What is Twitter and Why is it Becoming So Popular? Part 2

Greetings,

Twitter focuses on the main question: What are you doing right now? Through twitter you can get to know people a little bit better. You can follow people and it will help you see people in a different way. You might know people for one thing and then when you follow them, you can find similar interests.  You can create a friendship and a connection through other people's interest.

When creating an account, it’s a good idea to create a name that will connect to people. Celebrities use names that connect to them, so people can recognize them right away. Some of the people that others follow are professional friends, old friends, groups of people, colleagues, dignitaries, celebrities and musicians. If you are a student under 18, make sure you get your parents' permission to create an account.

Listed below are resources on how educators can use twitter

1. 100 Tips, Apps, and Resources for Teachers on Twitter

2. Nine Reasons to Twitter in Schools

3. Using Twitter the Smart Way

4. The top 10 people you should follow on Twitter

Listed below are the 5 Stages of Twitter Acceptance:
 

 
Remember, you can use twitter almost anywhere, especially if you have a smart phone that has text messaging and an internet connection. You can also twitter any time you want.  I hope you enjoyed these free resources on twitter.  Ok, I am in currently in the middles of stage 3 - 5 on twitter acceptance.  Here is my new twitter page: http://twitter.com/complabteacher  We will see you next week!

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What is Cool Timer?

Greetings,

Hopefully you had a great Fourth of July spending time with family and friends. This week I am sharing with you a timer you can download to use as a stopwatch or a count down timer with your students. All you need to do is visit the following site to download it for free: www.harmonyhollow.net/cool_timer.shtml

Once you download it you will not need an internet connection to run the program. Here is a screen shot of what it looks like, once you have downloaded it.

Your students will enjoy watching the countdown timer when they are in working in small groups, or independent practice. After you have downloaded the program, you can choose different built in alarm sounds to sound off when the time expires. You can even personalize the timer by having a short message scroll across the screen.


Another feature on this free timer is you can change the colors of the digits, buttons, and backgrounds to match your needs.

You and your students will enjoy all these unique features on this free timer. Hope you enjoy this tool. I would recommend you downloading this program to your home computer so you can play with it. Once you have learned all the different features I mentioned above, you will be ready to download it your computer at school.

Next week I will be sharing with you a fun random number generator you can use with your students to make sure they are picked randomly when you ask them questions. Yes, you can even type their name in the random generator to personalize it. See you next week.

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Free Resources You Can Download and Use in Your Classroom!

Greetings Colleagues,

Today I am blogging about a Great web site where you can find free, and valuable resources that other teachers have created and posted. You can sign up and join the community for free. When you sign up, you can search for all types of Microsoft Word, Excel, and Power Point documents, as well as pdf's. You will find many forms on classroom management, behavioral reward systems and behavioral contracts. I personally have searched the site for many useful documents that I have shared with other teachers. Just click on the picture to the left of this post to get started. Here is a list of 10 additional resources you will find on the site:

1. Beginning Teacher & Professional Development
2. Teaching Practices
3. Classroom Management
4. Managing Student Centers
5. Homework Ideas
6. Writing Ideas
7. Seasonal and Holiday Ideas
8. Science, Social Studies, Math, Reading, Language Arts Ideas
9. Technology Ideas
10. Visual and Performing Arts Ideas

Hope you enjoy the site. This is probably one of the most comprehensive collections of helpful documents I have found. When you get a chance, sign up for a free account and search for many ideas that you can use in your classroom. Hope this helps. Next week I will be blogging about podcasting and vodcasting. See you next week.

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