Collaboration Gone Global


It all started this morning with a tweet to @mr_fines, a Kindergarten teacher in my PLN on Twitter.  Within minutes, Mr. Jon Fines, was tweeting back lots of great technology lesson ideas to use with K-kids.

At that moment, collaboration went global and energy surged! My colleague Jenny and I had been brainstorming and planning together for a bit before we tapped the Twitter network.  When Fines chimed in, it was energizing, like a firework exploding with bright colors in a dark sky.

Our exchange went like this:
“I teach them to open Word,  increase font size, change font, then type the letters of the alphabet in order. Keyboarding+ Letter Assessment,” Fines tweeted.

“GREAT ideas!!! Thanks so much! We have Paint and Word, so will give that a try. Any Christmas ideas?” I asked.

“This is one of our Christmas favs. I use on IWB but PC's are great http://sprintsweets.com/ &http://bit.ly/8YSLHV is also a fun one,” Fines replied.

“You made my day!!! I LOVE these sites!!! Can't wait to share them with the kids this afternoon!!! Thanks for SHARING!!! Merry Christmas!”

“You're welcome. Anytime. Feel free to share. Meant to tweet that in regular stream. Have a great christmas!”

After the Twitter collaboration, we were all fired up! Literally in fifteen minutes, I had three different, fantastic activities for my students!  Amazing!  It would have taken me hours to search the web just hoping to stumble across these great tools.

It continually amazes me how powerful the Twitter network is and how a simple Tweet can ignite  a lesson idea that is used right away.

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