Social interactions are an important part of one´s life and determinant to our development as social beings. In our modern society, these interactions have been replaced by virtual social interactions, at least in our teenage and youth generations. Most of these virtual interactions are void of value and rarely make a positive impact on the development of our kids.
Social interaction is what drives us into an environment of opportunity and success. This success is determined by how effective our social interactions have been. As a High School teacher, I have taken social media online pretty serious when it comes to my students and their digital footprint. This is the reason why I have been using social media and have been promoting responsible digital citizenship among them. I am a Physics teacher, and I strongly believe that teaching them about responsible social media use, along with my subject, will take them a lot further when they become professionals.
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Social interaction is what drives us into an environment of opportunity and success. This success is determined by how effective our social interactions have been. As a High School teacher, I have taken social media online pretty serious when it comes to my students and their digital footprint. This is the reason why I have been using social media and have been promoting responsible digital citizenship among them. I am a Physics teacher, and I strongly believe that teaching them about responsible social media use, along with my subject, will take them a lot further when they become professionals.
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So it all happened during a Physics class. The topic was temperature conversions. Since I knew that most students were good at temperature conversion from past courses I thought of this class as a review. So I planned to use Twitter contest. I sent out a temperature reading and they would convert it to another unit. To avoid them cheating and using Google search to get an automatic answer I had them solve the problem on paper and take a snapshot of the process and tweet it. We kicked off but we encountered a problem. For some reason, two of the teams were having issues with their mobile Twitter (I only allow them to use handhelds for this particular activity since a PC or Mac server might send tweets faster than a mobile and some of my students have handhelds only.). Their tweets were not sending out so the game was a bit uneven. After three trials we realized it was not going to work.
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I am still a dreamer when it comes to 1:1 in my classroom. I pretty much fantasize with the day that begins to happen at my school. In the meantime, I have adopted BYOD (Bring your own device), also known as BYOT (bring your own technology), as a means of using technology effectively in the classroom. This is, of course, not the only way but it has come a long way in my classroom in general. Most of the time, of course, whenever I plan to use devices, I keep in mind that it will require a teamwork activity since not all of my students own a mobile Internet-enabled apparatus.
So, besides this, I have encountered several other situations regarding BYOD that I have to face as "side effects" of the implementation of the policy. If these outweigh the level of engagement you acquire using students´ devices is pretty much up to you and your settings and context.
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So, you are a connected educator and let´s face it, something in you has changed. You don´t even speak the same way you did when your classroom had those wooden or brick walls that you have brought down. I collected some symptoms that you may have been through since you decided to go international. In no particular order, here they are:
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![i hate digital [analog remix]](http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2445/4051382170_3067644320_m.jpg) |
| (Photo credit: the|G|™Ok |
One of the things that I´ve always pointed out about the whole technology thing is not to expect everyone to be so delighted about it as we are.
So, I was in this Parent School night and I was excited about sharing with parents how students were being engaged using Diigo and the tremendous learning taking place there. I also mentioned that we were going to continue using our digital platform, Edmodo, to post homework, share important information, dates, etc. I mentioned that students would be discussing in virtual forums through Collaborize Classrooom. I presented them with Posterous, through which I was expecting to share some thoughts with students and have students do the same. Of course, I mentioned how we were going to be using social media to engage and learn. I showed them our most recent Wallwisher about scientists who contributed to the development of Biology. I informed that some evaluations would be made through Socrative or Google Forms. I spoke to them about our brand new BYOT policy. And, and, and...ok, you get the idea.
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“There is nothing in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good humor.” -Charles Dickens
photo credit: horizontal.integration via photo pin cc
Innovative educators are always trying to make each and every class as meaningful and relevant to their students as possible. They create, they collaborate, they ask, they solve....they innovate. It is clear to most of them that it is what they model, what they represent as a teacher and as a human that will impact students´ lives other than the content they could possibly deliver.
One great tool innovative teachers should use in the classroom is: humor. Yes, the kind that comes out spontaneously and actually creates a delightful atmosphere in the classroom. Doesn´t mean you can´t practice some comedic lines in front of the mirror and try to look like Jim Carrey...
Laughter is so relaxing, it is even said it´s medicine to the soul. Your students stare at you as someone they can take hand of in difficult moments some times. They need to see you as a caring human being, as one that went through or is going through some of the same things they are. Use your best charisma to approach them. Tell them a little joke from time to time. Make fun of yourself; nothing makes you more human to students than when you make mistakes and actually learn from them.
Here´s a secret: Students will laugh at your jokes even if they are really bad. There are two main reasons for that:
- They will laugh out of respect. But it still works, they are laughing after all. Too worried about mockery?
- They will laugh harder at the fact that it is you, their teacher, actually telling a joke.
Don´t overlook the power of humor within your classroom. Humor humanizes, makes you approachable and reliable. It allows you to connect to your students at a more personal level. Be spontaneous, be surprising, be fun. In the measure of the possible try not to be the teacher students groan about at the knowledge their next class is with you. May God help you as you try to bring joy, jolly, and happiness into your classroom using humor.
So, a teacher walks into a bar....
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| English: blank world map (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
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Nota del traductor: Esta es un traducción del original "10 reasons I believe students Should Blog". Entiendo que el término "bloggear" es un extranjerismo y una falla de dicción. Lo más apropiado sería "bitacorear". Sin embargo, he utilizado "bloggear" entre comillas ya que es el término que nos es más familiar a los hispano-parlantes. Pido disculpas de antemano si hubiese ofensa al respecto.Recientemente, hasta este año escolar comencé a animar a mis estudiantes para que abrieran su bitácora (blog). La edad promedio de mis estudiantes es de 15 a 17 años; los considero suficientemente maduros como para crear una huella digital positiva a través de sus blogs. Cuando les introduje la idea por primera vez, les di algunas razones por las cuales yo pensaba deberían "bloggear". Una de las cosas que les hice ver fue que pensaran en escribir artículos como un estado de Facebook excepto que con más de 420 caracteres. Al llevarse a cabo todo el proceso, comencé a descubrir nuevas ventajas y ahora me gustaría compartirlas con ustedes mis 10 razones por las cuales creo que sus estudiantes deberían estar "bloggeando".:
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Just recently, this school year I started to encourage my students into blogging. My students' average age ranges 15-17; I do consider them mature enough to create a positive digital footprint through blogging. When I first introduced the idea to them I gave some reasons why I thought they should blog. One of the things I did tell them was to think about blogging as a Facebook post except that with more than 420 characters. As the whole process started to take place, new advantages started to unravel and now I would love to share with you my ten reasons why I believe your students should be blogging:Read more »
After investing so much time into research of technological resource to incorporate to my classroom, I must confess that I was truly excited about having my students back in school. That day came on August 22. Ah, was it refreshing to see those faces again, hear the noise in the halls, hear the sound of the chanting and the school spirit which permeated the whole campus!Read more »
