Next week, we will read the chapter titled "Social Media and Students."
Monday, June 22, 2015
Pure Genius Chapter 5: Social Media and Teachers
This week we are reading about teachers' use of social media. How are you all using social media? To share what your students are doing? To ask questions of your PLN? To read about what other educators are doing and get ideas to use in your classroom? Also, what is your preferred social media tool and why? And if you're not utilizing social media, are you seeing reasons why you should jump in and try it?
Next week, we will read the chapter titled "Social Media and Students."
Next week, we will read the chapter titled "Social Media and Students."
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I really haven't started to use social media a lot for professional use. All the summer books discussions bring me back to Twitter. I set up a Twitter account and have given it several tries, but I have not discovered a good way to use it yet.
ReplyDeleteIn this chapter, I loved the idea of using Instagram to share the photos the students picked out after reading the poem. I would have really enjoyed as a student to give a visual representation of my interpretation of a poem. Next year, I want to have a public platform to share my students polar art work. I think I will check out Instagram. I have never used it.
I do belong to several online learning communitites where I can go and ask questions and share ideas. I have gotten some great ideas from other teachers. I don't go to these communities as often as I should. Finding time is always an issue. I also want to start sharing some of my ideas. I often get ideas, but have been reluctant to put my ideas out there.
I love Pinterest. I use it all the time for personal use, but recently started to make some boards for school. There is a wealth of information available on this site. Just last night I started following a Calculus board and have gained two new ideas to try next year.
YouTube is another one of my favorite tools. I have my own channel for my math videos I created and some followers (who are not my students!).
In YouTube can type in any subject and find a "how-to" video. I have also learned how to do many tasks from watching a YouTube video.
My goal for social media is to use it more often and share some of my ideas instead of just getting ideas from others.
I use Facebook mostly for personal connections. I don't post much, but I scroll through the site daily and like/comment occasionally. I post pictures and updates on our school Facebook page because parents, community members, and alumni follow our page and seem to enjoy the information.
ReplyDeleteI regularly use Twitter for collaboration and professional development. I have participated in Twitter chats, which I found extremely beneficial, but slightly overwhelming. As an educator, I believe Twitter is the best tool out there right now. A few of our classes have Twitter accounts that the students follow, then retweet and favorite various tweets.
I access Pinterest on occasion to look for new ideas. I rarely pin items and have never posted anything on Pinterest. I know some of our classes (especially FACS) love using Pinterest for various projects and activities.
I have never used Instagram, but it's on my list of new things to try. I am increasingly interested and can see its usefulness in school.
Overall, I believe social media is essential for current educators. Hopefully, we can demonstrate acceptable, beneficial use to our students and parents as well.
I know this is late notice, but there's a Twitter chat with Don Wettrick at 7pm tonight. #PGchat #puregeniusbook
DeleteIt never ceases to amaze me how I can keep personally connected with the lives of people I seldom see (former students, distant relatives, etc) all by using FaceBook. I try to use this same aspect to my advantage by creating FaceBook pages for my classroom and FFA Chapter.
ReplyDeleteThese pages not only help keep students/FFA members in the loop, but they also keep the community/parents up-to-date with what is going on and what students. are doing. Additionally it creates a visual journal of activities that occurred throughout the school year, which assists with RISE and accountability.
For the class associated with our Community Calf Project, we had a Facebook group. I would add posts and pictures for each activity and students were required to post their experiences and thoughts. This weekly activity was part of their grade. The expectation was for the posts to be thoughtful/reflective and grammatically correct, This was challenging at first as the students were use to typing like a text message (no capitalizations, infrequent pronouns, etc)
Twitter is still very foreign ground for me. After reading this chapter, I fully intend to create a Twitter account and become more savvy.
I am looking forward to the One-to-One and using Social Media. I will be interested in seeing if we unblock these sites for educational purposes. Has anyone heard if we will? Keri, what is Scottsburg's policy?
Facebook/Twitter/Pinterest is not blocked on our faculty devices. It is blocked on students' devices, but teachers can use tools (such as Webzones) to allow students to access various social media sites during a specified time.
DeleteI created a facebook group for my classes a couple of years ago. Many students were reluctant to use the page. Last year, I didn't attempt to update or get the students to use the page but I think for the upcoming year this is a page I am going to try to make useful.
ReplyDeleteI have tried Twitter several times. I just do not enjoy the format of twitter.
I have used youtube many times in all my classes. I have found many ideas and useful videos to share with students.
I continue to search out the best places to get ideas for classes online. I often find lesson ideas but have not found any online communities in which to interact to get/share ideas.
I have both a twitter and Facebook account for private use. I always wanted to do a school account but did not what I could share to the community from the students. My students did some awesome projects and I would have loved to share them. If I could learn what I am allowed to share with the community then I would create one for my class.
ReplyDeleteI used YouTube a lot this year. The students loved the Crash Course of history videos that we watched. They are funny, short and to the point and have great information. I have heard of Khan Academy and will look into them again for more videos to implement into my classroom.
Robert, you can always post student project pics on the school website. Last year, Betty Telfer was in charge of it...this year, I assume that Penny Mahoney will be taking on the duties. Our new principal, Jason Watson, is very tech savvy and I'm sure he will be able to help you post things this year. (We have the website, Facebook and Twitter pages for the school).
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