Facebook for Learning

What is Facebook?

Facebook has been on of social media's most popular sites for a little over 10 years now, so if you haven't heard of it, I would be shocked. The purpose of Facebook is to post and see you friends posts about what is going on in their lives. These posts can consist of just a sentence or can include photos and videos. From when it was originally created in 2004 to now, the website has really expanded into a key social media network. I started using Facebook in middle school. Now when I use Facebook it's just to catch up on people that I am distant from and stay up to date with anything happening in the world. I also use Facebook as a way to network with organizations I am involved in like what is happening on my college campus or keeping what with important things involving my sorority. Facebook created these things called pages, which can consist of whatever you would want it to be as well as can as private as you want it to be. These pages I have either liked or been invited to have been my main resource for any information for anything I am involved in. Almost every organization I am involved in has a Facebook page to stay connected. The pages are where most educators use Facebook for teaching purposes. In high school I had multiple teachers who created Facebook pages that we were required to join. The pages often had reminders and assignments as well information that is just fun for the class. Facebook is easy and free to join. Anyone who is 13 years old or older can join which is why it has become the most popular social media resource. It can also be easily accessed online as well as a downloaded app.

Why Should You Use Facebook in Your Classroom?
The first and most obvious answer is because almost everyone is connected to Facebook. Many educators are skeptical about using Facebook in the classroom because of privacy between them and their students but Facebook has created ways to where you can still connect with your students without having to be Facebook friends with them. Using technology and networking skills is becoming a bigger teaching concept in schools today. Kelly Walsh who works at the College of Westchester reviewed research on social media and retention rates and came to the conclusion social media is a useful tool for engaging students and reducing retention (The Innovative Instructor Blog). Facebook allows your students to learn from you by using social media. Who knew social media is great source for learning?

Not only is Facebook a useful source for your students to be using their social media skills for learning purposes but it also is better way to communicate with your students, parents, and have them communicate with each other. I know many educators when they leave the school day, are shut out of the school world until they have to go back to teach the next. While it would be nice if that actually was true every time you left the school for the day, it most likely isn't. Facebook makes it easier for you to answer simple questions regarding assignments or content information without having to email or make phone calls outside of school. Especially when you use the app, it's a great portable way to communicate outside of school.

Ways to Use Facebook in the Classroom
There are endless ways to use Facebook specially for your class as well as communicating with other educators. One is that teachers can follow along with other lectures as well as your students following along with yours. Facebook has this great feature called Facebook live which allows you to record yourself on a live stream. Teachers can provide this for days where there is no school or follow along other educators lectures to increase their own knowledge. Teachers can also use Facebook as a way for their students to get personal use of content being taught at the time, for example, politics. while this most likely won't be a reliable example until high school, it is important for the younger generations to stay up to date on local news. I know for myself, I do no watch local news stations, but social media, like Facebook, has allowed be to be informed on pressing issues happening in our world today. As a teacher you can gather informational articles and place them on your class page, to spark your students interests. Another way, which could be a useful reason to use Facebook in the elementary classroom, is documenting growth. For the elementary students, the parents would obviously be the ones seeing the page, but can show their kids. an example of documenting growth would be when the class is studying the stages of a caterpillar becoming a butterfly. The teacher can posts pictures of the progress as well as keep a live video of the process going on their page at all times.

Facebook is great to use in the classroom because it allows you to connect to your students, their parents, and other educators in an easy way. Students also will love connecting their knowledge of social media networking and applying it to your class. This makes it easier for the students to get involved in your class as well easier way for create engagement for your classroom.

References
100 Ways to Use Facebook in the Classroom. (2017, June 27). Retrieved from https://www.onlinecollege.org/2012/05/21/100-ways-you-should-be-using-facebook-in-your-classroom-updated/


Nations, D. (n.d.). What Is Facebook? Here's What You Should Know. Retrieved from https://www.lifewire.com/what-is-facebook-3486391
(n.d.). Retrieved from https://ii.library.jhu.edu/2014/08/07/using-facebook-in-the-classroom/

Making Movements with Go Noodle

What is "Go Noodle"?
As a teacher, you have probably experienced your students becoming restless after only 20 minutes of instruction, yet theres still so much more that need to be taught that day. Go Noodle allows your students to get their energy out in short amount of time, and helps regain their focus on instruction. "Go Noodle is an online source that helps teachers and parents get kids moving with short interactive activities. Desk-side movement helps kids achieve more by keeping them engaged and motivated throughout the day" (About Go Noodle). This online source was designed for the average kindergarten through 5th grade classroom. It is completely free and can used at school, at home, as an app, and on google play. As a teacher, all you need is big enough screen to show these videos and create lots of space in your classroom because you're students will be moving! 

Now you're probably asking, what goes into a Go Noodle video? These videos are catchy instructional videos. They are instructed by real life characters or cartoon characters singing, dancing, and talking with one another. The video lengths vary from 1 minute to typically 3 minutes. There are a wide variety of videos on Go Noodle in order to find what fits best with your class. Below you find an example of a Go Noodle video.

