Dear Teachers, USE SOCIAL MEDIA IN YOUR CURRICULUM.

Both my mom and dad are educators. My mom once taught elementary education then became an instructional coach for the state of Alabama.  My dad teaches secondary education. My parents love teaching. I always tell them, please dont be the boring uptight teachers I experienced in grade school. Luckily they just so happen to be the cool teachers that kids come home and brag about. Thanks to their children, my brother and I, we encourage them to learn about what the youth currently enjoys. In order to identify with what the youth likes, you have to know exactly what is going on in modern day culture. TECHNOLOGY IS A HUGE DEAL. Children of all ages have cellphones. At one point and time only business professionals needed a personal phone for clientele. Now kids as young as kindergarten have cellphones. One of my cousins is 6 years old with a cellphone. Her mom says she needed to have a phone because she fears her getting on the bus at school, which I guess is somewhat responsible but is exposing children to another world, the internet that is, if her phone is data or WiFi capable. Im always amazed when I see toddlers playing with tablets and browsing through YouTube videos, they learn so fast how to operate devices!  I think it is safe to say that children's attention span is not quite what it use to be and technology and social networking may be the blame. I personally cant sit for a long time and listen to a monotone lesson. The older I get the more Im prone to falling asleep at any given minute. 

According to Nielson millennials spend about 2-4 hours on social media every single day! I will be the first to admit, I spend more than 4 hours online. Usually I spend up to 6. When I work out Im online checking my Twitter because I do not want to miss out on the action.  Many teachers request that their students not use their phones during class time. But if teachers incorporated social media and text messaging into their curriculum, maybe just maybe students would be more interested in their discussions and actually pay attention. 


I found two videos that went viral , that were indeed somewhat educational. The first video is from the rap group the Migos. The Migos are rapping a book that many of us are familiar with and probably read in Kindergarten titled "Llama Llama Red Pajama" on Power 106’s The Cruz Show. The video received 1.4 million views and 15k comments. By incorporating education and modern day culture, people of all ages were encouraged to engage in the post. 





The next video is from a guy who makes comedic educational videos. In this video he's telling viewers about the 44 presidents. This video was created before 45th President Donald Trump was elected. This  video received 3.6 million views and educators actually reached out to him to make more videos to teach their classes. 

Dr. Lewis’s dissertation, “It is important for educators and curriculum leaders to have an appreciation of students’ knowledge base of social media and how they employ it in their construction of knowledge and reality", is accurate. Social media allows participants to voice their opinions and also find people to chat with that have similar interests.

Polling. pictures, videos, you name it can be found on any and every subject online. Social media enables people who think alike to feel a sense of alliance. I would enjoy talking with my classmates via social media. Sometimes its easier to articulate what you want to convey via text. Speaking in front of a class is not for everyone.

Social media is now being used in a professional setting as well. Many employers encourage their employees to use sites such as Linkedln to network. I believe teaching students how to effective use social networks will help them censor what should and shouldnt be posted online.