PROTOPAGE!! Awesome

Here is a link to my virtual handbag! This is going to be a place where I keep all of my online resources. Check it out!

Allison's Protopage Click Here

Trying Something New...a pictue insertion?

Source: food52.com via Allison on Pinterest

Just a little something I might try for Christmas this year!

TWITTER in The classroom, or not

The question I asked myself while exploring Twitter was,  if I discover that there is some value in using Twitter, how can I use it in my elementary classroom?

Over the last two weeks I engaged Twitter!  I even blogged about my experiences on my New Literacy, New Blog (allisonsicarysutich.blogspot.com).  I explored the many possible uses; I followed, I hash-tagged, I tweeted, retweeted.  My Twitter trial was definitely fun and I made many other connections to other social media technologies.   One hash-tag adventure led me to find a great recipe.  I liked it so much I “pinned” in to my Pinterest.  

I think the value of Twitter in the classroom might be that it is just another way to get kids to write.  Twitter’s abbreviated, 140 character limit might be less intimidating to kids that have “writers phobia.” Having a small canvass to work on might just take away the trepidation a young writer might have about writing.  

I could imagine working Twitter into a class project where all the participants could tweet back and forth about their ideas and discoveries.  Another idea I had for using Twitter was to tweet homework assignments.  Interestingly, either of these ideas could be accomplished with other social media technologies just as easily.  I consider Twitter as another tool in my  “teaching kids to write tool box.”

Yes, Twitter is valuable and I will use it in my classroom.  

MORE Tweets

My latest tweet journey happened organically.  I was clicking around on the website Open Table looking to make a restaurant reservation and happened to notice an advertisement for one of my favorite shows, Top Chef.    There it was, an invitation to win a weekend in NYC and dine with the Voltaggio Brothers ( they are two of the restaurant stars on the show and I'll add that one of them is really cute!) All I had to do to enter the contest was to "follow" Open Table and Tweet "a prescribed statement" about OT and I was automatically entered to WIN! I tweeted and followed, and now I wait to see if I won.

A side note here: now since I am following OT, I am receiving lots of food tweets! Gotta be choosy about who you follow.

Still waiting to see the value...but I will admit it is fun looking...

DIIGO

Thought I'd throw something in here about the  Digest of Internet Information Groups and other stuff...

A catalog of other's with like interests bookmarks. Right off the bat I know this is going to be a great resource. I like it.  I do not find it easy or  intuitive to use.  I'm working at it.

HASHTAG # Transported to a new world

Hashtag this, Hashtag that!  What's that all about? Oh You-hoooooo Urban Dictionary, it's me again...

Turns out the Hashtag is really a cool feature (for lack of better way to describe it...I will stick to calling my discoveries "features").  The symbol, # is used to highlight a keyword in a Tweeter's tweet which makes the word(s) searchable.  Tweeters can search on a keyword by entering # and (the keyword) they are interested in and the search result will be a list of tweets that contain the keyword.  Very cool feature!  I began practicing using # and launched a search # downtown Raleigh.  VERY COOL!  Read for hours, learned tons about any and all things related to Raleigh; ended up making Chicken Enchiladas for dinner all because a #search.

I definitely had some great fun, but I am convinced that Twitter is valuable. I just do not know how to incorporate it into my classroom just yet.

##FF What's that 4?

Now this old MAT student is tweeting! Actually, I'm just following someone on twitter! A follower.  I'm going through the motions hoping that some value will reveal itself and I'll become forever united with my twitter. Going through the motions requires some serious thought and a bit of research as it turns out. Today I had to Google #FF. I ran across this enough times to make me stop and think that there might be something to it other than a curious typo. So off to the Urban dictionary I went to discover that this curious little symbol was a way that one tweeter could tell other tweeters to follow the tweeter they #. The FF part translates roughly to follow Friday! You can put the rest together.
Going through the motions.