It was just another homeschool day in our house: a late morning finishing the latest installment in the Lightening Thief series for Alex; and some quiet time for me to catch up on the To Do List. We didn’t have anything special planned, but you never know what will happen when you add Twitter to the mix.
I wasn’t expecting to get too much homeschool work done today as I knew that there was little chance of tearing Alex away from the book until he finished. Also, although we sometimes do lessons later in the day; on Thursdays, Alex has fencing in the afternoon.
Even on light days; however, I expect Alex to do some Math and Spelling. Today, coincidentally, Alex was discovering Bar Graphs in his Singapore Math book on the same day that he had to proofread a poll in his Homophone Spelling Unit.
As soon as Alex asked if he could make up his own poll, the light bulb wen on above my head. Why not use a little technology to make this lesson just a bit more interesting?
The other day, I noticed that Blogger has added some new options to the gadgets that can be added in the layout under Page Elements. I’d been meaning to show Alex the new poll feature, but it was one of many items on my never ending To Do List.
Today was a good day to create a Blogger Poll.
I showed Alex how to add a poll to his blog, and he dictated the questions and a related blog post, I made a cool poll !!!!!! It was a quick and easy project, but it was missing something – respondents. A poll isn’t too interesting without people around.
That’s one of the downsides of homeschooling, you don’t have the built-in groups that you find in a school.
On a whim, not expecting much, I decided to post a request on Twitter:
Homeschooled son is learning about polls & bar graphs. Can you answer his poll, please? http://spedr.com/4y597
I’m still amazed at the response. Some of my followers retweeted the request, and suddenly Alex was watching the poll numbers rise: 2, 6, 12, 27. It’s up to 60 respondents, and it’s just the first day of a week-long poll.
Exciting, heady stuff. Alex was giddy with delight.
Right away, he could see how the responses impacted the bar graph. From comments on the related post, he discovered that he should have accounted for other possible responses.
I think he also saw that what he creates online can have an impact. It’s an empowering thing to realize that so many people are out there, listening, and answering.
Oh, yeah. One more thing. It’s looking good for books as the most popular pastime on Earth.
Homeschoolers On Twitter
Looking to connect with homeschoolers? Check out this impressive list of Top Homeschoolers To Follow on Twitter: The Homeschool Twitterati
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