Teaching
students under 13 about social media has to start somewhere.
I remember coming across a sketchnote from Sylvia Duckworth that made me
realize even though our students in the 5th grade cannot use social
media themselves (in the classroom) does not mean they are not using at home.
At the start of school I ask students how many are
on Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram, Tic Toc, etc. The amount of hands goes up is not
surprising. Knowing what students are accessing in
the classroom prompted me to design ways to model and teach them how these
tools could be used for a global voice.
We
have built a classroom culture that is not defined by four walls and a hallway
to the outside world. Among the
myriad of ways we use social media in our classroom one technique I created
was that we have social media ambassadors. I got the idea from MassCUE, as we have this position at our
conferences. It is their job to tell the story happening at the conference. I wanted a way for students to tell
our story, so I created a new room job.
The position description on our You're Hired wall has evolved over the years. The most current reads:
Social
Media Ambassadors (2)
o
Create tweets
for our class Twitter account about our day
o
Take photos for our class Instagram and
Facebook account
o
Think of clever captions for the photos
and write on a notecard
o
Write Facebook status updates about our
day on a notecard
o
Support the creation of our Week in Reviews in Adobe Spark
Social Media Ambassadors use a paper template created by Suzy Brooks to leave on
our
desk at the end of the day. Photos can be taken on devices in the classroom,
though I made the error or using a digital camera. Students were looking for
the circle button to take the photo. I encourage using devices they are
familiar with. All
posts are typed by me into our accounts. Students working on
the Week in Review will collaborate with me, but I will do the typing and
inputting of photos based on their suggestions.
Our Social Media Ambassadors work as a team with me,
building relationships with not only their teacher but with our global
community who follows us. In
a world where data privacy is important and following and teaching students
about policy is imperative, there are ways to reach students where they are
while modeling safe practices.
