So Many Forms of Social Media and Uses for Diverse Learners

There are so many forms of social media that we can use for fun and to learn!  We can also share what we have created or share great ideas that others have created.  Today I am sharing four different types of social media and ways that teachers can use them, specifically when working with diverse students.  Overall, all of these social media forms have a wide variety of information and when we do project based learning that is a great way to differentiate based upon the student's interests.  Additionally, students on any level can search and look for information as needed.  With any of these sites when students post it will give them chances to practice writing and they are sharing their writing with others.  For ELL students the more practice they have with English the more it will help them advance those skills.

In general social media gives a gifted student an opportunity to expand their sources of information(just like with any other student.)  This can be a great opportunity to really challenge them when communicating with others who will really challenge them, because they aren’t just discussing with their classroom teacher and classmates, but additional people who can challenge them.

Here are some link I found on how to use social media to help ELL students.

7 Ways to Use Social Media in the ESL Classroom

Facebook

I distinctly remember my sophomore year of college one of my best friends introduced me to this thing on the internet called Facebook.  Many of her friends at her school had it and I thought it was just a thing for her school  At the time it was only a college thing and you had to have a college email address in order to use it.  I was not very excited about this new thing, but my friend insisted.  Little did I know that it would be such an important way for me to connect with others more than ten years later.  Prior to this course I often came across articles shared by others or had discussions with some on educational  matters.  I think Facebook is a tool that I as an educator have already connected with many other teachers.  However, on Facebook I am often connecting with teachers I taught at in previous schools.  Facebook is great because it gives face to those who they are talking too.  As a science teacher I think it is great for students to see the diversity of people are involved in the sciences, all different colors and both genders.  Here are additional ways to use Facebook in Education.

100 Ways To Use Facebook in Education

Instagram

I already have an Instagram account and have not used it even once.  However, during the school year my students liked to use Instagram in the classroom at random times.  When I teach physics the students have several engineering projects.  I could have students post their complete project on Instagram.  The engineering projects by nature of being projects allow for students of diverse abilities to participate.  All different levels of projects are turned in based upon the student's’ ability level.

Pinterest

I love pinterest!  Again it was a social media that I was apprehensive to use when it was first introduced to me.  However, one of my friends said I must use it because there are so many ideas for kids!  I spent hours upon hours on Pinterest while I was pregnant looking for suggestions and ideas for the baby.  I started searching on Pinterest for ideas for Physics and Math and there are lots of ideas!  Pinterest is great because a picture pops up to represent the link and you can simply pin it.  I could share my pins with my students.  This would be a great way to differentiate for the different age levels.  For example, with the younger grades the teacher could already have pins available for their students.  The older students could dig through Pinterest himself to find the information that they are seeking.  Many of the STEM ideas I found are for the elementary level with less for the upper levels, but there are still tons of ideas!    Many of those ideas could be adopted for older level as well.  I could have students create Pins to share their engineering projects.  They can create instructions for how to build their project, explain how it works and share pictures and upload that information to Pinterest to share with others.

37 Ways Teachers Should Use Pinterest

Using Pinterest for Education

Google Plus

Google Plus seems like an attempt to me to be just like Facebook.  It is great to have multiple different ways to share information, but it is not completely clear to me what the difference is between Facebook and Google Plus.  I like that there are communities in which you can discuss with others, but again that is very similar to Facebook.  Many people share the same information on multiple different sites.  From playing around with Google Plus it does appear that I can make  different circles and break it up into family, friends, work, and so on.  Which that would be nice, but it appears more are on Facebook at this time than Google Plus.  As far as differentiating it could be used in a very similar manner as the other forms of social media above.

Well, that's it for today!  I think I got a bit carried away but there are so many forms of social media and different ways to use each!

PLN in My Math and Physics Classroom

This school year my ten year old son came home from school very excited to find his phone so he could answer the question his teacher had posted after career day.  They had just begun using Google Classroom at that point and he loved the idea that he could communicate with his teacher and friends outside of the school day.  It was not a formal assignment just optional, but he was very excited to share his thoughts and read what others had posted.  One great advantage of using PLNs in the classroom is that learning can continue even outside the school in an informal setting.  Using PLNs shows students that learning takes place all the time and not just in the classroom.  Additionally, it gives students more tools to find needed information.  For example, my husband has been learning how to keep up a pool.  He has been learning the pump systems, chemicals and other pool care.  He has several forums that he frequents in order to find that information(really he does that for any thing he is trying to learn from putting up crown molding to finding the best way to sand popcorn ceilings!)  If our students can learn this skill of how to connect with other people(not just people they know in the real world) they can learn just about anything!  What a great advantage to teaching PLNs in our classrooms!

