Social Media for Teachers with Kelly Christopherson

Feb. 22, 2023

CoryB

Today's presentation was with Kelly Christopherson, who is a teacher and principal but currently teaching grades 7 and 8, who has been in the education field for 30 years, from Saskatchewan. Education is constantly changing and if you haven't been in a classroom for the last 5 years you might not have an understanding of what is currently happening in schools. 

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(Bullet points are from his near pod/ PowerPoint)

Research: Identified 6 reasons that teachers sustained their involvement in social media for PD:

• Always evolving and being current
• Accessing anywhere and anytime
• Overcoming Isolation
• Having deep discussions
• Developing global connections
• Lacking PD opportunities

His idea with teachers using social media or other sources is to make sure you are comfortable with using it in the classroom and do not have to use something if you are not comfortable using it. Teachers using social media as a platform for learning realized they had to try and use something different to make sure they keep current and can have better connections with their students. He believes before social media schools were in a bubble where things stayed within the bubble, but with social media everything is fluent with what is happening in the school and the world. With the development of new sources and social media is it important to try and incorporate these elements into you classroom to stay up to date with what is happening in the world and for education. 

So, these are some of the tips he gives for staying current and are important reasons for teachers who use social media to continuen to use social media. 

• Find specific people to follow to stay up to date
• Avoid 'gurus' and 'edutainers' - they are always selling
• Seek out teachers who 'have skin in the game'
• Avoid ppl who share platitudes
• Seek out ppl outside of education - other fields - medicine, engineering, design, science, technology
• Be vigilant with who you follow - be willing to unfollow and add new people regularly

He believes that using Chat GPT to help with unit plans and other lesson to lessen the burden on teachers and to stay away from it when making assignments. Another one of his important ideas is to make you are following those who are only beneficial to you and what you are trying to do instead of those that aren't helpful to you and to unfollow them if they aren't useful to you. 

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Lack of PD opportunities:

"Every day is a PD day" - myPDtoday

• Professional development is for "YOU"
• Take control of your professional growth
• It should not be a "one shot" event
• Don't wait for someone to suggest it - set a goal and start
• It isn't about badges or letters or certificates
• You need to 'live' life-long learning
• Today there is no "lack of PD"

Every day he says you should be learning and that it takes a lot of effort, where some things will come easy and some things will take multiple of times to finally grasp. Learning is not about getting the certificate but about trying to learn something that can improve yourself as a teacher and as a person. 

 

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Overcoming Isolation:

As teachers, we work in a building filled with people but often are isolated from other teachers and adults most of the time.

• Can become 'lost' in the day-to-day teaching
• Easy to become 'tomorrow' focused - what will I do tomorrow?
• Isolated from other adults - especially outside education
• Isolated from new ideas - PD and learning discussions become replaced with 'teacher talk'.

Facilitating PD and Technology: 

Administrators have the role of being "learning leaders" but often don't have the time to support teachers on their learning journeys in the way they want. You need to own your learning 

• At the beginning of the year - make a realistic learning plan - SMART - Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. 
• Share it with your administrator and ask if they can help you. 
• Reflect on your goal regularly - don't be embarrassed about continuing to learn

Technology is always evolving - teachers are always in 'beta'!

• You cannot do it all - don't try. Get good one skill at a time
• There are "need to know" technologies - LMS, assessment, planning, communicating - learn them and keep upgrading your understanding of how they work
• Focus on Specifics - get good at one skill at a time - add it to your repertoire - use it regularly
• Avoid shiny objects - they will blind you and keep you and your students away from deep learning

Teachers should no longer be hiding from using technology or social media in the classroom because it is useful for your classroom but also necessary to help improve your teaching. Use technology again that is useful for you as a teacher and for your students in your classroom, so every year you might want to try something different based on the different students you will have every year. Make sure if you don't know something it is important to find someone, like another teacher that might be good at something you don't know and have a talk with them to help you better understand what you are trying to learn. Find things that you are good and comfortable with and work with those to make your teaching easier for yourself. 

My key takeaways from this presentation are to try my best with incorporating new technology into my classroom that will both benefit me and the students in the classroom. And not worry about embarrassing yourself while trying something new in the classroom that might fail but try and make sure that you are constantly trying to improve yourself as a teacher that will one day help improve yourself and your lessons. 

If you have any questions or want to contact him for any other teacher-related reason you can reach Kelly Christopherson at: 

@kellywchris Twitter

@saskedchat - twitter

mypdtoday - Instagram

myPDtoday - Facebook

myPD2day - website

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