The Twitter

( From my Twitter page)

My adventure into "Twitterland" was almost comical. I did already have an account. Our district encouraged us to have one. Honestly, I didn't realize the benefits of Twitter until this assignment. I just thought it was another Facebook with more restrictions on how much one can write. Since I already had an FB account I didn't need another. I now can see the benefits and the plethora of information and ideas at my finger tips.

Initially, I was a bit overwhelmed on how much info there was to look at. Then it became fun. I checked out other math teachers and math sites, Class Dojo, Edutopia and PBIS just to name a few. I got THE best new idea from a PBIS reward that I can't wait to do. Building blanket forts. When you are trying to come up with free fun things for kids to do, especially in the winter, it can be challenging to come up with a new fun fresh initiative. I thought this was clever and fun. Kids can create and collaborate in its' building.

(Angela Schlosser Twitter PBIS)

Getting into my first Twitter chat was a bit of a challenge. After looking at some YouTube videos I was finally on my way, The biggest aid in this venture was the discovery of Tweetdeck. I really found the layout helpful with keeping up with conversation.

(From my Tweetdeck)

The chat I decided to participate in was on standards based learning and grading. It's a direction our district is heading in and I'm all for it. The feedback from he discussion was very encouraging. Briefly, standard based learning/grading is when students are assessed on the mastery of a learning a standard appropriate to their grade level. Since this will be a total shift to how students will be graded (doing away with the traditional letter grading), I did have some concerns. My major concern is/was getting parents on board and getting them to understand the benefits of this new system. I also wondered how that would look in high school. How would this grading affect college acceptance? Would teachers embrace this even though it might mean more work on their end? The feedback from educators who are currently practicing SBL was very encouraging. Below are some of my tweets and responses from the conversation.