Teaching with Twitter and Video Games?

Reaching into students' world is one of the hardest tasks. It's also one of the most important. Once you've got your students' attention, you can lead them through a lesson like a guide leads a group on an exploration.

If you can create excitement without losing control of your classroom, you'll have won a huge battle.

Here are few ways to hook your students.

Teach main idea through Twitter.  

Vienna Woods Education on Twitter

At the NY IRA conference, a speaker told his listeners to summarize their favorite favorite fairy tale in 140 characters or less (the character limit Twitter maintains per "Tweet"). Not the easiest thing in the world but still not impossible. He explained that because Twitter forces you to boil concepts down to their simplest form, it is a valuable classroom resource.

At the end of each lesson, whether it's social studies, math, or science, have students write a "Tweet" about the lesson. They don't have to post it; they can just write it on a piece of paper. You can even have them keep a "Tweet" notebook that will help them study for tests when the time comes.

Not only will you be building a bridge from your world into theirs, you'll be developing an important life skill. Twitter will help them learn that less is more; and they'll take that skill into note taking, writing cover letters, and listening to speeches.

Make Tests Like Video Games:

Mimio Vote

Kids and video games go hand in hand these days. Imagine their surprise if you turned test taking into a video game. Mimio Vote is an exciting part of the Mimio Classroom package. Your students get to take tests with a handheld device much like a video game controller, and you get instant and accurate results.