However, on the other hand having PLNs in our classrooms can create some additional issues.  One issue is online bullying.  If a student has had issues with a bully in their classroom that bully can essentially just follow them home.  The teacher needs to follow the classes PLNs closely to insure that classroom discussion board rules are being followed.  It can become difficult as the teacher to keep up with multiple discussion boards.  I was out for a period of time during the school yer and I tried to use discussion boards regularly, however it was difficult because I had six different discussions going, one for each section of a class.  However, as I think about that right now I could just create one per course and have just a couple to keep up with.

For the last four years I have taught physics which has given me many ways in which I was able to incorporate technology into my classroom.  The past semester I found even more ways to incorporate technology using what I had learned from the Masters in Educational Technology Program.  This upcoming school year I am switching to mathematics with one physics course.  I am concerned that I will not be able to incorporate technology to the same level as I did with Physics, so I am focusing my searches on ways to use technology for my math classes.  With physics I feel like I would be completely up for running with incorporating PLN into my classes, but I am much more nervous about using it with math.

For my physics classes last year I tried having my students daily logging onto Schoology and solving a problem for their bellwork.  Each student had to post their solution to the discussion board.  After students posted they could see what each other posted.  However, this was often difficult because it took time for my students to open their computers, log onto Schoology and post on the discussion board.  I think I could use Twitter by posting their question there and they can Tweet their solutions.  I could additionally have students create similar problems and post to Twitter and have classmates answer.  One advantage of using Twitter would be it would be quick for students to access their phones and complete their bellwork.  I think this is a way in which I can slowly incorporate PLN using some methods that I have already used, just expanding on it.  I came across one elementary classroom that has been using Twitter to post additional practice questions to each other which gave me this idea.  Here is the link to the teacher's blog Mrs. Wideen's Blog.
Here are some additional resources I found for using Twitter in the math classroom;  Math Insider, Mr. Honner Math Appreciation, and Math Problems on Twitter.

Another way I can slowly incorporate PLNs into my Physics classroom is give as part of a research project communicating with experts in that particular field.  I could have one of their required resources discussing with someone online through one of the various tools available.  As I continue to research I am finding even more ways of how I can use PLNs in my classroom.  As I contniue to learn through my PLN I will continue to find ways to turn my classroom into using PLNs.

The great benefit of creating a PLN is that a student has multiple people to learn from.  One person can give an excellent explanation which makes perfect sense to one person and makes no sense to another person.  A PLN gives one the opportunity to learn from multiple people which benefits all students.  Additionally, some students may need more help with a given area and a PLN allows them to hear information at the appropriate level.  A gifted student could be challenged by having the opportunity to dig deeper into a particular subject.

I'm looking forward to continuing to build my PLN and teaching my students to create their own PLN so that they can be life long learners!

Richardson, W., & Mancabelli, R. (2011). Personal learning networks: Using the power of connections to transform education. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.

Twitter...

Here is my second blog post and I think I'm slowly starting to like blogging.  I am beginning to see how multiple pieces of social media can interact together to help me learn and share with other teachers. The funny thing is I thought I was up on social media before this class..

I am a bit of a neat freak and want everything neat and orderly.  So the idea of having hashtags to organize and categorize information is great!  Often I would just Google something to try to find information, but then have to read through all that information to get what I want. However,  the benefit with Twitter is I can search for a hashtag.   I can post a question to my social network and see what they think.  It’s helpful to search on Twitter for a particular topic and see what others are saying in a short explanation and if I want more information I can dig deeper.  Another great benefit is I can do this from my phone.  I can multi task easily with using my phone and gather information that I can use to learn.

As I was reading through chapter 2, I was really struggling with some ideas of how I can incorporate Twitter into my AP Physics and my math classes.  The text has excellent suggestions of having a backchannel where students could discuss and interact with each other throughout the lesson, but I was struggling with how I could incorporate this into my classes.  One area I would like to really encourage my students is to find multiple ways of how to solve the same problem. My idea is to have students solve a problem, take a picture of their solution and then post it to a back-channel or to Twitter. Then, I would have students look back at how other students answered and see how many of them answered similarly or how many of them had different Solutions.  It would be great for students to see the creativity of their classmates in solving problems and expanding their repertoire of ways to solve a problem.   I think it would be a great lesson to show students how many different ways there are to solve the same problem.

