CMS snow-day tweets exercise the brain

Students playing around on their phones during snow days may actually be learning,  my colleague April Bethea says. While she was monitoring social media and keeping our online report fresh,  she got intrigued by #CMSsnowED tweets and filed this report:

Bethea

Charlotte-Mecklenburg students have been out of class for most of this week. But the district has tried to keep some lessons flowing - all in 140 characters or less.

For four hours each snow day, students have answered questions on subjects like chemistry, math and literature or shown off their haiku writing abilities through a Twitter Q&A the district has tagged #CMSsnowED.

At the top of the hour from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. -- Note: today's will start at 11 a.m. -- , the district tweets a new question from its @CharMeckSchools account. The first person who tweets back the correct response gets a shout out from the district and a promise of CMS swag (a water bottle, umbrella or other district memorabilia).

"It's just a way to keep students engaged while schools are closed and to have fun with students online during the storm," said Tahira Stalberte, CMS' executive director for communications.

The virtual Q&A first launched in late January when CMS closed for two days because of snow. Stalberte said the idea came from the district's social media team, which uses Twitter and other tools to try to connect more with students or promote CMS initiatives.

The #CMSsnowED questions come from a variety of sources, including from district teachers, SAT study guides and other online resources, said Stalberte.

One of the first questions asked students to calculate the square root of the combined jersey numbers for a group of Carolina Panthers' players. And this week, students were asked, among other things, the following question about the novel Moby Dick:

LITERATURE: "Call me Ishmael" then call me a cab! Know the name of the boat I was on when it was destroyed by that albino whale, landlubber?

The question drew more than a dozen replies. (The correct answer is "Pequod.")

CMS is not the only district to communicate with students engaged during the snow break. Many districts used social media to help communicate news about school closings. Some, like Durham Public Schools and and Iredell-Statesville Schools, asked students to share photos of what they were doing during the snow day -- DPS called them "snowfies" -- and retweeted some of the replies.

Stalberte said the district has received a lot of positive feedback from students and parents about #CMSsnowED. She said the district plans to do the Q&A each day students are out of class because of the
weather.

"We have to meet students where they are," Stalberte said, "and they are on social media."

Ann here with one more item while we're on snow days and social media: A great school-closing announcement, made by the private Durham Academy, went viral Thursday.  On the chance you missed it, here it is. (I just realized this video displays on my computer but not my iPad, so if you're seeing a blank, here's the link.)

Why sue? Just tweet

The frontiers of social media expanded just a little during Tuesday's school board meeting,  when three public officials tweeted plans to solve a problem that was still under discussion.

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg school board was getting a staff briefing on the challenges of the state's  "Read to Achieve"  mandate.  A flood of new testing for third-graders and rules that give charter schools more flexibility than traditional public schools drew strong criticism from board members.

I was tweeting from that discussion.  State Rep. Tricia Cotham,  a Democrat and former CMS educator,  and state Rep. Charles Jeter,  a Republican who serves on the House education committee,  were following from a distance.  So was school board member Rhonda Lennon,  from her computer at the dais.

At one point,  board member Ericka Ellis-Stewart asked if the board was willing to sue to block the most onerous portions of the law.

I tweeted Superintendent Heath Morrison's response: Morrison on legal action: Better to work with legislators, who seem receptive to revising #ReadtoAchieve. Lawsuits are last resort.

Jeter

Jeter responded: Absolutely willing to work together to resolve these issues. If something needs fixing, let's do it together.

Lennon

Lennon: Charlie let fix this ... Read to Achieve creating chaos for traditional LEAs, charters not burdened by same laws

Jeter: Rhonda, I'm in, let's fix it.

Cotham

Lennon: @triciacotham will you join us to fix this #readtoachieve?

Cotham: Of course!!

Lest someone think that Lennon should have been voting instead of tweeting, let me note that there was no action required. In fact, a reasonable person might conclude that staff reports about controversial state mandates, such as Read to Achieve and teacher tenure changes, are more of a public performance than a chance for the board to get up to speed. Members get the details in advance, and the staff presentations tend to be followed by board members' remarks about hardship to CMS and the importance of mobilizing the public to weigh in.

I'm not naive enough to think Tuesday night's Twitter flitter will solve a very complex problem. But I am hopeful enough to think there are officials on both sides of the aisle, at the state and local level, who want to work past the significant snarls in last summer's state mandates to tease out the valuable goals.

Before our lawmakers return to Raleigh in May, it's a smart time for parents, teachers and others who care to get up to speed on the issues and let their representatives know what they want. It's easy to look up contact info at the N.C. General Assembly web site (if you aren't sure which district you're in, look up your voter registration).

I'd suggest you also check out the CMS presentation on Read to Achieve, but oddly, the version posted online eliminates six crucial pages on testing and other "challenging points" from the version that was presented to the board and reporters that night. (Update: A full version has been posted.) Even more perplexing: The video of the meeting starts well into the session, with one of deleted pages on screen and Chief Learning Services Officer Valerie Truesdale reviewing summer school requirements.