Tweet, Tweet -- Join Us on Twitter

I've been using twitter for years on a personal level, but I only recently discovered how amazing twitter is on a professional level.  I set up a new twitter account for professional use, and I've been wondering what took me so long.  On twitter, I've found dozens of great ideas to try in my classroom, I've collaborated with teachers and other professionals within the district, and I've had conversations about education with teachers from all over the world.  And I do all of this while making lunch for my daughters, watching TV, or doing the laundry.  The great thing about twitter is that you can do it when you have time.  Some days I tweet a lot, other times I don't tweet for days.  The conversation is always there, though, so you can participate in professional conversations on your terms.

So often our professional conversations are limited to SIP days and trainings.  With twitter, I've been able to develop as a professional on a daily basis.  Professional conversations have become such an organic part of what I do every day.

Since I've had such a great experience with using twitter as a professional, I would love to have some more early childhood teachers from our program join the conversation!

Go to twitter.com to sign up!  To get you started with the conversation right away, here are some people to follow:

@ErinJackle
@StephKHopkins
@mentortexts
@u46GiveMeFive
@u46STEM
@emmillerwrites
@illinoisaeyc
@YourEle
@FredRogersCtr

These are just a few great people to follow.  I really hope you will join us on twitter!  If you need help getting started, please feel free to ask Erin or Stephanie.  We would be happy to help!

Frozen Paint -- From Erin J.

I had seen an idea online about painting with frozen paint, so we decided to give it a try in the classroom.  You can watch a slideshow of my kids on my blog.  I just squirted different colors of paint in ice cube trays and put them in the freezer.  After about an hour I added popsicle sticks to the paint.  About an hour after that, we were ready to paint!  Some of the paint colors came out really easily and wrote almost like crayons. Others we had to scoop out.  All of the kids enjoyed this different art activity!

Daily Messages -- From Erin J.

At our High Scope training last year, we learned about the way that High Scope presents daily messages.  I wasn't sure how well it would work in my EN/MLP class, but I decided to give it a try.  I've been really impressed with how many students are beginning to respond to our messages and to how seamlessly it fits into our day.

Each day before school, Jean prepares our message board with three messages about our day.  Since our kids need a lot of consistency and repetition, our messages usually include what we are doing for small group, if we are going somewhere, and what type of planning we are going to do.  In the messages above, we are doing small toys during small group, going to gym, and using pictures and blocks to make a plan.

Jean shares the messages with students during arrival.  Then, we review them as a class during our large group time.  I ask questions like "What do you think we will do in gym?" or "Where are you thinking about playing today?"  Finally, we use the messages as part of our daily recall activity.  We talk about if we completed all of the messages and try to recall where we planned to play.

How do you use the daily messages in your classroom?