Oh Twitter...

          Hmmmm, what to say about Twitter?  This quarter I was "forced" to join Twitter, yes I did say forced.  Before this quarter I could have guaranteed you that I would never join Twitter or Tweet, but I would have been wrong.  After a whole quarter of following people on Twitter I would have to give it a mixed review.  The good thing about Twitter was being able to follow and read about what educators are talking about.  The best thing I got from Twitter was a how to guide for teachers about blogging with your students in elementary school classrooms.  This was very helpful and I don't think I would have come across it if I hadn't been on Twitter.  With that said, I didn't really get a whole lot more out of Twitter.  Most of the other Tweets I found useful just linked me to a blog post, which I feel I could have gotten otherwise from just following blogs.  I kind of feel like the overall time I spent on Twitter was not well spent.  I could have used the time spent on Twitter more productively, by doing something else.  Though I won't write it off completely.  I do see that it may be a great resource once I am in my own classroom, especially my first year of teaching.  What do you think about the usefulness of Twitter for teachers?

Going back home!

The day has finally come.  I get to go back to my main placement and see my kids.  I cannot possibly express how excited I am to see each and everyone of them.  While I have been back a couple times over the past 8 weeks to visit, it is extremely exciting to be going back knowing that I will be with them for the rest of the year.  I can't wait to see how much they have grown and learned while I have been away.  I am also excited to apply what I have learned over the past 2 months from both my methods classes and dyad placement.  I can't wait to try out one of the small group inquiry math lessons with my kiddos and see how it works.  What type of lesson are you most excited about teaching to your main placement kiddos?

Class Meetings

Ok, so I know I want to have weekly student run class meetings in my future classroom, but what is the best way to structure them.  When I was volunteering in a 6th grade classroom a couple of years ago I was introduced to weekly student run meetings.  I thought it was such a great idea.  The students were able to address issues that were important to them and involved every member of the classroom community.  The teacher pretty much stayed out of it, accept in rare circumstances where he felt he needed to intervene or interject. 
I have not been in a classroom where they have regular class meetings since I was in the one I previously described.  I was wondering if anyone else out there is seeing regular class meetings in their placements.  Some important key parts of the meetings I saw were that students ran the meetings and came up with the topics and issues discussed; there were clear guidelines and agreed upon rules that students followed such as being respectful of one another and only the person with the ball could talk.  Does anyone else have any ideas or knowledge of resources to help structure student run class meetings?  What are some other key parts?