Mrs. Bailey's Corner: A blog about teaching, technology, and everything else.: Social Media Tools for the Classroom

Social media seems to be everywhere we look these days, so why not in the classroom?

This week, I am going to show you a few social media tools that you might want to try with your students.

But first, here is a little video I created using Adobe Spark's video feature about why you might consider using social media in education.

Here are some tools you should check out for your classroom if you aren't already using them.

Symbaloo

This is a great resource to use with your staff or with your students. Symbaloo is a way to collect all of the sites you or your students frequent and have them organized visually so they can easily click where they need to go. Also, you can share your Symbaloo with others, so it can be super interactive. I started one that teachers in my building could use. Here is what it looks like:

Need help getting started? Check out this tutorial:

Symbaloo also has a new feature called Lesson Plans or Learning Paths. I haven't created one of these myself, but it seems like a great way to have an entire digital lesson plan available for your students to access. I am thinking how convenient this would be to have available for when you have a substitute! Then you are still able to teach the lesson and provide access to things you would like students to view or complete, but the substitute just has to tell them how to start!

FlipGrid

FlipGrid is a video response platform that allows you to have discussions with your class. During my online courses, I have frequently used FlipGrid in order to record my reflections of my learning. I envision using FlipGrid as a way to give short presentations, explain and show steps to solve a math problem, and even provide fluency practice so students can then play back and see how they are doing. I also see this as a great way to allow staff members to provide feedback and have discussions. We all know that teachers aren't exactly jumping for the chance to share during staff meetings! 😂

Here is a video explaining how to use it!

Padlet

This is a fun tool that allows teachers to provide links to content all in one shared location. I have a unit on Wild Weather that I teach to my second graders each year. With Padlet, I can offer one page where all of my weather information is posted so my students can easily access it. You can also require that students respond with a comment or question about what they have read. Here is a screen shot of my Wild Weather Padlet, or you can view it here.