Today, something very interesting happened: I asked my B Block English 12 class to write love poems in 140 characters and by the time I repeated the class in D Block - an hour and half later - #ibblk was trending third!
Now, I have to admit that I don't often pay attention to what is trending, preferring to read the tweets and retweets of people I follow, who in turn, I hope will have the latest and greatest news and opinions. It was actually one of the students in my D Block class who noticed it and by then, there were comments from other twitter users who weren't connected to my classes in anyway whatsoever:
"What the heck is #ibblk?"
"Can someone tell me what #ibblk is?
It began as a Valentine's Day activity - there were balloons around the room and unopened treats on desks... I knew there was no way we were going to have any serious conversations around what we were currently reading, so I thought we'd have a break and write - what else - poetry! (I had planned on reading and discussing poetry in the next month anyway.) I gave students the time to compose (what they deemed) poetic tweets and asked them to hashtag: #ibblk.
I am a bit embarrassed by the quality of the tweets; the poems are not really that great. I can say that because my B Block students admitted to just having a bit of fun. They also didn't like the 140 character limit and felt bound by rhyme. My D Block students were a bit more creative with sound and image (especially since I tweeted about it earlier)... in hopes of trending too, I think!
This isn't the first time I've done tweet poems, but the fact that #ibblk actually trended today was surprising. My students got a kick out of it and realized that they do have voices and that other people can and do read what they write - even if it's just out of curiosity or trend. It became a lesson, too, in understanding audience and the great responsibility of leaving something meaningful even when "just tweeting".
It was great to walk into your class and see your students excited about realizing that there poetic voices were being noticed.
ReplyDeleteThe power of technology (or social media) is its ability to create meaningful and personal engagement for the learner.
Well Done!
Just when you think that your "tweet" poetry is not that great, a large number of Twitter followers would disagree with you. Everyone has a voice and how great it is.
ReplyDeleteGreat work as usual Maricel.