Making Social Media Work for You

I love my job.  I love my students. I love my subject. I love writing, thinking, reading, blogging, discussing, Tweeting, pinning . . . about what I do.

I refer to all of this as #livingthedream.  And it's awesome. I am blessed.

I was fortunate enough to be able to share some of this love and passion for what I do and the classes I teach in my final technology session Monday called Making Social Media Work for You.  The session was packed. Many were engaged. They laughed and responded to my questions and a few even voiced their thoughts via social media.

The video version of my presentation is below.

But the overall message is simple: it's not about technology. Technology isn't useful if it doesn't impact kids. I use technology as a means of showing kids I care, as a way of communicating what I do in the classroom to the world, as a way of modeling being a lifelong learner and a teacher who loves what he does.

By doing that, I'm building culture. And we all know that culture is vital. It eats strategy for lunch.

I did a quick exercise on my first night with my UND class back in late August. I told them to write down the five things a great teacher needs to be.

When they had their list, I told them to put a star next to the trait that they thought was the most important.

Then I asked them to share.  As they shared, I started putting them on the board and put check marks by the top vote getters.

The top two were passion and patience.

I circled them and said, "Okay. If you want to be a great teacher, you need to be those two things."

And I spent the entire semester trying to be those two things.

Next week when we start a new semester, I'm going to repeat that exercise with each of my classes.  Only I'm going to first have them list the key traits of a successful student.  I'll circle the top two vote getters.

Then I'll ask them what they think a great teacher needs to be. I'll circle the top two vote getters too.

Then I'll say, "Here's the deal. You be the two things that it takes to be a successful student, and I'll be the two things it takes to be a great teacher."

And we'll spend the rest of the year holding each other accountable.

Culture. You gotta build it.

And you gotta live it.

Part 1



Part 2




Part 3