Last class there were many new extensions and tools that were shown to us and I shared those in my
twitter post part 1 and twitter post part 2. During class I never really gave bit.ly and onetab much consideration given that I am not a person to have many tabs open and I thought bit.ly was maybe to “high tech” for my grade 4 students, that I would not need to ever share a link with them that they couldn’t easy put into google…. BUT…. here is the thing…. we are beginning to learn how to write informational reports and for this go around I am holding their hands through the process. I thought what an absolute perfect opportunity for me to share websites with them that are “teacher approved” and “kid friendly” by using the extension OneTab and then using bit.ly to shorten the URL link so the students have access to these great websites I found; super easy and quite painless right? Yep it sure was! I think my first thoughts about the extension and the tool were totally wrong; this made my job easier today, it made the students researching easier, I felt like it was more controlled, and the students didn’t have nearly as many questions.

I would highly recommend using OneTab for this purpose, it may not be what it was intended for but wow did it make a difference and bit.ly made it so easy for students to put in a URL that wasn’t too complicated for them.

My Relationship with social media is the same as most relationships, there are things that I love about it and then there are things about it that I wish were different. There are moments were I think

social media is supportive, enjoyable, knowledgeable but then it can be insincere, co-dependant, addictive, tiresome, or just plain old judgy.

Social Media & Me

Personal Pros:

• I can see all the opportunities other people are experiencing through their posts
• I can showcase  experiences I am having
•  It keeps my pictures! This is huge for me, I no longer need to print them out I can just have them easily accessible, and organized. No clutter in my house
• Can see memories
• Can communicate with others

Personal Cons:

• Time consuming
• Mindless- takes me away from the things that I need to be doing
• I compare my life to others; I see what others are experiencing or doing and think “Ah I wish I could do that” or ” I should do that with my family”, it always leaves me feeling worse about myself if I am being honest
• Creates anxiety
• Addictive

Professional Pros:

• Communicate easily with parents/colleagues
• Use less paper (online agenda)
• Access to enrichment activities
• Able to send/share multiple documents
• View professional material
• PD opportunities
• Access to responding to emails anywhere is helpful

Professional Cons:

• Parents ignore the boundaries set out for our online agenda
• I feel obligated to reply to emails, parent messages on Remind right away
• Added pressure we I see other teachers posting about their awesome lessons
• Not as fluent as other teachers in technology so I feel less than in that area
• Anxiety

There you have it folks, thanks for stopping in!