Social Networking

Social networking’s popularity is definitely on the rise. People of all ages, including my fourth graders, have accounts on Facebook, Pinterest, and other social networking sites. I have a love/hate relationship with social networking. I have accounts with several social networking sites and I love using it as a way to get great teaching ideas and resources and also to keep in touch with loved ones. But I know I spend too much time on these sites! I hate how easily they draw me in! And keeping up with all the sites I have accounts for can be tough at times. But that certainly does not stop me because I see how beneficial they are to me as a teacher. Below are my thoughts on the social networking sites that I use!

Facebook

I did not join Facebook until 2008, which is late compared to some. I have been able to use it not only for personal connections, but I have followed some great people and organizations that post teaching resources daily. One that I really like is Laura Candler’s Teaching Resources page. This page posts activities, questions, and links several times a day. Another page I like is called Teaching Ideas, which shares pictures of different activities or links to webpages that have great resources.

Pinterest

I enjoy Pinterest immensely! I follow Laura Candler on Pinterest as well and I have also followed several education boards which allows me to see links that anyone posts to that board, whether I follow the person or not. And I like the ease of being able to search anything on Pinterest and having so many resources pop up. It makes it extremely easy to get fun ideas to use in class for a certain topic or skill. Why create something when someone already has created it? And Pinterest makes it very easy to find these already-created resources.

Google+

I recently opened a Google+ account and have not explored too much with it yet. It seems very similar to Facebook and I was able to join an education “circle” on Google+, which allows me to see what other people in the group post pertaining to everything education. I also like how you can create circles to organize people you follow.

Nings

Nings are new to me but while exploring the links on Blackboard, I set up an account with the Classroom 2.0 Ning. It seems that there are a lot of forum discussions on that ning which will be great to use when needing ideas or advice on a certain topic. My account still has to be approved but I am excited to play with that!