fact that they grouped key US political figures by eras.


First, I got busy on Google Docs and Prezi. To introduce Political Madness to the students I created a Political Madness Prezi. Students were given time to work in their table groups of three to select a winner. While discussing their selections, the groups had a peer serve as a recorder to record the historical evidence/justification for their selection. This compelled them to review and give a purpose to their "madness." Students were given time the next day to share out their responses.

Then, I created a Google form to survey the students for each pair in the brackets. When I went over this and introduced it, students were given some time to enter their selections on their smart phones in class.
Later, we returned to view the results-they enjoyed the immediate results. The remainder were able to complete the survey for homework or in the computer lab the next day.

The next step was to create a Google drawing to enter in the winners as we progressed. Also, a new survey was needed for the next bracket. This repeats until we come to the winner. So far, the students have been

engaged and this has been a "fun" way to review- perfect timing for the California STAR test and pre-AP exam review.