Staying connected with family and friends in your personal life may seem like no job at all. As educators though, it is our job to keep families in the loop on what is taking place within the classroom. Although it is important to take caution when using sites that can be accessed virtually by anyone in the world, teachers should be assured that there are safe and effective ways to utilize sites like Twitter, Facebook, and others within the classroom.
One great app that has become a wonderful way for teachers to stay connected is called Bloomz. This app allows teachers to manage the hectic task of communication with parents. Bloomz enables the teacher to send emails, post picture, make notifications of class updates, post reminders, and much more. Safety and privacy are always important factors to keep in mind while utilizing social media in the classroom. With the ability to invite only the parents you wish to communicate with, these factors are surely taken care of. Even better yet--it is FREE!
Some additional ways teachers can use social networking in the classroom:
1. Create Twitter polls for students to weigh in on a topic being discussed.
2. Students and teacher could create a class hashtag to foster healthy communication in and outside of school on Twitter.
3. Pinterest boards relating to different class subjects could be created for students to access for additional resources.
Link to Bloomz: https://www.bloomz.net/
Link to helpful site on networking in the classroom: http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/tech/tech256.shtml
Photo used with permission from: Pixaby.com