The New Room Job: Social Media Ambassadors

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 5^th 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.