My teaching philosophy has always involved a making component long before makerspaces were mainstream. I believe in hands-on learning. Embodied cognition means to learn by doing; and similar to playing with fraction pieces to gain an understanding of fractions, children need to play with language in order to gain an understanding of what it means to be a better writer. Blogging allows for that type of tinkering with text while helping students to grow their writing muscles because blogs allow for editing, revising and multiple iterations over time.

1. Blogging & Social Media
in the Elementary
Classroom
“It’s already here, why not push
forward?”
Chris Casal, Purveyor of Geekery,
Heathcote Elementary School
Christine Boyer
@5Boyer

2. About Me...

5. To blog =
To create
To share
To connect
To inspire

6. Our First Iteration...

7. The Edublog Awards

8. Year 2

9. Going
Public...

10. Audience is
powerful...

11. Two questions to frame goals...
How can we find and use
published blogs as mentors
to continue to grow our
own writing?
How can we help students
develop an online identity?

12. Blogs as mentors...
Planet Zoe
Sarah
Josie’s Blog
Simply Aubree
Study 5 student blogs:
What do you notice?
What can you emulate?
What will you try today?

13. Developing an online identity...
● Blogs tell a story
about the author
Heathcote Arcade
● Framing posts allows
for continuity and
context
Natasha's Blog
Tessa's Blog

15. Skills we admire in our students...
•critical thinking •problem solving •self-
reflection
•social intelligence
•curiosity
•collaboration
•gratitude

16. Assessment...

20. Audience...

24. Mom This Is How Twitter
Works

25. Twitter as
part of our
daily
routine...

26. 4 Reasons I Use Twitter in My Classroom...
Twitter connects me with parents
Twitter expands the walls of our classroom
Twitter connects me with others who share the same passions
Twitter helps us conduct research

27. 1. Connecting with parents...
Gives parents a window into their child’s day
Learning becomes transparent
Less time copying means more time for conversation

31. 2. To expand the walls of my classroom...
We Tweet to ask questions and connect with experts

33. 3. To connect with others
who share the same passions...
Building a professional network (PLN)

34. 4. Twitter as a research tool...

35. Since that blog post was written,
the list has grown:

37. “My grandma lives in Florida and Twitter helps her see what I’m doing in school, she likes that”
“Twitter can help others learn from what we’re doing”
“It saves on paper - we have all the charts without making 24 copies of it”
“It helps us to document our work”
“Tweets of pictures, charts and homework help us to review our work from home easily”
“We can share work with our parents”
“It takes too long to get to School Wires, Twitter is really fast and easy”
“If I’m sick or on vacation early, I can keep up on the work on Twitter”
“Twitter is a good thing - when my mom asks what I did in school, I usually say I don’t know, but now
we can check on Twitter”
“Twitter is a good way to communicate with people who we can’t interact with directly. Like astronaut
Scott Kelly who tweeted to us”
“I use Twitter to see what’s going on in school. I use Instagram to follow friends who have moved and
see what’s going on.”
“Vine and Twitter are good for following my interests, like a sports team, a car company. I can see
how they’re doing.”

38. Get comfortable with one platform,
then explore….