What Students Think

Why on earth am I posting on a school night?! Because today was too good not to share!

Today was the first day back to school after spring break. A day notorious for chaos, as students and teachers return to the old routines, sleep schedules, and catch up after a week and a half of relaxation. Today was no different, and we caught up with the events of the past week, nad there were many. So after some discussion of tornadoes, bin Laden, and baseball bats, it was time to get back to work.

My journey this year to include more technology resources has been interesting. I've shared many tools with students this year, from Edmodo, Google Earth, Gizmos, GoAnimate, among a few. Today, I introduced students to Quizlet. Wow...what a reception! When I first opened an example, the students were amazed. When I told them they could make their own set of "flashcards" and create review games from them, they were hooked. I heard comments like:
"This is awesome! I'm using this to study for my ... test!" (Not math, but hey, I'll share!)
"I can't wait to try this!"
"Mrs. Cluney! Where do you find all of these cool sites? I bet you sit at home at night looking stuff up on the computer!"

Okay, I have to admit, the last comment was my favorite one. First of all, most students think we live at school, so I got a chuckle out of his comment. When I answered him, the conversation got even better.

Me: Yes, ..., sometimes I do spend time looking up websites at home. But sometimes, I get them from twitter posts of other teachers. (See where this is going?)

Students: You tweet? Teachers tweet? How cool!

So yes, I was actually called "cool" by a 7th grader today. Not to bad for a math and STEM nerd. It was a good day.