Social networking and digital citizenship

As a result of our study on social networking, I have learned how valuable it can be in the classroom setting.  I thought of classroom social networking as a tool for higher grades, also, but now I see how it can be used in my 5^th grade classroom.  I was introduced to many new websites and options for the use of social media in my classroom. 

I am excited to implement my new knowledge into the classroom.  Our 5^th grade team shares the responsibility of writing lessons for the entire team.  At our school, we are not given curriculum to follow and must write all our own lessons based on the state standards and classroom data.  Also, we approach Social Studies and Science quite differently from the traditional public school.  We concentrate on each subject for half of the year.  So, for the first semester we do all Science, and the second semester we do only Social Studies.  This is called our “Expedition” time, which is time for us to dig deeper into the subjects and complete many hands-on activities to help students learn.  Also, we do much cross-curricular learning by including the Science/Social Studies topics into our reading, writing and math (as much as possible) lessons.  We have an hour and fifteen minutes daily for Expedition, so it is also a priority in our planning.  I have taken on the planning of Science and Social Studies this year.  The information I learned in this class will be fun for our students, and keep them engaged in the lessons.  Also, the use of social networking will allow students to work together between the classrooms, as well as at home. 

I believe I will also set up a wiki for my Math class.  It would be useful for students when they are at home and need some guidance or help.  It would also allow those students that understand a concept or problem to offer assistance to those who need it.  This would be a great situation for both students. 

I will also share some of the “fun” social networking sites with my students and the other teachers.  This will allow them to connect outside of school.  The networks I found in my research and through the research of fellow students have really great safety features and I feel that parents would approve of them also.

Several years ago I would not have felt social networking had a place in the classroom, but after our study I can see the benefits.  As technology advances and more people use social networking, the skills and digital citizenship learned in school will serve students well in the future.