photo courtesy of https://darlagdenton.com/2014/01/24/what-the-heck-is-a-twitter-chat/ The whole concept of Twitter chats made me nervous at first. I decided that to start off, I just wanted to observe. Edutopia hosted a chat about letter grades, and the topic was something that interested me. I decided to just hang out and see how everything works. That was a great experience and introduction to the world of Twitter Chats. The pace was pretty fast, but thanks to using Tweet Chat, I was able to pause and slow things down as I needed to. It was also a great way to see the format. Over the course of the past week, I decided to jump in and be a part of the conversation. I participated in two Twitter chats, and I chose to participate in chats that are relevant to my subject area. Both chats were through #2ndaryela. The first chat dealt with utilizing an article of the week while the second chat focused on implementing games and puzzles in the ELA classroom. I loved the fact that both of the chats were smaller and easy to keep up with. Brynn Allison (The Literary Maven) has a website where she posts ahead of time what the chats will be about. I was able to review any articles posted and read the questions, so I could prepare my answers. Having the questions ahead of time enabled me to fully participate in the discussion. The fact that the chats lasted a half hour was a bonus. I hate feeling like I have to be glued to my computer during the evening when it is family time. The first chat I participated in went smoothly. However, the second time I ran into a little problem. I was at home ready to go with my thought out answers. I sent out my warning tweet that I might be bombarding my followers feeds. I moved over to Tweet Chat, typed in my hashtag...and the stream wouldn't load. I frantically kept trying! I switched to my phone and no luck. The chat had started and I got overwhelmed. I couldn't remember the other options to use instead of Tweet Chat, and I didn't feel like I had the time to look it up. My solution was to type in the hashtag and sift through everything that way. From time to time I would go to the page of the host, so I could see which question we were actually on. Even though that was definitely more complicated, I survived. I still came away with some ideas and I was able to contribute to the conversation. After participating in both chats, I was able to walk away with some great resources and some new educators to add to my PLN. All of the participants were extremely helpful and encouraging. They were willing to share ideas and even some resources they had created themselves or found. I started following the hosts of the chats along with some of the participants. It is reassuring to see others educators who are similar to you - those who want to create and implement new and engaging ideas, but maybe they aren't sure how to do it. It was nice to actually feel like I contributed and helped in some way. If you find your self asking the question, "What the heck is a Twitter Chat?" here is a great video to get started.
Through this class I have been able to branch out and make connections with other people from the comfort of my living room. I honestly had no idea of the power of social networking in education. At this point I still have to remind myself to get on Twitter, but every time I do I find something inspiring and helpful. My experience has been great and I am following great educators and organizations. Along with Twitter, Instagram was new to me this semester. I decided a few weeks ago that I would take some time to get familiar with Instagram and the benefits it brings to education. Unfortunately, my experience with Instagram has not been great. I have had my account for two weeks, and just this weekend I received an email from Instagram of changes made to my account and suspicious activity. When I got on my account someone had changed my name and profile picture and had posted an incredibly disgusting and inappropriate video. I have been using social media for years and never really had an issue, but this really bothers me. I'm thankful that I really didn't get too far into posting pictures and sharing anything because this could have potentially caused me a major problem. One negative experience doesn't negate the fact that I have grown as an educator over the last few weeks. I will continue to build my PLN, learn and gather new ideas. Will Richardson mentioned that in order to help our students create and effectively use a PLN , we must create our own. I would definitely say that I am well on my way, and my PLN is stronger now then it was before I took this course. I found a few videos to share that remind us about the benefits of creating a PLN and why having a PLN is so important.
I have been focused on trying to use Twitter and becoming more comfortable with tweeting and dabbling in the world of Twitter chats. This week the reading and sources provided turned our attention to the other social networking sites that are out there to help build our PLN. I already have a Facebook account which I primarily use for my personal use instead of professional, however it is easy for me to understand, having used it since 2005, how you can use it for PD or building your PLN. I am also very familiar with using Pinterest, so I wanted to try something new. Hello, Instagram! My friends use it, and some of my previous students always talked about it, but much like Twitter, I didn't really see the purpose. At this point, I haven't had much time to play on it. I signed up for an account and have been doing some research about ways that teachers utilize Instagram.
Since Instagram is a picture sharing site, I was thinking that would be perfect for displaying pictures of a project my students just started working on today. Each group selected a song that is rich in figurative language, and they are creating posters that show how they can identify figurative language along with imagery, mood, main idea. I also gave them the added task of creating a QR code that is linked to their song. That way when their classmates, teachers or parents are viewing their work they can scan the code and listen to the song. I decided that I wasn't going to teach them how to do it. I let them know that there are resources out there and they could do a little research and problem solving. I teach 6th graders...the panic on some of there faces was priceless. How dare I ask them to do something, but not take them by the hand and show them step by step how to do it? After the initial shock wore off, they jumped right in. I had several kids that wanted to start with that first because they wanted to know how to do it and they saw it as a challenge. I actually had a student email me this evening to let me know she figured it out and she gave me step by step directions of what she did. In the reading this week there was a chart of digital skills that come from using digital tools. The cognitive skills really stuck out to me:multitasking, logical thinking, problem solving, and trial and error learning. These are some of the skills that it seems my students have been lacking. It was nice to see them utilizing these skills when given the task of figuring how to create a QR code for their song. Slowly but surely my PLN is starting to build. I'm encouraged to keep finding information about using social networking sites to connect with other educators and find great ideas to bring into the classroom. Here are a few extra resources I found about using Instagram. 7 Ways Innovative Teachers can use Instagram
