Using Social Media as a Teaching Tool

Teaching Social Media as a tool is imperative in todays day and age.  Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Youtube are all applications that many of our students frequent everyday.  We also hear horrible stories of mistakes teens and adults have made that they can't take back on social media.  A snap of a picture that is sent via text could be detrimental.  Saying something inappropriate on Twitter or Facebook can put you in a lot of hot water or worse....jail.

This is why I teach social media norms and etiquette in my classroom. Do kids make mistakes?  Of course!  I encourage mistakes, because we learn from them.  I want my students to make those mistakes while they are in my class.  An inappropriate comment on someone's blog is a lesson learned in my class and hopefully not repeated.  The mistakes that are made in grade 2 are a lot less harmful than when that student is in high school.

My students see Social Media as a teaching tool.  Twitter is embedded into the daily instruction in my classroom.  As well as posting their learning on their personal blogs or uploading their work to our Youtube Channel.  Our classroom Twitter norms were created with my students to ensure ownership of our norms.

A few weeks ago we were working on writing a persuasive letter.  I wanted to make this an authentic task so as a class, we brainstormed a list of things that we could persuade our principal to buy or let us do.  My students agreed that they wanted to persuade our principal into buying us a bird feeder to put outside our observation window.  My students came up with the idea to post the letters on their blogs and then tweet them directly to our principal on Twitter.  Students tweeted their letters and got responses from not only the principal.  We received a bird feeder and birdseed on behalf of our Director of Education, a bird house that one of our students made and a humming bird feeder from my mom.

One of my student's letters on their blog.  (Check out the response).

I think the above tweet says it all.  The connections being made in my classroom that day was amazing.  Students were discussing how powerful social media can be.  They spoke about how quickly the message got around and how if they would have delivered the letter to the principal's office we would have not received all of this support from other people.  This also sparked a conversation about if you were to post something that was harmful or inappropriate on Twitter, how many people could potentially see it very quickly and how you can't take something back even if you delete the tweet after it has been tweeted.  These conversations help mold my students opinions and work ethic around social media.

Another great example of how social media has a positive impact in my classroom, is when I  recently received this tweet on the weekend from one of my students:

I was so excited to get a tweet on the weekend from a student that on their own, researched about our current inquiry and tweeted it to me!  (Remember, he is in grade 3).  This student isn't using social media to see what Justin Bieber is up to or to ramble on about his weekend.  He is using it in a purposeful way to show his learning.

 After the weekend, my student was all set with two QR codes printed out to share with the class.  Amazing!

Remember mistakes are welcomed in our classrooms and when children make mistakes it creates new learning.  Don't be quick to "shut it down"  when a mistake is made on social media.  Be thankful it was made in a controlled environment where students can learn from their mistakes without it being detrimental down the road.

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Will Dance For Minecraft

As I walked into my classroom this afternoon at the end of lunch, I saw three boys on the carpet at the front of the room dancing and giving each other high fives.  There was also an excited chatter throughout the classroom.  As I went over to ask the boys what all of the excitement was all about, I heard the word, MINECRAFT.  The students had read the learning goal and success criteria for our Science project that I was going to tell them about the following period.  (I was excited that they were reading my anchor charts while they were eating their lunch, who knew?) 

What is it about this game that has young and old, girls and boys so obsessed over?  I have students playing it outside during recess, I have kids in my class that will do ANYTHING just for the chance to play it for 10 minutes on our iPads. (Do you have reluctant writers?  Give them 10 minutes on Minecraft and have them write about their adventure. I guarantee the writers' block will disappear.)   Heck, my 7 year old son sleeps with a stuffed creeper that he has named Creepy and creates things with cardboard cutouts that look like Minecraft pieces.

This past year I have dabbled with Minecraft on our iPads at school.  It took a matter of seconds for my class to notice that Minecraft had been downloaded on our 20 iPads.

Like every other app on our iPads, I wanted their to be a purpose for downloading it. Besides it being entertaining, fun and to be thought of as the "coolest teacher" for downloading it and letting them play Minecraft at school.  Minecraft had to have educational value.  I had to be able to tie it into the curriculum. I did some searching on the Internet, went to a few sessions at conferences about Minecraft, bombarded my son and husband with question and learned about the game.

So far this year, we have incorporated Minecraft into the following:

1. In science, students had to design and build a strong and stable structure over a lava river in Minecraft.
  
2.  To conclude our Early Settlers Inquiry in Social Studies, students were asked to create a replica of a home or town that resembles what they had learned during the unit.

3.  For a literacy component, students were asked to create a replica of our school with a group of 4 other students.  The tricky part was that the students were only allowed to communicate by using the messaging option in Minecraft.  My room is usually pretty noisy and you could hear a pin drop during this activity!

4.  Our current Science Inquiry about Soil that students have to identify and describe the different types of soil.  (I had a couple of students ask if they could do it at home for homework.  I bet I wouldn't have had that question if I asked them to create a diagram on paper.)
Here is a completed soil project:

If you have not used Minecraft in your classroom before, I encourage you to try it.  It is like Christmas morning every time I tell my students that we are going to use Minecraft.  There is dancing, smiling, cheering and lots and lots of learning!   If you are using Minecraft in your classroom, I would love to hear how you are using it.

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Learn Something New Today and Implement It Tomorrow!

I am so excited to let you know about the launch of a new collection of books created by Apple Distinguished Educators.  Last year, I participated in my first ADE Institute, held in Austin Texas.    At the institute, the idea was introduced to us, to write a lesson, or a chapter on something that we felt was "One Best Thing" that we could share with other educators.  

Quoted from the ADE website:

"The One Best Thing is a collection of books, created by Apple Distinguished Educators (ADEs), that demonstrate the use of Apple technologies to transform teaching and learning. Each One Best Thing book shares a unit, a lesson, or a best practice and is designed to help another educator implement a successful practice. It’s a professional learning idea championed by an educator—in word and action—that others can look to for ideas and tips on how to replicate."

There are 102 books that were chosen altogether from approximately 500 submissions.  These books are short so you can read them quickly, (in a night) and be able to implement right away.

There are books about assessment to photography and everything in between.  Here is the direct link for you to check out all the amazing content.

Don't forget to check my book out, on Twitter in the Primary Classroom. I would love to hear your feedback!

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