A Little Birdie Told Me...

Principal ponderings...

The little birdie I am talking about today is Twitter.  Since 2012, I have been on Twitter, following other educators, sharing with them, learning from them.  I have three Twitter accounts that I manage.  My main account is @PrincipalGarden.  I use this account to participate in lots of Twitter chats, connect with various educators, and share all things education related.  I also have an account that I created for the school, @MayoElem.  This is where I share our school story.  Anything I post to Instagram with the hashtag #mayorocks automatically also posts to the school Twitter account and the Facebook page.  The third Twitter account that I help maintain is the @momsasprincipal account.  As you can see, I love Twitter!

Are you on Twitter yet?  If not, you need to stop reading this post and go set up your Twitter account now.  Don't worry, we will wait for you.  Are you still reading?

Ok, now that you have your Twitter account set up, check out a few of these posts for advice for educators using Twitter:
So You have a Twitter Account, Now What?
Teachers on Twitter: Why You Should Join and How to Get Started
Why Teachers Are Turning to Twitter
Twitter for Teachers

Or maybe instead of reading about Twitter you would prefer to watch a short video clip about it?

Or this funny video clip about how to use Twitter:

Once you have your account set up and have read or watched to learn more about Twitter, now it's time to have fun and start exploring Twitter and the different hashtags, chats, and people that you should follow.  Here are a few ways to get started...

https://globaldigitalcitizen.org/100-education-hashtags-educators

http://mrkempnz.com/2018/03/top-9-twitter-chats-for-educators-2018-update.html

https://www.iste.org/explore/articleDetail?articleid=7

Who is ready to give Twitter a try?!

Currently reading:
I finished reading The Serpent's Secret.  I love that the main character is a strong girl!  Can't wait for the next book in the series to come out at the end of February.  I am also still enjoying listening to Michelle Obama's book Becoming.  Thanks to our book swap before the break, I started to read a new Jodi Picoult book...small great things.  Just started it this weekend, but I do love all of Jodi's books.

And I am working on Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus.  Such a great story about two kids dealing with being different, one is a girl born with no arms and the other is a boy with Tourette's Syndrome.

I also am enjoying a quick professional book read: Who's Doing the Work? How To Say Less So Readers Can Do More.  This books brings up some great points about how we often scaffold our readers and don't help them to become independent. 

Events this week:

Monday - **Liz H will begin conducting ACCESS testing during this week.
Tuesday - Mr. Wilde's Fit Club @ 8:00am, Patty at a training for the day
Wednesday - Staff Meeting @ 8:00am (Don't forget your homework!), Grade 5 Parent
Meeting @ 7:00
Thursday - Mr. Wilde's Fit Club @ 8:00am, Kindergarten F & P training day, Liz meeting with Commissioner Riley in the morning
Friday - 1st grade F & P Training Day

Great things I noticed last week:

• Even though Mrs. Petersen is off celebrating the birth of her new baby, Ms. Shaughnessy is helping with a smooth transition in 3P.  I caught everyone working on their weather opinion writing when I stopped by. 
  
• In 3D, students were having fun with multiples. 
  
• I popped into 5G and found students having some fun with fractions. 
  
• And I loved hanging out with kindergarteners and Mr. Wilde and Ms. Hall...a great way to end the short week! 
  

Check it out:
Here's a short video clip of the authors of the PD book I am reading talking about what a classroom could look like when it's more student-driven, where students are doing most of the work: