Teachers and Social Media

This past week while reviewing articles for the Online Learning Community assignment, I stumbled across an interesting one, titled, Have You Googled Your Teacher Lately? Teachers' Use of Social Networking Sites. It described an instance in a preservice teacher course where one student posted his MySpace page (this article is from 2008) as a website he could teach with in the future. To the professors horror this website displayed graphic images of a bloody hand and an icon of a wrist with a dotted line labeled "cut here". After this incident, the instructor realized a conversation with the whole class about social media should be made.

First of all, this is shocking to me that someone in a teacher preparation program would even think to show this to a professor or classmates. Its unfortunate but sometimes it feels like as teachers we have to be even more cautious as to what we put online, because if parents see something they don't like, then its all downhill from there.

Going through my teacher preparation courses in undergrad, I received this talk. As I was going through Facebook was really popular and Instagram was just starting to gain momentum, so the professor talked about what should not be posted on Facebook or any other social media site, such as photos from parties. He also suggested we put social media account on private, which I immediately did.

Today I am still very cautious as to what I put on Facebook because I have more professional contacts on that site. Instagram, however, I sensor a little less due to the fact I only have friends and people I trust as followers. I'm sure that students (and parents!) still try to look me up to see if my profile is accessible, so I try to make my profile picture appropriate for a teacher as well. I also have changed my Instagram handle so it does not resemble my full name to make it less easier for students to find. My facebook and twitter on the other hand, have my full name due to the fact that I use those often for my own schooling.

Then I began to think about the issue of having students or former students on social media accounts. When I first began to intern I was in a high school classroom and immediately I had my students trying to follow me. My mentor teacher had to step in and address every class and have a conversation with them about how it is not appropriate to follow teachers on social media. I know some teachers absolutely refuse to ever have students on social media, and others say the students have to wait until they graduate. I do not know my stance on the issue yet since I currently teach middle school students and they haven't tried to add me yet.

What is everyone's opinions on social media accounts for teachers? Should we limit ourselves on these sites because of our profession?

Minecraft Education Edition Middle School Project

Before starting this project in Ancient World History Students will be introduced to how civilizations came to be in Mesopotamia. They will be introduced to the 6 characteristics of every civilization, GRAPES, an acronym from a source I found on Pinterest.  

 

Once the students are familiar with the chapter vocabulary and how to recognize the 6 characteristics, it's time to introduce the introduce the Minecraft project!

 Create your own civilization project has four (4) components:

1.     Rough drafts (60 points)

2.     Participation in class (40 points)

3.     GRAPES Final Write Up (50 points)

4.     Minecraft Portfolio (50 points)

Rough Drafts.

Students will be required to write a rough draft for each of the 6 characteristics of a civilization. A rough draft will be assigned for homework and must address the guiding questions for that characteristic. If they do not turn in a rough draft that has been assigned for homework they will not get to begin construction on Minecraft for that day.

Participation in Class.

Students will spend approximately 10 days in class working on building their civilizations on Minecraft: education edition. To receive full credit in this category the student must be actively working on building their civilization and working well with others inside the digital word. Points will be taken away for the destruction of others’ civilization, off task building, and playing Minecraft in other classes.

GRAPES Final Write Up.

The students will edit and revise their rough drafts to create a final write up describing their civilization and how it meets the 6 characteristics. They should have one (1) paragraph per characteristic adequately answering the guiding questions.

Minecraft Portfolio.

As the students go through building their civilizations they will take photos using the camera tool on Minecraft. The photos should be supporting evidence of the 6 characteristics of their own civilization. The photos must be in order (GRAPES) and accurately labeled.

Submission.

Submissions for this project will be done through OneNote in the “Create your Own Civilization” tab. There will be one page for each part; Rough Drafts, Final Draft, and Portfolio.

Rubric for Final Project

Feel free to adapt to fit the needs of your students! 

*Adapted from "Learning first, Technology Second" by Liz Kolb (2017). 

