Social Media

 

 
Over the past few years there has been an explosion of social media in the lives of educators. We use it for our own personalized professional learning, we use it in our classrooms, and in some cases we even use it for fun.

Twitter and Instagram can have huge positive ramifications on our classrooms. One way we used it in elementary school was through classroom accounts; teachers were able to share student work in live time with parents. This gave students the opportunity to show what they were doing with their communities and the world. 

Teachers and students took pictures of their work and handed off the device to their students who could then type the specifics. This serves a few purposes. First, parents are able to share the classroom experience. What amazing power this is–living school with your student. Second, the real-life modeling and slow-release of using social media from kindergarten on is essential in our world. By starting this early on, we as educators are able to show our students how to use social media for good and allow them to begin to build a positive digital footprint.
Being in a new setting, a middle school this year, I look forward to continuing this work and finding even more uses for social media as I work with teachers use modeling and slow release to help our students learn to use it well and build their positive digital footprint.