There are two social media tools I find useful and practical:
1. Twitter
Twitter is a fabulous tool for educators. I led a tour of some excellent North Island schools, and one of the things we discovered and fell in love with, was 'The Daily Five' reading programme. This programme was developed by “The Sisters,” Gail Boushey and Joan Moser . They are passionate educators who have collaborated throughout their careers with a single vision in mind: to find a replicable, reliable way to teach children how to be independent lifelong learners, starting in their earliest years.
The two Sisters are the authors of the best-selling books 'The Daily 5: Fostering Literacy Independence in the Elementary Grades (Boushey, G., & Moser, J. (2006). The daily 5: Fostering literacy independence in the elementary grades. Stenhouse Publishers.)'; and 'The CAFE Book: Engaging All Students in Daily Literacy Assessment & Instruction' (Boushey, G., & Moser, J. (2009). The café book: Engaging all students in daily literacy assessment & instruction. Stenhouse Publishers); more than a dozen professional development DVDs; and many, many articles available on this website - https://www.thedailycafe.com.
On our return, we had a number of staff who were excited and enthusiastic and eager to implement this programme. One young teacher, Alice, decided to put out a Tweet, asking if anyone was interested in meeting and sharing ideas - Hashtag #DailyFive.
She received an unexpectedly enthusiastic response. Ideas were being shared, tips passed on and successes celebrated. She then tweeted a venue to meet at in the holidays and waited to see what I happened. I sat in another booth as support person in the background. Before long a group of teachers, all previously unknown to each other, were gathered together over coffee, sharing experiences, ideas, innovations and successes. They motivated each other to go further and deeper and they went on to meet every holidays and to regularly visit each others schools/classrooms.
Alice is currently at Springs Junction school in Canterbury, and continues to do wonderful things with The Daily Five reading programme, but her impetus and the support that kept her on track, came from Twitter.
Twitter then by its use of hashtags, allows teachers to find others with a common interest and/or need. This aspect of it, as exemplified in my account above, makes it exceptionally valuable.
Instead of looking for conferences and courses that fit my need, I can find like minded colleagues who I can connect with at a time and place that best suits me, or just digitally, which means at any and all times. This makes learning immediate - any time, anywhere and with anyone.
2. Facebook
Facebook is a fabulous tool for engaging parents and our wider community. When I started at my current school, I decided I could learn from my earlier experiences as a principal of five previous schools, and focus on relationships, relationships, relationships (as the whakatauki recommends...
He aha te mea nui o te ao
What is the most important thing in the world?
He tangata, he tangata, he tangata
It is the people, it is the people, it is the people
Maori proverb
http://www.hetangata.com/what-he-tangata-about
One of my core tools to achieve this was a daily Facebook post. This was quite a challenge - over 200 posts a year (since some days had more than one), every day for two years. The feedback though showed it to be well worth it.
My average viewership per day ranged from 500 to 1000 visitors. My most popular single post had over 17,000 visits, over 850 Likes and over 150 comments. Were it not for a cyclone in the Pacific, it would have led to a story on 'Campbell Live.'
Parents feel connected, supported and very encouraged. Facebook has been a vehicle to communicate our school culture of
Whanaungatanga - Familiness
Turangawaewae - a standing place for all
Manaakitanga - being a blessing to others
Matauranga - seeking knowledge, learning, growing and succeeding.
We shared with our parents about
being a "Bucket-Filling" school - http://www.bucketfillers101.com.
Restorative justice - http://www.restorativeschools.org.nz/networks
Pay It Forward - http://projectpayitforward.org
Using this tool to share our culture, values, programmes and principles, especially when accompanied by photos of children demonstrating these in action, has been particularly positive and productive.
The third tool is beyond useful and practical - it is revolutionary, a paradigm shifting, watershed creating, foundation of the future tool:
3. Seesaw
I have written at length about Seesaw already as part of my Mindlab assignments. This Electronic Learning Journal is taking my community by storm.
In three weeks our 25 teachers have posted and shared 3520 new learning samples.
In the last five days there were
1100 parent connections made to learning examples
770 new Likes recorded by parents
230 feedback comments made by parents
I would challenge any school not using Seesaw (or a similar programme) to be able to demonstrate similar connections with their parent community, focused on learning.