Tag Archives: documentation

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Taking Over Georgia Department of Education Instagram: A Lesson in Trust

A few months ago I was alerted to an opportunity by one of my favorite collaborative partners, Gretchen Thomas. The Georgia State Department of Education was inviting educators to apply to takeover their Instagram account for one week. I filled out the quick application, and within a few weeks, I was notified that I was selected for the week of January 18-22, 2016.

When I applied, I really didn’t give a lot of thought to what the state DOE was actually doing, but as the week neared, I was really struck by this opportunity. Social media accounts have a lot of power. They allow organizations or individuals to really show the day to day realities of what we all face. Those accounts have influence and help create the brand of an organization. Handing over an account to someone who is for the most part a complete stranger is a big exercise in trust. How many organizations will just hand over their account and allow people to freely post?

This honor, of course, came with rules to follow.

  • Always use the hashtag #gadoeteachertakeover
  • Reply to comments, but indicate who is replying
  • Post photos that are representative of the profession
  • Anything deemed inappropriate could be deleted by the DOE
  • Post 2-5 photos per day
  • Follow any local policies on posting to social media

I took the responsibility very seriously, and I’m sure that every educator who was chosen is doing the same. In fact, if you scroll through the #gadoeteachertakover tag you’ll see the amazing opportunities our students in GA are receiving every day. Since I was allowed 5 photos per day, I thought very carefully about what to post because I wanted to show a variety of opportunities our students have in our library program.  It isn’t just about technology or just about books. I hope that the photos I chose show that it’s about giving students a voice and giving them opportunities to explore a variety of topics, interests, and passions and share those with the world.

Now that I am at the close of the week, I can back up and collectively look at my week in 25 pictures. It’s very easy for me to get lost in the day to day bustling library and focus on all of the things in my head that I’m not able to get to. When I take time to look back at blog posts, tweets, or pictures, I’m reminded of what is actually happening. This was honestly my first time doing this with Instagram, and I loved seeing a visual of images that showcased one week. In  my head I know what’s missing, what problems we faced, what moments of frustrations I had, but the images remind me that there were miraculous things happening all around us.

I would like to thank the Georgia State Department of Education for this opportunity. Thank you for trusting the educators of Georgia to show their work. Thank you for empowering the voices of educators and students to define what education looks like in our state. I hope that other professional organizations will consider how this type of campaign empowers the voices of its members and amplifies the work that is happening on the front lines of the organization.

 

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4th Grade Blogging

IMG_1341All of our 4th grade classes are starting blogs.  After meeting with the teachers and discussing their goals for blogging, we chose to use Kid Blog as our tool of choice.  We chose this tool because it gives teachers the options to set several privacy settings, monitor posts & comments, and also simultaneously creates a class blog as well as individual blogs for all students.  I showed the teachers how to quickly import their students into KidBlog and setup accounts.  They each setup their own class.

Our 4th grade classrooms are all trying out a special time in their day called Heart Time.  During this time, each student has a specified amount of time to work on something that truly matters to them.  Some construct masks.  Others explore drum making.  Some spend time writing.  The possibilities for this time are endless.  There are many pieces to this time.  One piece is for students to begin to learn about what matters to one another and spend time sharing and connecting with one another.  The teachers’ hope is that these classroom discussions can be documented through blogging so that they document the process but also impact a larger audience than just the classroom.  Other classrooms could learn from what these students are exploring.  Also, members of the community might make a connection with a student and be able to share their own expertise with a student if they know what that student is exploring.

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We held a kickoff to the blogging project.  During the kickoff, all of the 4th grade classes rotated through 3 centers.  With me, students learned a bit of history about blogging.  We learned that in 1999 there was less than 100 blogs and today there’s well over 100 million blogs.  We looked at this blog, and I explained how blogging has a purpose.  Students were wowed when they saw the map of where people are reading the media center blog.

IMG_1343With Vicki Michaelis, a parent, students learned about how blogging is used in careers.  Vicki does sports blogging through her career at UGA, so she was able to show students how she uses blogs to reach her audience.IMG_1345

With Heather Carlson, 4th grade gifted teacher, students explored blogging ethics and the importance of proofreading and deciding what to post or not post online.

Next, students will begin exploring their blogs in class and using this new tool to document their learning throughout the year.  I can’t wait to read what they write!