Why I Use SOCIAL MEDIA IN THE CLASSROOM

how do ladies and gents my name's Tom Gibson in today's video we're looking at why I post videos and photos of my students on social media disclaimers I know that a lot of districts do not allow this and so you may not be able to do this unless you take photos and videos where students faces are not included or you can seal them by either blurring them out or putting a little smiley faces on their faces or something like that secondly if you are allowed to take photos most schools generally have a list of parents

who say I do not want my students photo to be involved in anything that has to do with any kind of media take a look at that list and take note of which of those students are in your classes or if you're going around the school and talking to different students about different things on camera or taking photos that you're not getting one of those students so the to social media is that I really use our YouTube primarily and instagram my instagram is an education focused instagram i do post things about myself that are not

necessarily related to education noting that i have any qualms about to anybody seeing and the target demographic of my youtube channel is actually other teachers so keep that in mind what i'm talking about this these are the two social media platforms that i'm going to be referring to and so the first reason that i post photos and videos of my students and my classroom is because students are on social media and what better way to bring the things that are going on in the classroom and the things that you're exploring in your lessons into their

social media feeds than by being on social media my friend mark took this a step further and he actually has his students take their own photos for their own Instagram of their math work and then post it up on Instagram and tag it looked like a class hashtag or something like that so now they're filling their feeds and their friends feeds with math on Instagram if I see something kind of interesting in the world around me that's related to math I might take a short little Instagram story and talk about it or pose a question

there I have short videos of students explaining their thought process and how they got to the answer that they got to that I'll post on Instagram as well it's a way to meet students where they're at and it's a way to demonstrate with positive digital citizenship can look like how are you carrying yourself online how are you responding to comments how are you engaging with the audience what are the kinds of things that you're posting and sharing with the world and so students are on social media we want to meet students where there as far

as the YouTube channel I have students that watch my videos but since most of them are targeted towards other teachers they'll generally watch the video only if it's like of their class and they want to see which ends up them reviewing the content anyways the second reason that I post photos and videos of my students and my classroom on social media is to give the parents a glimpse into what our classroom looks like most parents when they ask their kids how school was they won't get much outside of fine on my youtube channel I have

documented my process for doing different math lessons and different robotics lessons whether it's the sumo bot competition in robotics class or how we're using cheese it's to kind of understand how square roots look parents love to see their kids getting excited and smiling and laughing and enjoying their educational experience and showing what they know and expressing joy and learning and a side note doing more vlogs from the classroom has actually encouraged me to think what can I do that's in my class that's more engaging that would actually make for a really good video that's probably

kind of backwards you probably want to just have really engaging content and then be like let me videotape this but for me this process had made me has made me a better teacher thinking what will actually be something that's gonna pull the kids in and engage them a couple of best practices is as soon as I upload a new video onto YouTube I will immediately send a link to everyone in the class as well as their parents to say hey here's a little look at the sumo bot competition from last week hope you guys enjoy

so that way there's no surprises that the parent doesn't see the video on someone else's Facebook feed two months down the road and think I don't remember hearing about this or seeing this video or seeing my child in this video or anything like that I've only taught above fifth grade and so if you're working with students that are a little bit lower you're probably gonna have a little bit more sensitivities from parents about that and so you'll want to use a little more caution and the third reason and that I share photos and videos of

my students and classroom on social media is that it helps other teachers primarily to my youtube channel and is targeted to other teachers to show my thought process before during and after a lesson they get a chance to actually see what the lesson looks like here the conversations that the students are having granted it's edited and put together all nice and neat but I generally try to say like these are the things that didn't go well and the ways that maybe I would change it and even hear from the students as well like what did

you like about this lesson and what would you have changed it's the equivalent of watching and observing another teacher do a lesson which is going to be much more meaningful than just reading a blog that outline the steps at least for me or better yet write the blog and supplement it with the photos and the video of the actual lesson and so those are three reasons why I post photos and videos of my students and classroom on social media in addition to this video I'm currently working on a podcast where I am talking about other

educators who are leveraging social media in the classroom from educators who are using it and teaching their students to create content that has an impact on their community or other teachers that are using it to develop a more professional opportunities for themselves as educators if that podcast episode will be up soon it is called stories from the classroom and if you are watching this a little bit after the release date that the podcast may already be out so check the description for a link to that episode if you'd like to stay in the loop with

any upcoming videos be sure to subscribe I do teaching tip videos as well as vlogs from my classroom in addition to episodes of the stories from the classroom podcast on this channel as well I'm Tom Gibson thanks so much for watching I hope you learned something today and I'll see you in the next one