Using Social Networking for Teaching and Learning

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4th Grade ELA Social Media Projects! by kaydentague

I enjoyed this assignment because I have been considering using social media in my classroom. I have been having a hard time doing it because I feel like there is such a thin line with integrating social media in the classroom. I liked this assignment because I was able to find safe, simple and fun ways to keep my students engaged and use real world connections/applications that students are using on a daily basis anyway. I like the idea of creating a community inside and outside of the classroom through social media.

When researching I found 12 resources that shared different educational projects and/or activities that use social media successfully. I mainly focused on activities that could be used for 4th-grade ELA. My key learning with using social media and social networks in the classroom is to keep it professional. One teacher gave 3 tips that I loved. She said to make it private, keep it appropriate, and to not follow students back. She focused on making social media an educational opportunity, not to police your students. I think it really is important to stay focused on why you are using social media and to keep it educational only. It can be fun and engaging, as long as it stays meaningful and purposeful.

Some ideas that I would love to implement in my class this upcoming year is using Twitter and Instagram, having a classroom Facebook page, and connecting with other classes through those social media channels. Here are a few activities I liked using Twitter and Instagram:

Twitter:

-Ms. Lireman's first grade classroom used Twitter for multiple educational purposes. She used it to tweet out math problems and questions, to reach out to a children's author (so cool! The author even tweeted back), and practiced tweeting out in character's voices.

-Create a story through Twitter as a class. Students are assigned numbers and have to complete the story based on their number, with only 140 characters. Teacher compiles all tweets and shares the story.

-Use Twitter Chat for class readings, events, or topics. Ask questions, start conversations, or share favorite moments.

-Hashtag Challenge: have students share thoughts, quotes, or pictures related to what you're currently learning in class. Attach with a specific hashtag.

Instagram:

-Mrs. Thompson's fifth grade class used Instagram for learning through posting pictures and asking questions. This started conversations with her students. She also used Instagram for encouragement and reminders.

-Recreate a famous piece of art.

-Re-enact a moment in history by modeling a photo.

-Ask students to act as a photojournalists at a school function.

-Make a scientific record of a classroom experiment.

-Photo Campaign: students post photos related to what you are studying, using a specific hashtag for all to see.

Those are just a few activities that I would like to try, another one I would really love to do is connect with another class through social media. One article shared that two 3rd Grade teachers connected through Twitter and had their students participate in the "Monster Project". The students from each class were partnered up with another student in the other state. They had to draw a monster and write a descriptive writing describing their monster, then have their partner draw their monster. They shared their monsters on Skype to see if the monsters matched up. I think that is such a great way to use technology and social networking while working on writing. This last year I tried to connect with another teacher for Global Read Aloud and had my class so excited, but the teacher I partnered up with ended up not working out. I was super bummed for my kids and it was too late to find another teacher to connect with. I feel like real life connections really keep kids engaged and motivated. I am thrilled and looking foward to using social networking in my classroom for teaching and learning this upcoming year.