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A Collection and Reflection of My Growth + How I've Reimagined Digital Tools and Social Media in the Classroom
Social Media in the Classroom?
Social Media in the Classroom?
Social media belongs in the classroom. Maybe that sentence excites you. Maybe it makes you raise your eyebrow. Maybe it makes you want to punch whatever device you are reading this on in an odd, unexplainable rage. As a young, emerging twenty-one year old teacher who has always been engulfed in social media, that sentence makes me beyond excited and hopeful. Growing up I never had the opportunity to combine my love for social media with my love for literature in the classroom. You may like social media, you may despise social media. Frankly, it does not matter at all because I can guarantee you that well over half of your students are consumed by social media. It's where they get their information, share their pictures, communicate with one another, interact with people they may not normally interact with, etc. It is a part of their life. It is unfair to ask students to abandon a large part of their life for eight hours of the day. I do not want my students to have to leave their interests at the door when they enter my room. In my classroom, I want them to be able to explore social media and schooling in a different, digital way.
At the beginning of the semester, I was just beginning to think about social media in the classroom. If you watch the video linked in my Bitmoji classroom, you will hear a new student teacher ramble (seriously... ramble) about the ways she could possibly use social media in the classroom. I knew I wanted to do SOMETHING with social media, but I had no idea how to approach that idea. My thoughts were all over the place and running rampant with a billion different ideas that refused to fully form or stick. I had always assumed that bringing social media into the classroom would be fairly easy to do. I did not realize the constant learning, reevaluating, adjusting, and practicing it would take. So, here is a video of clueless me in my national championship hat (that I designed) rambling about ideas I did not yet know what to do with.
Turning Ideas Into Lessons
Turning Ideas Into Lessons
If you actually watched that video then you heard me mention how badly I wanted to do a social media posts lesson to help with characterization. Guess what? I got to do it! The students absolutely loved being allowed to use their own language for this assignment. When I read the directions to them, they were surprised and stoked when the word "BeReal" came out of my mouth. It was thrilling to watch their excitement unfold over a lesson I created. A student teacher who mumbled this idea during a CR Youtube video learned how to put the idea into action... and it worked! I felt very proud of myself that day. ☺
Comparing this Bitmoji classroom to the one I did at the beginning of the year is... astonishing. Not only did I learn how to better implement social media into my classroom for my students, but I learned how to do it as a student as well! I truly did not realize how much growth I had in this class until this moment. My first video about social media in the classroom was all over the place. Through reading different sources, watching videos, exploring tools, and playing around with digital tools in the classroom, I have learned and grown tremendously. And I still am! I guess as long as I am a teacher and new tools and social media platforms emerge, I will continuously be learning and growing. It is our duty as teachers to create a classroom environment that our students can comfortably learn, thrive, and explore in. How can they do that without us providing them with different ways to learn, thrive, and explore? This semester, I have learned how important it is to embrace new, digital tools in the classroom. Digital tools and social media in the classroom push against the rigid, placid, and unchanging ways of traditional schooling. It expands our student's minds. It taps into their interests. It connects them with others. It empowers them.
How I Would Implement Social Media Into My Classroom
How I Would Implement Social Media Into My Classroom
"Teacher"gram
"Teacher"gram
As of right now, I do not avidly use my "teacher" gram. Let me rephrase that, I do not avidly POST on my teachergram. I do however follow some incredible teachers that provide tips, resources, laughs, insight, and simple moments from their life. I have found great accounts that have helped me as a future educator. I currently have three visions for how I will use Instagram in my classroom:
In my classroom, I want this Instagram (the one linked at the bottom of each page) to be a place where I share moments of my life that my students may not get to see. My interests, my family, my pets, my life. I want to get rid of the narrative that teachers have no life outside of the classroom. I want my students to view me as, oh I don't know, a human. Wild thought... I know! I feel like allowing my students to see me outside of the four walls they are used to, will build trust and respect in the classroom.
I want a classroom account. An account where I post updates about assignments, student work (with their approval), or whatever else the classroom deems necessary. I will be the only one in charge of the account because although it seems fair and nice to allow the classroom to have control of a literal classroom account... I know that some students would abuse it.
At the beginning of the school year, each of my students will create a Gmail account (if this is approved by their parents). With this new account, they will create their social media for my classroom. Each of them will have an Instagram account that they will use to interact with one another, make posts based on assignments, and stay updated with our class account.
Goodreads
Goodreads
I started using Goodreads over the summer and let me tell you. I cannot get enough. If you read, literally anything ever, you NEED Goodreads! I use Goodreads to read reviews, categorize books by my different needs, add books I want to read to my list, and to push myself more when it comes to reading with the end of the year goal that Goodreads has.
I want my students to have a Goodreads account because I feel like there are so many different things they can do with it. As I am typing this I am coming up with so many more ideas. They can do reviews of each of the books we read and that can help me asses whether or not I want to teach said book next year. I could have them set a Goodreads goal and if they accomplish it by the end of the semester I could reward them in some way. Maybe a Goodreads party? Bonus points? I know that some of my students would not enjoy this platform, but my book-loving kids who love to geek out over books would absolutely eat this up!
TikTok
TikTok
For some reason incomprehensible to me, people, specifically older people, love to hate this social media app. TikTok is arguably the most used app among young people today. It is where they can go to laugh, dance, see/create relatable content, learn new information, and become more globally aware due to the wide use of the app around the world. I use TikTok and I love it, probably a little ~too~ much. I will admit that this was the one app I did not want to have to "private" when I started student teaching. I love creating content and sometimes that content is for people my age. I won't lie it is frustrating that I cannot post what I want because of my role as a teacher. As a way to combat that frustration and to continue making content though, I want my classroom to use TikTok.
The TikTok I have linked on this website is brand new. Like I made it 30 minutes ago brand new. I plan on using it once I have my own classroom. On my personal TikTok, I follow soooo many teachers. I have saved video collections of teacher outfits, classroom design ideas, teaching ideas, student teaching tips, first-year teacher tips, funny teacher videos, etc. It has provided me with so many ideas that I would not have thought of on my own.
In my classroom, I am not yet sure how I would use TikTok. I know that I would do "BookTok" reviews and possibly have my students do that as well. I feel like TikTok would be relatively easy/fun to implement into units though. It is exciting to think that I could use this app in my own classroom!
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