Gazette.Net: Students, teachers hash it out over Twitter hashtags

Gazette.Net: Students, teachers hash it out over Twitter hashtags:

Tuesdays aren't just any day at Walker Mill Middle School to teacher Albert Lewis. They're “Twitter Tuesdays.”

Every Tuesday from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Lewis moderates student discussions on the Capitol Heights school's page on Twitter — an online social network that allows users to post a timeline of messages in 140 characters or less — covering issues ranging from Trayvon Martin to bullying.

The weekly discussions are more than what Lewis could have hoped for when he launched the page at the start of the 2011-12 school year as another way to engage Walker Mill students outside of the classroom.

“Students, they tend to think of teachers as not hip and removed from things that are cool,” Lewis said. “For a teacher to be using social networking to discuss issues that affect them and they won't be judged, it appeals to them. They can open up to you more without feeling like what they have to say is going to be judged or them