Pinsperation, Symbaloo, and Socializing

I would love to tell you some humorous technology story, but I don't have one this week.  I made it through my first week of "no technology in the classroom"  MAP week and only had slight withdrawal symptoms.  I had a headache each day, the shakes, a little wooziness.  Okay, I might be exaggerating a little, but I did have a headache A LOT, but I contribute that to the noise and overall crazy level my room reached occasionally.  Trying to keep 25-30 middle school kids cooped up in a classroom for over two hours at a time (without technology mind you) is like trying to train cats to perform in the circus.  There is a lot of pain trying to keep kids at that age level motivated for long periods of time and I am truly blessed to work with such a great ELA team!  We are going old school creative with them and it is such a fun eye opening experience.

How I feel after the first hour with my middle school kids! "Lets all calm down it will be okay..."

Now onto the the good stuff.  I think it is only fitting that we talk about how my team has come up with some of the great ideas we are currently using in our classrooms.  Let talking about social inspiration!  How can we as teachers use social media sites to create more interesting lessons for our classroom?  

Pinterest

I am a self proclaimed Pinterest addict.  I use it for EVERYTHING!  Something breaks in my house...Pinterest.  I need a new crafty thing to work on... Pinterest.  My living room is looking bland... Pinterest.  So why not use it for classroom activities, setting up my room, tracking behaviors,  or organizing my curriculum?  I currently think I have five pin boards dedicated to being a teacher.  You can click here to check out my boards.  I love Pinterest because I am a visual person. I like to see images to peak my interest.  That is all the Pinterest is a bunch of interesting pictures that if you click on them it leads you to a website with direction on how to do the fun activity or create what is in the picture.  There is so much potential for using it to prepare for your classroom and during class time.  Look at this cool infographic for more ideas.

If it is hard to read click on this caption to see the full size infographic!

If you are new to Pinterest it is really easy to catch on!  Here is a video to help you get started.  It is so easy my great aunt can use it.  There really is not an excuse to not be using Pinterest for your classroom or personal purposes.  

Symbaloo

I was actually introduced to Symbaloo by the awesome librarian at my school.  I was looking at doing a research project for my students, but I wanted to make it more visual than a the list of links I typically use for them.  Symbaloo  is a bookmarking website that is much more visual for kids.  You can choose a image from the site to help identify what is in the article or you can choose a symbol and background color to help students understand what the link will lead you too.  

My ELA team is currently planning for kids to research for an end of the year debate they will participate in.  We are using a symbaloo site to collect articles the kids can use.  It is an easy way to share what we have found with each other before we start printing articles.  (remember I have have my kids use it this time during to our tech blackout!)  Typically I would just share the link of my webmix with the kids and they could explore the websites I found for themselves.  Here is the link for the symbaloo education website >>>Click Here<<<.  They have several video on this site for you to check out before you sign up.  

Social Media Debate

I feel like at least once a month I heard about some teacher abusing social media when it comes to interacting with students.  My district has a "no social media interaction"  policy along with Missouri's law against teachers being friends with students over social media that prohibits even thoughts of connecting with students over social media.  I know we are not all bad and the few have ruined it for the many, but I am personally not one to want to meet with my kids over social media.  Some teachers argue that is gives a safe space to help students out, but shouldn't our classrooms be created to be that safe place?  I have several students talk about difficulties in their lives and it does not require for us to do that online in any way.  I has have students email me if they are feeling too uncomfortable to talk about it.  I feel that there are many other avenues that are more secure for students to learn and talk to me other than social media.  

This is just my opinion, if you have found a way to balance the teacher/personal social media juggle then kuddos to you!  It is personally just not for me.  I challenge you to think deeply about your opinion about social media.  It is not something that is going away and we as teachers need to be comfortable with our opinion.  Do a little research and figure out what works best with you and your classroom.  I am going to leave you with a little inforgraphic I found in my research.  

Click here for the link to the larger version!

Feel free to leave your thoughts below in the comments section.  I am always excited to see how others are feeling about conversational ideas.  Who knows maybe you can be the one to change my mind.  

Until next time...