Social Media in the Classroom.

 

Learning about social media in class on Tuesday was a bit of an eye opener since these types of scenarios where people try to use it to sabotage educators is real. As someone who uses social media (primarily Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest), I realized that I need to be more careful than I originally thought regarding anything that is posted onto my social media (even things that other people post about me). Thankfully, I now know what to do to help keep my profiles safe and out of the hands of people who might use it as a tool to try to get me terminated. On a more positive note, we also learned how social media can be used in the classroom to get more student engagement! 

An example of social media that I use in education is a student centered Instagram. For background, I am a marching band instructor at a high school here in Spokane and I made an Instagram account for my percussion students to motivate them to show up to rehearsals/performances and work hard. The story behind this account originally came from an inside joke between the instructors but then was adopted by the students. In response to their excitement for this joke, we made a wooden figurine that broke off of the wind chimes that we were using for performances into a motivational tool for the students. She watches for strong performance etiquette and performance techniques. If she catches good work from the students then their performance clip is posted to the Instagram! Long story short, making this private student account that the figurine “manages” made me realize that social media can be used within the education community in a positive way and makes for good stories in the future.

Enjoy the picture of our motivational tool and the front ensemble students getting ready to reherse from last season :)

(Please don't be alarmed by the foam Katana sword. It was something related to their show and not something we used to threaten them with!)