The Power of Social Media

I passionately use Twitter - @realmrwince
I passionately use Instagram - growingwithwince

We are living a world that is more connected than ever before. I have a personal learning network (PLN) of teachers, administrators and educational experts from all over the world sharing information at an instant. In my classroom this means having the ability to connect with experts like never before. Authors, scientists, astronauts, athletes, actors, politicians, artists, cinematographers, musicians and many others have social media accounts that allows access into their lives and gives them a voice beyond the stage.

I firmly believe, as a parent, you have the right to decide what you want your son or daughter participating in online, but I ask for permission to use Twitter and Instagram has a resource for research and sharing ability to connect with others from around the world.

Instead of treating social media with fear, I view my position as an educator in the 21st century as someone who has the responsibility to teach our young people to responsibly use these platforms. This includes helping students understand privacy settings for their accounts, knowing once something is shared - it's shared, proper searching techniques to yield results quickly in research and the ability to create a learning network to enhance the learning process in and outside of the classroom.

My educational Twitter account will be used to share blogs, podcasts, articles and others sources of information on what is going on in education locally, state-wide, nationally and internationally.

My educational Instagram account will be used to visually show what is happening in our classroom. I will highlight the learning that is happening.

My goal is to be transparent with all about what your student is doing throughout the day.

I highly encourage, parents, who do not have these social media accounts, to create an account with your student to know what they are doing. Creating accounts will allow you to follow and participate in our classroom even when you are not physically present with us.

I believe in the power of social media for the good in education.

Social media is not going a way.

Join in and learn with us!

Articles For Teaching Young People About Social Media/Twitter
Using Twitter to Promote Learning
12 Easy Tips for Using Social Media Responsibly
13 Reasons to Use Twitter in the Classroom