The textbook also explained how to use Twitter to reach out and connect to students’ homes as well as remind students about assignments. I really struggle with using Twitter to remind students about assignments because I believe students should be taking the initiative to become organized.  I teach juniors and seniors and an important skill for their success is keeping up with due dates and assignments.  However I could also see the great benefit of posting reminders so that both the student and the parents see what is occurring within my classroom.  I know of blended families that have really struggled with keeping up with what was going on in their elementary child’s classroom.  Papers would get sent home, but one parent would receive the information and not share.  The parent did not blame or fault the school, a lot of the struggle was with the child being part time in two homes.  However I think it would have made it much easier on that family to have more electronic communication with the school and teacher in the form of Twitter or something similar.  I know many students are in this sort of situation and using Twitter or other means of communication would be extremely helpful.

I’m looking forward to connecting to other teachers throughout the US and the world on Twitter.  It will be beneficial to me to learn from them and I’m also looking forward to sharing what I have used in my classroom.  The crazy thing is I will be starting my tenth year in the classroom this year!  I have recently realized I have a good of amount of experience and I have a lot of ideas that I can share with other teachers and Twitter gives me an opportunity to do so.

My Twitter user name: Michellelynnmlb

Richardson, W., & Mancabelli, R. (2011). Personal learning networks: Using the power of connections to transform education. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.

My First Blog Post!

I love to learn (probably why I became a teacher)!  I loved school as a kid.  I wanted to read and learn as much as I possibly could.  I did not like the time it took to do homework or a project, but I was always interested and enjoyed learning.  As an adult, I still love to learn again not always fond of the time that it takes.  Using technology to create personal learning networks has multiple perks including allowing for a plethora of information all in a convenient device.  

I have been frustrated with professional development over the years because it always seems to be geared toward other areas.  Usually once a year I have great professional development for physics where I go to an AP Physics workshop and the rest of the year is general.  There is additionally some great professional development in St. Louis for physics teachers, but it is usually on Saturdays.  Trying to add something else into my week is not easy so it rarely happens that I am able to go to the Saturday physics workshop.  A handful ideas from the general professional development may be useful in my classroom, but it always seemed limited.  Yes, I look for resources online and used a discussion board occasionally, but that has been about it.  There are so many more tools  I could learn so much about teaching and teaching in my particular area once I create a personal learning network.  This year I am teaching a new physics course and I could get so many ideas if I reach out to other educators and tell them the ideas that I have as well.  It is amazing to think that here this whole time I have had this wonderful tool that I could have been using to connect with other teachers and have been using it on a limited basis.  Additionally, I can learn anytime or anywhere.  I can connect with my learning network while sitting at my son’s swim practice or while I am working out on the elliptical.  It is amazing how much we can now just do on our cell phones and I can use it to squeeze in learning at free moments throughout the day.

Additionally, I need to give my students the tools to learn just like I am gaining tools to learn.  I can teach my students how to network so that they can learn whatever they are wanting or needing to learn as well.  “We need, first to take charge of our own learning, and next, help others take charge of their own learning” (as cited in Richardson, Mancabelli 2011, Kindle Edition).

Students are now taking on themselves to learn from the internet, they often don’t realize they are learning.  The text discussed that however at school we tell them what to learn and how to learn it.  We often don’t let them just use the tools on the web to learn what they desire to learn.  Kids can use the net to learn how to play an instrument or how to build something, pretty much whatever they desire.  We need to teach them to use those same tools can be used in multiple areas.  

As I was reading I didn’t realize that there are already tools that I am using to learn and I don’t think about it that way.  I often use Facebook to read articles about various things.  I have used Pinterest to get suggestions from other parents.  I could use both of these sites to give me ideas about teaching and learn from others at these locations.  One advantage to following others is that they have deciphered through various articles and post what they think is best.  There is so much to read on the internet that this allows the information you received to be narrowed down.

Richardson, W., & Mancabelli, R. (2011). Personal learning networks: Using the power of connections to transform education. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.