Twitter and The Help Movie

Viewing comments on Twitter about the movie and book, The Help, for the past week has been social media at it’s best. Twitter is a micro or mini blog where movie goers or book readers can share their thoughts in bite-sizes from their computers or various mobile devices.

Having a dedicated column in Tweetdeck (a desktop application for Twitter and other social media applications which allows users to send and received tweets and view profiles) for hashtags #thehelp or #thehelpmovie enables me to see the latest tweets about the movie and book. These tweets contain links to movie reviews as well as the reactions to the book and movie from numerous people around the country.

I noticed references from several tweeters regarding the following:

• Number of book reading friends in groups they have formed, “I’m reading The Help with ____ others;”
• Movie dates, “I’m attending The Help with ____ others” These movie dates included girls night out, boyfriend/girlfriend or husband/wife dates, and a large number of families which include mothers, sisters, aunties, and grandmas. One tweeter posted that they would be attending the movie with their great-grandmother;
• Reactions and commentaries about movie where some say “they loved it, a must see, book was/was not as good as the movie,” memorable lines from film such as “you is good, you is kind, you is important;”
• Criticisms of movie or book and expressions of emotions which range from laughing during the funny scenes and crying during sad ones,
  

So if you want to know the latest and up-to-date news about The Help or any other topics, use Twitter . If you have not tried Twitter before, below is a tutorial to get you started.

The Thrill of Teaching Historical Research and Genealogy to Youth

I would like to thank all those who gave me tips about teaching genealogy to young people. I talked to numerous people I know, both genealogists, educators and/or parents, and also asked for tips on Facebook, Twitter, and Afrigeneas, and my Find Your Folks blog.

I am excited to announce that after months of planning, I have finally begun conducting youth genealogy classes and workshops. Entering into this realm has not been as quick as I anticipated, but we all know that “good things come to those who wait.”

Opportunity #1
Eight Week Program in Partnership With a Local City Agency. I have partnered with a local city agency and am working with two persons from this organization in a program in which the three of us designed called Back in the Day - Faith-Based Institution Historical Research Program. Both of these individuals have history degrees, but their full-time positions are working with youth or managing youth related programs rather than something in the field of history.

We decided to focus on collecting and documenting church history in our city because we believed that religious institutions were a great place to start in teaching young people how to do historical and family research. The community in which we are teaching and researching is predominately African American and since historically major movements such as the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s have been ushered in through religious institutions, we felt that it was fitting to begin our youth research project through these institutions. We began planning the program in late September and sent out invitations to older churches in our community in October to participate in this program.

Response was slow, but two churches eventually committed to participate in our pilot program along with six young people from their congregations who are ages 13-16. Each church has an adult mentor from their congregation who also attends the sessions with their youth. We started the program two weeks ago with an interest meeting and began the first week of the eight week program on last week. Both the adult mentors and the young people seem to be getting a lot out the program and I am energized by their enthusiasm each night I teach. My two partners in this endeavor will also be teaching the youth during designated weeks in this eight week program so that will be a relief for me during those weeks, and I Iook forward to just just sitting, observing, and enjoying these sessions.

At the end of the eight weeks, the youth are expected to 1) write a report summarizing their research findings; and 2) prepare some type of creative project/activity such as a skit, poster board display, PowerPoint presentation, etc. which will be showcased in a program for their families, friends, church members, and others.

Opportunity #2
My Family History: Link to the Past, Bridge to the Future. This will be a three hour workshop which I am scheduled to conduct at a local historical and cultural center in May. The goal of this workshop is to introduce young people to methods to get started in tracing their family history in hopes that they may begin the discovery process to find a link to their past and a bridge to their future.

Now it’s SHOWTIME after all these months of waiting. I’m glad that I thought to buy school supplies such as paper, pencils, pens, pencil boxes and other supplies during the back-to-school sale last year. All of these things are coming in handy now.

I'm looking forward to many more opportunities to share my genealogy and historical research knowledge with young people. I hope that other genealogists and family researchers who have not done so already, will also find opportunities to share their knowledge with the young people of their communities.

Tweeting During Lecture

Nadasue

Nadasue of Into the Light and I attended a lecture by Dr. Cassandra Newby-Alexander on African Americans in Civil War Virginia. We had a great time tweeting during the lecture. Click here to read our tweets. The lights were turned off during most of the presentation so that we could see the PowerPoint, so excuse the typos. Thanks to all who were reading and responding to our tweets.

Professor Dru

Twitter Cheat Sheet

Last Sunday night, I became a Tweep or Twit. In Twitter language, that means I became a Twitter user. Everyday this week one of my coworkers and I have been exploring this system. Read more about why we began using Twitter.

As of 2:56 PM, EST, I am following 45 other Tweeps, have sent 30 tweets, and have 23 followers.

Today, I received a message from Geneabloggers that included a Twitter Cheat Sheet. I thought I’d share it with my blog audience. Thanks to Thomas McEntee for developing this cheat sheet and for sharing it with others.

Twitter and Blog Promotion

One of my coworkers introduced me to this website the http://www.2createawebsite.com/ and the video on Lisa’s Website Traffic Secrets . Lisa did a great job talking about the history of various web technologies on through the present ones. Towards the end of the video, she mentioned how she uses Twitter to promote her blog, and not for posting trivial things about what she is doing.

My coworker, who is also a blogger, and I had an earlier discussion about Twitter. We decided that it was not necessary to use this tool because we did not feel the need to be that connected and post everything we are doing.

Now, after viewing Lisa’s video, my coworker and I have changed our minds and we are now using Twitter. So far, we are enjoying using the tool.

In the following video, Lisa explains the basics of the Twitter system and how she uses it to promote her blog.

Twitter and how I use it to promote my blog

Twitter in Plain English

I’m always interested in exploring new technologies. I’ve been hearing a lot about Twitter especially on “Good Morning America” on the ABC television network. During various segments such as hot topics discussions, viewers are able to submit questions by email or Twitter. I set up a Twitter account on Sunday night to try Twitter out just to see how it works. So far, I am enjoying using Twitter.

Here’s a video which explains the Twitter social networking system in plain English.