Social Media: FACEBOOK Kristin Martin Professional Development

Description Facebook is a social media site that connects people all over the world. The uses of Facebook are endless and can even be used in the classroom! I’ll explain how we can enhance our communication between the students, parents and teacher just by using Facebook. All you need is a computer or Smart phone!

Add a Friend By friending a student, you are centralizing who has direct access to the class Facebook site. Facebook makes it easy to make your page ‘Private’ unless you are a friend to the Administrator (you). By doing this, no one else is able to look at your class Facebook page. This allows you to be safe and control who is able to access your page. Example: Only accept friend requests from students and/or their parents. This keeps the Facebook page a safe environment.

Status Facebook gives the user the ability to post a status on their page. This enables them to tell their friends what they are doing. Posting a status can be used for telling parents about the day, what you are learning that week or even posting answers to commonly asked questions. The status feature can be used for communicating to parent and/or students at any point in time! Stay in touch often! Status’ can be updated as often as you would like. Don’t worry, just as quickly as they are added, they can be deleted.

Comments Once a status is posted, you, the students, and parents have the ability to comment on it. For example, if “Please ask any questions about tonight’s homework here” was posted, students could ask questions! There is an unlimited amount of comments that could be added and you could answer the questions as often as you receive your updates! Example comment: ‘I am confused on number 7. Do I add or multiply first?’

Events Since your Facebook page is only open to parents and students in your class, you can create events that remind your families about upcoming activities. The day of the activity, it will remind the users what event will be taking place. They also have the ability to comment on the event to ask questions about it or volunteer! The users can also say they are able to attend or not attend for further reinforcement of a head count. For example: Remind parents about Field Day or an upcoming Field Trip!

About Me This feature is solely used by the administrator of the Facebook page (the teacher). Here, the teacher can add about their background, likes and dislikes, favorite things, education and the list goes on. This area is used so the class can get to know the teacher a little better and see what their interests are! The best thing about this is the teacher can upload their contact information so it is easily accessible by students and parents. Many items can be added in this area such as times to contact the teacher, or even classroom phone number. This feature is unlimited to what the teacher would like to share. Anything can be added, be creative!

Birthdays When students are accepted onto the class Facebook page, their Facebook connects with yours. With this, student’s birthdays will pop up on your home page. What a better way to keep track of student’s birthdays than this?? You have the ability to send ‘birthday cards’ on Facebook as well! Remind the entire class who has a birthday that day! Parents can join in on it too!

Messages Facebook has a private feature where you can send messages to one another without others seeing the message. This is a great feature for parents to use when discussing private matters. It is just like using personal , and the conversations are stored by Facebook. This can be used for students or parents. A more private message, like an , may feel comfortable to use than a public profile page.

Chat Facebook has a new feature that allows you to instant message people on the computer. It is a great and FAST way to answer questions or talk with students and/or parents about their concerns or questions. As long as you are online the same time as your student, this is possible! Remember AOL Instant Messenger? This is just like it! These messages are not saved on the computer so if you would like to document the conversation, use other resources.

Pictures For the more visual learners, Facebook allows you to upload pictures. This tool could be used for almost anything. Whether you are uploading pictures of the class pet to uploading pictures on how to solve a homework answer, they can be uploaded and deleted in just seconds! Want to make someone laugh? These pictures can be added too! Pictures can be added from a recent event, like a lunch picnic or Field Day.

Apps Facebook gives the user the ability to save apps on their home screen. With apps, we have discovered how many are out there that can be useful to our teaching. Through Facebook, we can send our students’ app invites with enables them to receive the tools over the Internet. Facebook saves all the apps on the tool bar for easy access! Please watch for students using game requests. You can either choose to ignore or delete the requests.

Groups The groups tab is such a great feature!! This is a tool that allows you to make a group with a select group of people. I recommend doing this for your student’s parents so you able to discuss more ‘adult items’. Parents may feel more comfortable to do this so they can discuss volunteering, events or student assignments. With a parents group, students are unable to see what happens or is said in the group.

Facebook is such a wonderful tool for the classroom. Once it is explored, you will see all the major benefits it has for communicating with parents and/or guardians at home. Class pages are easy to maintain, especially when you have a smart phone. Alerts can be arranged to update the user immediately and is very efficient.

Questions?? If you have any further questions, I am more than willing to help!