I returned from my trip to NYC a few days ago and I'm right back into following educational tweets on Twitter. While I was I away I did work on a couple of my goals by exploring new (to me) Web 2.0 tools; and by checking out, reading, and leaving comments on other peoples blogs. I didn't post much while I was away except I did manage to be at my computer during the #1stchat on Sunday evening. Now that I'm home I've been doing a bit more research about the class blog I'm wanting to set up this school year. I must confess that I'm REALLY excited about this class blog. There are so many incredible AUTHENTIC learning opportunities just waiting to be tapped into.
Yesterday I saw a link on Twitter recommending "we" check out two grade one class blogs from Adelaide, South Australia. How perfect for me. I immediately checked them both out and commented too. What great blogs they were. They didn't intimidate me and it seemed that everything (or almost everything) they did on their blog I could do on mine. The two classes were also excited to see someone from Vancouver, Canada checking their blogs out. They went as far as to google earth my school in Surrey, BC and then asked me questions about what they saw. It's times like this that I actually wish I was in the middle of the school year instead of being on summer vacation - don't get me wrong I LOVE my summer vacation and I truly LOVE the LUXURY OF TIME that it brings me. I am so excited for my class to meet these two classes, even though we are close to 18,000 km apart with a 16.5 hour time difference, I know they will be just as excited as I am. Here are the two blogs I've been communicating with Year 1 @ Craigburn PS and Mrs. K's Class.
I also asked on Twitter for links to other grade one class blogs. The links are coming in and I'm checking them out, book marking them, and adding them to my diigo account for later reference. Along the way I met Kathy Cassidy and she shared the link to her class blog. I asked her a question about her blogging platform (I'm still not sure which platform I'm going to be using for my class blog) and she shared this excellent google document explaining the features of the different blog platforms.
So yah, Twitter is still having a huge impact on my professional growth, even though it's my summer vacation. I can't thank the amazing people I've met on Twitter enough. I'm hoping one day in the not too distance future, I'll be able to help others too. In the meantime, please feel free to share your grade one class blogs or other great tips with me. If you know of any grants out there for Canadian (or BC) schools to apply for to get more technology into my classroom (or school) please feel free to share them too. Since I've been following Twitter I have been made very away of how poor technology is represented in my school. Obviously I'm NOT going to let that stop me from doing what I want to do, but it sure would be nice to have more technology to turn to.
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