I would love to hear if any of our Kenan Fellows Elementary teachers use math centers/stations for part of their instruction. If you are, what type of centers do you use and what type of schedule do you maintain? I am desperately trying to accomplish this in my room, but I’m uncertain of where to begin!

I truly believe districts are trying to protect their students as well as making sure learning experiences are authentic. I feel there are ways to use almost any social media in the class, but are they always appropriate is the question. In terms of utilizing this in my room I sit in an easier position than many because I teach Kindergarten. My students don’t come to school with tablets and cell phones (well maybe I have a couple) trying to text, use Facebook and Twitter, and “surf the web.” However, there have been times when I wanted to use social media like Twitter to connect with other classes and couldn’t because the site is blocked in my district. Or the time there was an awesome math video on YouTube, but this was blocked as well. This year they have opened up YouTube (still need to check on Twitter . . . tomorrow!) which helps, but educators have to make sure they are using this media as a means to enhance a lesson in their class and not teaching the lesson for their class.

This year I’ve started a Global Learning project (thanks to Mrs. Rene Herrick) that is introducing my students to diverse cultures and other countries. One thing we are trying to do is make personal connections with other classrooms in our four countries (Japan, China, England and South Africa). We chose these countries because of the families in our classroom. We really want to incorporate Skype into our room this year so our students can “see” one another. Without social media this may not be possible. So it has a place in our room, but it should not be where we focus all of our instruction.