This week I have read two blog posts about utilizing social media and the Internet to make your classroom more transparent and developing a "brand" for your classroom. If you're not telling the story of what happens in your classroom you allow the story to be told for you. Take charge of that narrative and you'll reap tremendous benefits.
The first post is from TeachThought -
Using Social Media to Tell Your Classroom's Story. This post highlights the importance of developing the identity of your classroom. This may sound like "one more thing" to do but it doesn't need to be. The 6th-grade team has done a great job of adding a social media component to what they do by having students responsible for posting to their Twitter feed.
One quote from the TeachThought post that really resonated with me was, "In isolation, your classroom is a mess of learning targets, projects, standards, grades, deadlines, and crowded rosters. But contrast can be revealing. By opening your classroom up to the world, your classroom begins to establish an identity." There are many great things happening in your classrooms on a daily basis - show them to the world.
The second post is from George Couros -
How do you Tell Your Story? Couros starts his post with the quote, "Standardized tests do not tell the story of what we do in education." He then questions readers about how they share student learning that goes beyond a number or letter.
At HMS we have started using a
Twitter feed to share some of the great things happening on a day to day basis. We have had the
News blog for a few years and Bruce Brann and Joan Adler do a great job of providing a deeper view into some of the happenings going on at HMS. These sources along with the school website tell the story of what is going on at HMS.
Many teachers at HMS are utilizing Twitter and blogs to share what going on in their classrooms. Here's a great list of examples:
