A Little Birdy Twittered the Schools Closed Early

I really like the way that Falls Church City Public Schools experiment with new technology ranging from online tools for the teachers to share assignments with kids (like Angel) to paying for lunches online  (even if it is too expensive) to teachers blogging.  One other innovation is FCCPS’ “twitter” feed used to announce school news including bad weather early closings and cancellations – http://twitter.com/fccps.

A lazy parent (like me) who wants to be informed of  schedule changes without hunting for them on the web or suffering through TV/radio listings of closings can now get them via twitter and have the notice sent via SMS to your phone if you choose.

While the announcements are free, they take a few steps to setup.  Namely,

1. create your own free twitter account.
2. login to your new account
3. tell twitter how to reach your phone by going to “settings” and “devices”.  You’ll have to fill in your mobile phone number.
4. click “follow” on the Falls Church Public Schools twitter account  http://twitter.com/fccps,  (while you are at it, you can follow other people including me; Mr. Baxter, Principal of TJ; Heidi Lang in the TAAP program at TJ; Andy Rankin from the Falls Church  Insider blog; Ms. McCarty Principal at MEHMS; or Shaquille O’Neal.)
5. On the FCCPS twitter page turn device updates “on”.  If you don’t want to get updates via phone, leave device updates off.

Worked like a charm last week when I got notification of the school closing via text message at 4:30am.