Week 1 Reflection – Social Media

For my first reflection I will look at my experience with social media. I didn’t grow up with social media, or cell phones and even computers weren’t part of my everyday life as they are for students of today’s world. Most of my experience with social media is limited and has occurred during adulthood. I don’t find that I’m actually very “social” on my social media accounts and in the end they are used for mindless scrolling and as a means of communicating with family members or friends that I grew up with. The majority of my content is documenting events in my kids lives. The life of a mom!

Pinterest is the one social media that I enjoy the most personally as it allows me to take my ideas and create boards based on my interests. Again, it usually ends up mindless scrolling, but I find that the content I am able to search and create is a lot more productive and useful as it usually pertains to my interests or needs at the time. I love that you can organize information on ‘boards’. As a teaching resource, Pinterest is the form of social media that I prefer to help organize my ideas. I love that I can search ideas and find multiple cross-curricular projects for multiple age groups. I have created a Pinterest page for my future classroom. I titled the page ‘Mrs. Teindl’s Classroom’. Here I plan to create boards for different subjects, seasons and projects to help organize my ideas for my classroom. Here is a link for my Pinterest account that I have started for educational purposes. https://www.pinterest.ca/MrsTeindlsClassroom

While I don’t plan to use other social media platforms as a teaching resource, I do see the benefits with instant access to other teachers resources. Many of the posts and blogs that I have come across during my mindless scrolling consist of tips and hacks that experienced teachers have discovered along their teaching journey. There are numerous reels and posts as well as designated handles that have been created for teachers and future teachers such as my self to explore and find ideas to enhance our students learning. My teaching pal is an example of an Instagram account that I follow on my personal Instagram account. Much like Pinterest, I can find activities that can align with my students learning and my lessons.

Facebook is another social media account that I follow personally, but don’t plan the cross paths with my professional profile. Much like Instagram, I follow groups and people from the education and teaching profession that offer tips and hacks for activities and a smooth running classroom.

During this fall, I started my own TikTok account, and although I am still a relatively new tik tokker, I can see the benefits of again gaining insight from experienced professionals or as a fun way to become relatable to my students. I could create a video that took the information I wanted my students to know and turned it into a fun little video or clip for them to watch.

Social media is always changing and evolving its purpose and intent, but it has always been a way of connecting people across the world. As previously mentioned, my experience with social media is limited and I find that I’m the “old” person not always understanding how the the platform works. As social media is meant to connect people, I find that in general it is a great way to gain as well as share information. Personally, I plan to use the platforms I have listed in my personal life to align with my teaching goals. Pinterest, for now, will remain my only social media outlet that I will maintain a personal and professional account.