Thing #19

Beyond Facebook

Some of the tips that were given for teachers about social networking sites are kind of "no brainers". I would never put anything up on Facebook that I wouldn't want my 90 year old grandmother to see, because yes at 90 she is loves Facebook. I think the same goes for any other sights. Students today are little tiny sleuths and they will find their teachers on sights. I don't think that this is something to be afraid of and completely swear off social networking sites though. I have found that the teaching community as a whole is very supportive towards each other on these sites. 

I really liked the Classroom 2.0 Ning site where I found a group http://www.classroom20.com/group/elementaryschool20 that I would like to follow. In fact a recent post by someone on the site was talking about Twitter and uses of Twitter in the elementary classroom. No one has posted anything yet but now I have an RSS on that particular topic because I would be interested in how teachers now are integrating Twitter into their classrooms. I feel impressed with myself that I am using that I have learned in this class already to further my own knowledge. 

As a non-teacher social network I liked the Tasty Kitchen site. It is linked to the pioneer woman which I also really like as well. I'm not sure when I came across the pioneer woman but I have found her to be amazing and I think I will enjoy Tasty Kitchen as well. 

I love love LOVE Pinterest! I think I spend more time on Pinterest than I do anything else. I can spend hours just looking at different things. I do need to spend more time organizing my pins though. I also have an Instagram account but I don't use it very often. I'm not sure if it is considered a social networking site but I really enjoy things that teachers put up on teacherspayteachers.com. I have heard many times throughout this program, "Why reinvent the wheel?" This is a great resource for graphic organizers, activities and themes for the classroom that teachers make, some are free and other you have to pay for which I don't mind at all. I think if a teacher spends the time to create something that will help other teachers than, why not get some extra cash for it? We all know that we aren't going into the teaching profession for the paycheck! These are great resources for teachers that I will for sure use when I have my own classroom.