After what has been an exceptionally mild September, the days are gradually closing in, October has arrived and the autumn weather is making its presence felt. That can only mean that it’s time for the “Signs of Autumn 2015 Twitter Project”. This will be the fourth autumn Twitter project and it has been a great success. Many teachers reported how much their class enjoyed taking part in the project and using a simple technology tool to connect with other classes across the country and internationally.
The idea is really simple, and it’s the simple ideas that work best! Just Tweet with your pupils any time during the week, October 5th – 9th, about any signs of autumn that you see in your classroom, school area or locality. Even better, Tweet a photo of the sign of autumn that you and your pupils noticed or observed. To keep all of the Tweets together, use the following Twitter hashtag: #anfomhar
Possible things you could Tweet about:
* Leaves falling from the trees
* Bare autumn trees
* Windy autumn weather
* Autumn colours that you see in your environment
* Seasonal fruit/vegetables
* Animals spotted in your locality eg hedgehogs
* Pupils playing conkers
* Pupils’ autumn art work/displays
I know that lots of teachers joined Twitter on Summer courses again this year, so this might be the perfect opportunity for you to Tweet with your class. Let other schools/classes that you are in contact with through Twitter know about the project and invite them to join in. If you are in contact with a school abroad, get them to join in too to give the project an international dimension. A couple of years ago, some schools from the US and Canada joined in the project and my own class really enjoyed comparing the differences between autumn on this side of the Atlantic with the far side. We even saw photos of snow in a school grounds in Canada during the project.
To make the project truly collaborative, don’t forget to reply to, comment on, or re-Tweet the Tweet of another school. So let’s build up a picture through Twitter of what the Signs of Autumn in Ireland 2015 are during the week. Above all, don’t forget to use the project hashtag on every Tweet: #anfomhar You may wish to use a Twitter Client like Tweetdeck, Hootsuite or Twitterfall which will allow you to set up a specific column to view all of the #anfomhar timeline Tweets as they come in during the week.
To get a flavour of what happened during the project last year, view the project Transcript. It will give you some idea of what to Tweet about during the week.
Project Conditions
A condition of joining in the project is that you agree to have your Tweets collated into the project transcript to be available as a download to all teachers through Seomra Ranga. If your class Twitter account is protected, you will have to unprotect it during the week to have your Tweets included in the transcript. If you are comfortable with those simple conditions, then let the Tweets flow from October 5th to 9th. Again, don’t forget to include #anfomhar in every Tweet so that it can be collated into the transcript.
