During the month of June, I and a few other teachers (@kalinagoenglish, @Marisa_C, @tamaslorincz, @Blythe_Musteric) started a chain story (using the hashtag #cs1).  It went well for a few weeks, but sadly it began to die off.  It was an experiment to see how a chain story could actually work on Twitter.  I learned a few things from the experience:

1. Twitter doesn't let you search for a hashtag that is older than a few weeks. - Twitter will only show the last couple of weeks of a particular hashtag.  This means that if you want to save a particular tweet you must make it your favorite or it will get lost in the Twitterverse.  This can make tracking a chain story a little difficult.
2. It's hard to keep track of the characters. - After the story progressed for a bit, I had to scroll back down and check who was who.  This was made difficult by the disappearing tweets.
3. It was difficult to pass information to the other contributers without interrupting the story. - What I mean is, if you used the same hashtag as the story hashtag it got all mixed up.

We are excited to announce a new feature here at EnglishSpark called Kala.  Kala is our new points system.  You can earn Kala in a variety of different ways by posting an article, commenting on an article, posting a review, creating a listing, or by reading the latest article.  In the future, you will be able to redeem Kala for special features, raffles or drawings.

We created this system to encourage greater participation at our website.  We know we have a lot of users that can contribute a lot of great stuff to the site.  If you'd like to add to a Teacher Stumpers article or a Finding Students 101 article, please feel free to add and help each other out.  You can also add worksheets or websites to the material directory.  We'd like to build a community that can benefit everyone.

We will giving out prizes and awards to top earners.  So don't get left out.  Be sure to contribute and help our community grow.

Here's a complete list of the rules:

1) Registering on EnglishSpark.com - 10 points to any new user for signing up on our website.

2) Logging in (1/day) - 1 point

3) Inviting users to join EnglishSpark - 30 points for every person you invite, and 100 points for every person you invite that signs up.  We hope that you enjoy our blog and other free resources and hope you will invite others to join us.  We would like to reward you for that.  To invite people to 1) Login in 2) Click on My EnglishSpark 3) Click on invite.  You can import emails from yahoo, gmail, American Online, Plaxo, or Outlook.

4) Referral points - you receive 1% of all points earned by the person you invited, so the more people you invite that sign up, the more points you earn.

5) Reading an article (while logged in) - 2 points

6) Post a comment - 10 points for every accepted comment. Be sure to login in so you can get your points.

7) Submitting a listing (private teacher, worksheet, lesson plan, or website) - 50 points for every accepted listing. For a private teacher listing, while logged in click 'create a listing' under the teachers tab.  For worksheets and lesson plans please click 'a material' under the teachers tab.  For websites please click 'a link' under the teachers tab.

8) Review an item - 20 points for every review submitted about a worksheet, lesson plan, private teacher, or website.  You can sort through and find hundreds of resources in our material directory.

We will also be rewarding points for any great ideas you might have about what to do for the site.  We really want to create a website for teachers by teachers.  Help us make that happen.

Neal and Jason

And now for some legalese:

Hey English Spark user!

We are giving away a $15 Amazon gift card!

You can use it to purchase anything you need or want on the Amazon website.  All you have to do is answer some questions about English Spark.  We need you opinion and advice.  We value your thoughts and would love to hear from you.  So please take the time to answer a few questions and you can win a free gift card.

Click here to take the survey now!

We are introducing a new project here at EnglishSpark. We want to give something back to the community. Because we believe strongly in environmental issues. We want to do our part to help the environment.

Project Green will be a place where teachers can share materials, lesson plans and ideas about environmental issues. Teachers are encouraged to post study tools and lesson plans with a green theme. Materials can be about environmental issues or about nature in general.

We hope students will discover a love for nature. We think if they love nature, they will want to protect it and the world needs our protection. Climate change is very serious. And it is only going to get worse in the coming years. Animals are disappearing daily from the planet. We must do something before it is too late.

Students can learn about environmental issues. They can discuss possible solutions and learn what they can do to help. Knowing English gives them the opportunity to speak with people from all over the world. This will motivate students to new levels and encourage international understanding.

We hope that you will join us in this bold experiment. Contribute today by submitting some materials or donating to one of our causes.

Over the coming weeks, we will be adding and expanding the Project Green section of our website. We are now in the middle of re-designing the site to make it more accessible. After that process, you will be able to contribute and donate easier. But please stop by the website and leave a comment or voice your opinions about the issues.

Thank you for your time. If you have any questions or suggestions, please leave them in the comments below.