Most people think Twitter began in 2006, but a form of it actually existed in my grade 7 classroom\u00a0long before that.\u00a0I didn\u2019t call it Twitter, I called it \u201cNotion Notes.\u201d<\/p>\n
When I first came to Abbotsford, I taught grade 7.\u00a0Besides having fun learning all that science and English, we also\u00a0did fun things for their own sake.\u00a0The kids loved it and so did I.<\/p>\n
In its simplest form, a Notion Note is when students each write something on a little piece of paper, so small it couldn\u2019t hold more than 144 characters.<\/p>\n
Then I would read them out loud one by one.<\/p>\n
The idea was that the students would play with words and ideas and there\u2019d be some benefit from instant \u201cpublication.\u201d\u00a0Very quickly, a whole bunch of rituals grew around this simple activity:<\/p>\n
Students really got into this.\u00a0It became the goal to either get a laugh from their classmates or to get their Notion Note into the pocket and make the classic list. They began to have a Notion Note page in their binder where they\u2019d write down possible submissions.\u00a0If they came across a quote while reading, they\u2019d write it down.\u00a0A funny idea or humorous question they had in response to something in Social Studies got written down too.\u00a0Students also used Notion Notes as\u00a0a way of disseminating famous quotes.<\/p>\n
Notion Notes would sometimes talk directly to an individual, or interact with a Notion Note\u00a0from the previous week.\u00a0 Sometimes they\u2019d begin to develop themes over several weeks.\u00a0These are like the reply option in Twitter.<\/p>\n
I think zits are those little bugs that crawl in your underwear at night.<\/em><\/p>\n This pen doesn\u2019t work.<\/em><\/p>\n If pencils had erasers on both ends, we\u2019d get better grades.<\/em><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Count to 5\u2026You are now 5 seconds older.<\/em><\/p>\n What\u2019s the difference between a duck?\u00a0Both of its legs are the same.<\/em><\/p>\n Author Unknown must be very talented.<\/em><\/p>\n Nobody notices what I do, until I don\u2019t do it.<\/em><\/p>\n As the fish swims through the sea, \/The bird swoops down and goes tweet.<\/em><\/p>\n There it was.\u00a0The first tweet,\u00a0staring me right in the face.<\/p>\n Too bad I was too short sighted\u00a0to\u00a0convert Notion Notes into an app. The problem was, no one knew about apps in 1990, and I missed my chance.<\/p>\n\n\t\t