After the unexpected success of the Hallowe’en Twitter Project, where so many schools Tweeted about what they were doing in their classrooms on the theme of Hallowe’en, I immediately thought that such a Twitter project would be great to do at Christmas.
So, “Nollaig Ar Scoil” was born! The idea is really simple, and it’s the simple ideas that work best! Just Tweet with your pupils any time over the next week or so, until the holidays, about any Christmas-themed work that you are doing in your classroom or school. Even better, Tweet a photo of some of your work. To keep all of the Tweets together, use the following Twitter hashtag:#NollaigArScoil
Our other Twitter Projects have been a great success, with many teachers reporting how much their class enjoyed taking part and using a simple technology tool to connect with other classes across the country and internationally. Possible things you could Tweet about:
- Christmas art work
- Christmas poems and songs you are learning
- Christmas customs and traditions you’ve learned about from Ireland or other countries
- Christmas websites you are using
- Links to your school website/blog where you’ve recorded some of your Christmas work
- Links to a podcast/video you’ve created in class about Christmas
- Christmas concerts or Nativity Plays you are doing
In taking part in the project, please be aware of good practice when sharing items through Social Media relating to pupils and classroom. Check out this advice on the Webwise wesite HERE
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 one of the Twitter projects and my own class really enjoyed the international element to 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 the sort of seasonal Christmas work going on in Irish classrooms in the run-up to the holidays.
Above all, don’t forget to use the project hashtag on every Tweet: #NollaigArScoil 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 #NollaigArScoil timeline Tweets as they come in during the week.
To get a flavour of what happened during this year’s Hallowe’en Twitter Project, view the project Transcript. It will give you some idea of what happens during a Twitter project.
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 until the end of term. Again, don’t forget to include #NollaigArScoil in every Tweet so that it can be collated into the transcript.
