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May 27, 2009

Fourth-grade teacher has pupils Twittering

By Greg Grisolano

ggrisolano@joplinglobe.com

Pupils in Shelly Tarter’s fourth-grade class at Irving Elementary School start their day with a “tweet.”

On the Internet social-networking site Twitter, that is.

Tarter, who also serves as one of the Joplin school district’s technology coordinators, allows her pupils to use other high-tech methods — including movie-making software, PowerPoint and podcasts — as part of their daily learning.

“The technology is incorporated into my curriculum; it’s not separate,” Tarter said. “I always pose a question every morning that they have to answer over various subjects. After they’ve answered my question, they can pose a question themselves.”

Twitter is a free social-networking function that allows Internet users to stay in touch with designated friends and family members through multiple short messages called tweets.

Tarter is using Twitter as a pilot project for the district’s eMINTS program — enhancing Missouri’s Instructional Networked Teaching Strategies. The pupils have been using the Web site to discuss curriculum materials for about eight weeks.

For Kenzie Funkhouser, being able to tweet with her classmates and teacher provides her with an opportunity to get answers to questions when she isn’t in school.

“I like using Twitter,” she said. “I have friends who are on there, and we Twitter about school times.”

The Twitter lessons also include another fourth-grade class at the school, for a total of 48 participants. The pupils’ Twitter account — Irvingfourthgrade — is set to a private listing through the Web site, meaning other users must make a request to follow the tweets, or posts, from users. Tarter said school officials are responsible for screening those requests, and at this time the group has only one follower, another fourth-grade class. Tarter said she would encourage parents who use Twitter to follow their children on the site.

“Our ultimate goal is to be able to communicate not just within this classroom, but with other fourth-grade, even middle-school, high-school classrooms,” she said.

Tarter said she also devotes a good portion of her time to Internet safety, and that all pupils must achieve a perfect score on a safety quiz before they can be given permission to access the Internet at school.

“We brainstorm what are some of the bad things that could happen, what are some of the good things, how we can make it educational,” she said. “The students know right up front it’s not something we’re just using for fun. It’s something to expand our knowledge and pose questions to each other.”





High-tech teaching

Shelly Tarter: “It’s taking the classroom beyond the normal classroom boundaries.”

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