My First Twitter Chat

I was a little apprehensive about participating in a Twitter Chat. I was nervous because I wasn't sure if I would be helpful or not. So, for a couple of days I just viewed (or shall I say stalked) a couple of Twitter Chats but did not participate. Wow! I was overwhelmed after viewing the #edtechchat. So many different people. So many different posts. I couldn't keep up, and my activity page was changing like crazy! Now, don't get me wrong, there were so many great ideas being shared, but I was just didn't know where to start. 

So, I decided I would view the #elachat on Tuesday evening. Well, to my surprise, it was a smaller chat, and I felt like I could share helpful information and ideas. The topic was poetry in honor of April, which is National Poetry month. People were sharing their favorite poems, and we even compiled a Google Doc of the list. We shared ideas about how to get students excited for poetry, and we shared our favorite activities. Time flew by and before I knew it, the chat was over. Click here to visit the archive for #elachat. 

One activity that I was unaware of was something called "blackout poetry". To complete the activity, students must first create their poem after reading the information. Then, students blackout the page of a book, magazine, or article only leaving a few lines to create a poem. My students would love this activity! Below you will find an example poem, and here is a link providing more information about the activity: http://classroom.synonym.com/blackout-poems-5344.html

 

Another great activity that I learned about is something called "Book Spine Poetry". This is where students arrange books in order to create a poem from the various titles. Each title is a line in the poem, so arrange the books in any order that makes sense. Below you will find a example. 

Image from http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/tag/book-spine-poetry/

All in all, I loved participating in the #elachat. I plan to participate as often as I can. I learned so many new great ideas while also sharing things I do in my own classroom. If you are free on the first and fourth Tuesday of the month at 7:00 p.m., check out #elachat!