How I Use Pinterest As A Teacher

In a previous post I raved about how much I enjoy using Pinterest for traveling, cooking, and work. Since there was much interest around this tool I decided I would write more about how Pinterest is a great tool for educators.

I have two Pinterest Boards dedicated to work and teaching the first one "6th Grade World History" contains pins that pertains specifically to World History activities and other age appropriate activities for my current teaching position.  The other board titled "Teach it" contains pins that are geared towards classroom management, organizational ideas, inspirational quotes, poster ideas, and other information that I could use with any class or grade. Pinterest recently added a feature where you can divide your boards into sections and this summer I went through and put pins and ideas that I would like to print and hang up in my classroom in a "Print/Laminate" section so I could easily access those pictures when it came time to print.

Most of the time I will just be scrolling through Pinterest on my mobile app and come across ideas for lesson plans or classroom procedures and will come back to them at a later time. I more frequently scroll for inspiration during the summer months to help me get some fresh ideas for the upcoming school year. Some things that I come across I will pin because I know they will be helpful on a certain unit or project that I do with my students during the school year. In fact I stumbled across one pin last summer and it inspired my whole curriculum for the upcoming school year!

If I am having a hard time coming up with fun ideas while lesson planning during the school year I will log onto Pinterest and search for that specific topic. This will get my creative juices following even if I do not find anything that fits my learning goal exactly. Most links will take me to Teachers Pay Teachers or other popular teaching blogs.

This summer was my first time working our school's Intro to Middle School summer camp and since I could make my own curriculum, I turned immediately to Pinterest, for some ideas on what I wanted to do. I found crafts and team building games that I used to create the summer camp curriculum!

Pinterest is a great tool for teachers to find inspiration on everything from lesson plans to fun word searches! I would recommend creating a board and pinning ideas for when you need them!

Spreading Education through OCW

I was pleasantly surprised after reading an article this week on Open Course Ware from Universities such as MIT. I had no idea that Universities were actually sharing their courses for free with the public. I was even more shocked that there were faculty willing to share their materials.

MIT states that “their goal is to educate students… that will best serve the nation and the world in the 21^st century”(see http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Global/AboutOCW/our-story.htm).  The idea is to end educational poverty and provide those that want with an education.  

I think this is a great idea since it provides education to those who may not be able to afford it, or those who enjoy learning and do not necessarily want to go back to school. While this is not a replacement for post-secondary degrees, it is still beneficial. It provides more interest in research and other topics, generates interest in the University for prospective students, and can reach people all over the globe.

After reading the goals of OCW, a quote by Nelson Mandela popped into my mind, “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world”. Even though there are some challenges when it comes to OCW, such as the struggle for Universities to get publishers to grant permission to share their materials online for free and funding these sites, I still believe that OCW is an amazing tool that can provide education to those would want it around the world.   

Diigo Idea for Middle School Students

After exploring through curation tools and reading an article about how Diigo was used with university students I am thinking this would be a great tool to use in the secondary classroom!

In my current position my students participate in the National History Day history fair. I enjoy facilitating this project with my students since they can choose their historical topic as long as it fits with the yearly theme, and they are introduced to historical research. This project teaches students research skills such as identifying primary sources, analyzing the validity of websites, and proper MLA formatting.

When brainstorming how to use Diigo in my classroom, I want to use it with the whole class, as described in the case study done by Professor Dennen, to introduce historical research and determining validity of websites. I think this would be a great way for the whole class to collaborate online before they start to work on their own projects. 

During this project, I allow my students to either work individually or in pairs. Once the project begins I would suggest using Diigo to bookmark and annotate their sources. This way partners can see what each has found and I can keep an eye on their research just in case I would need to intervene. In the past I haven’t been able to catch unreliable sources until it was too late when students submitted their works cited page, so I’m hoping this tool will prevent this.

I’m super excited to try out this tool with my students this coming year, wish me luck!