He responded much to the joy of my six and seven
year-olds.
After connecting with he and his mom via Twitter, I asked
if they could update us throughout the day.
The family was generous with their time and tweeted frequent weather reports and
photos from the storm.
As our day continued, my class used The Weather Channel app to learn more about Hurricane Sandy. We looked at radar maps and talked about the timing of the storm and how it would fall on a full moon when tides are at their highest which would cause flooding in many areas (a nice connection to our current solar system inquiry).
After seeing photos and short video clips on The Weather
Channel, my class had lots of questions. Here are few they tweeted to their classmate:
My student in NYC took the role
of Hurricane Sandy reporter very seriously and answered all the questions his
friends posted.
In class, at least once every hour, students asked, “Did we get any new tweets?” I sent an email to our staff and invited other classrooms to learn along with us via Twitter. Soon, our 1st grade friend was sharing his storm experiences with our school.
In class, at least once every hour, students asked, “Did we get any new tweets?” I sent an email to our staff and invited other classrooms to learn along with us via Twitter. Soon, our 1st grade friend was sharing his storm experiences with our school.
The following day our Hurricane
Sandy reporter continued to update us in the aftermath of the storm. He walked around Brooklyn and shot various
short videos that he posted to Twitter explaining some of the damage and storm
clean-up measures. Back in class, my students
felt knowledgeable about the storm and were excited to learn more. It also became an outlet for kids to connect
with their classmate, since he would miss several days of school.
As the week progressed we
continued to get updates from our reporter.
Checking in with Twitter became an opportunity to connect with our
friend who would end up being out of school all week. Throughout the week I watched my
students—both near and far—share their learning and use social media to connect
and collaborate. Hurricane Sandy
provided us an authentic opportunity to thoughtfully use social media in the classroom.
Here are a few take-aways:
My students were empowered to be part of a learning network that was for students, by students. So often, young children only have access to information that is filtered through an adult channel. While oftentimes that is appropriate, kids also need the model of other children as information providers. By watching a peer research, report and field questions, student now have a "mentor" experience for what it looks like and sounds like to be an information sharer. As Peter H. Johnston shared in Choice Words (2004) kids need to visualize themselves as a "can do" kid. When young learners internalize the belief that "I'm the kind of kid who works as a reporter. I'm the kind of kid who asks good questions. I'm the kind of kid who ________," they experience the success, feedback and confidence that inspires them to make additional attempts in the future. Over time, this repetitive process produces kids who desire to think, learn, share and are inspired to do it again and again. My students were thrilled to see their classmate work as a reporter and now believe that any first grade student can do this important work.
For the first time, students saw Twitter as a place to ask questions, conduct research and gather new information. Previously we had only used it to tell others about our learning. Now, students see Twitter as a tool for learning. I spend a lot of time in first grade teaching my students where they can go to find answers to their questions; now they can add school-supervised Twitter to their list of resources.
After tweeting and blogging to our reporter, my class now sees social media as an effective tool for connecting with others. In addition to our classroom tweets, each day students commented on his Kidblog. Students posted comments to see how he was doing or to ask for an update on the hurricane. As a result of this collaborative learning experience, my kids now think like connected learners. This was apparent Friday afternoon as we said goodbye to a student who was moving. As students sat on the rug and said goodbye and good luck to their friend, one girl said, "Make sure to tweet us ok? And send some of those video tweets so we can learn about your new house and your new school." Another child chimed in, "And leave lots of comments on our blog!"
YES! I cheered silently in my head as I saw my students think like connected, empowered learners. This is why we do this! I am very grateful to my student and his family for engaging in this authentic learning experience. Together, we have provided students a foundational experience for using social media in the classroom. I can't wait to see what we learn next!
Do you have a classroom Twitter account? We'd love to connect with you! Follow us @Burley106
Video used with permission from the family