Get Me Started!
When you're ready to sign up, you will get the option to choose whether you're a kid, a parent, or an educator signing up. I signed up as an educator, and the whole process took me less than 5 minutes. Once your account has been created, if you're familiar with social media, your Go Noodle site should look like any other social media site. On the top of the screen you will see "Discover, Categories, Channels, and Plus". Your home screen is your "Discover" page which has all the latest and popular videos. If you click on "Categories", you will find 5 categories: curricular, mindfulness, sensory and motor skills, school life, and movement type. Within these categories are sub categories that will be more specific for what you are looking to show. "Channels", is a variety of networks that has partnered with go noodle and have their own videos within them. The "Plus" tab is section of Go Noodle that you need to pay for in order to unlock other features you may be interested in. You may also notice the heart and magnifying glass at the top right. The heart symbol is where you will find any videos that you have "favorited". This is a handy tool because as you are using Go Noodle with your students, there will be videos you will want to play multiple times so instead of having to search for it every time, you have the option of "favoriting" it, and it will show up in that section. Another neat tool on Go Noodle is on the top left side with the 3 lines. That takes you to your account. Within that, is a tab called "extras". Extras has lots of free downloadable and printable activities to use in other parts of your class. 

Ways to Use Go Noodle in Your Classroom
My first experience with Go Noodle was last year when I was observing a 2nd grade class. I often visited this class during their recess time and on this particular day it was raining outside, so the class and myself were participating with a video from Go Noodle. Using a Go Noodle video on days where there is inside recess, is useful because it still has your students moving which is important since they're no longer getting that outside. It's also useful because it limits the noise in the classroom because the students are following along with the video instead of having multiple side conversations in a small, enclosed area. 

Another way as a teacher you can use Go Noodle in your classroom is to introduce new concepts. A great way to capture your students attention on a new topic you're about to teach, is to show a catchy video. An example of this would be, teaching your students about the water cycle. As a teacher, you can introduce the topic of the water cycle and then show a video about it on Go Noodle. From there, you can expand into your water cycle lesson. Throughout the days that you go over the water cycle, play this video. By the end of the week, the students will have a better understanding of the water cycle and will hopefully have the catchy Go Noodle video memorized so if they are having any difficulty with the topic, they can think back to the video. 
While most of these videos are upbeat and movement songs, Go Noodle also has some more calming videos. These videos are great to use in your classroom to calm down and refocus your students. Standardized tests can be a very stressful time for your students. Some students hide their stress well and some don't but these tests are stressful on any age group. Throughout the school year, as a teacher, you can show these peaceful videos that talk through how to ease and refocus your mind. It may seem silly to your students at first, but the more you incorporate these videos and make it a routine, the more comfortable they will be. These peaceful skills that they can learn from these videos, could be used when they are finally confronted by these standardized tests at the end of the year. Having to do something that familiar to them, like breathing exercises from these videos, will calm them during this unfamiliar time of standardized testing.

Why Use Go Noodle?

Using Go Noodles increases more movement in the everyday classroom. "The US Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans recommend that children and adolescents should have 60 minutes or more of physical activity each day, but according to the CDC, only 21.6% attained 60 minutes or more of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity on at least 5 days per week" (CDC). Most schools only have 30 minutes or less for recess and also not attending a P.E. class everyday so it's difficult to ensure that your students are getting 60 minutes of physical activity. Go Noodle gets the students moving while not having to take them out of the classroom!


Go Noodle states that the following are key features in using their site and why.

1. Free: anyone can use Go Noodle to create movement anywhere

1. Research-based Activities: Go Noodle's activities were designed based off exercise science and other top research. The activities are designed to be healthy for body, engaging, and beneficial to the brain.

1. Fast: GoNoodle takes no time to setup and has content of a variety of lengths.

1. Designed for Long-term Engagement: GoNoodle motivate kids to stay active. Each class chooses a "Champ" (a virtual mascot) who grows as the class earns the points needed to advance to the next level. Reward them for engagement by helping them grow their Champ.

1. Multiple Classes: GoNoodle can be easily set up so that each class has their own game progress, Champ, and rewards. Which beneficial for teachers who teach multiple classes.

References
Baumgartel, M., C., B, C., L., S., Laramie, S., & Kearns, S. (2014, May 01). GoNoodle Is Changing Our Classroom. Retrieved from http://fallingintofirst.com/2014/05/gonoodle-is-changing-our-classroom/

How much physical activity do children need? (2015, June 04). Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/physicalactivity/basics/children/index.htm

G. (n.d.). About GoNoodle. Retrieved from https://support.gonoodle.com/article/241-what-is-gonoodle


Using Go Noodle in school "improves behavior and attention, betters academic performance, and strengthens classroom cohesion". Go Noodle is also beneficial in the home because it "turns screen time into active time, creates great family fun, and makes your home healthier" (GoNoodle).

Movement and Mindfulness for Kids. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.gonoodle.com/

When In Doubt, Kahoot! It Out!

What is "Kahoot!"?
Kahoot! is an online game-based learning program. It is a free resource for anyone to use, not just teachers! Kahoot! is used to create multiple choice questions or statements shown on a shared screen for everyone to see with the possible answers provided. The students or whoever is responding, will answer on a separate device. Once the time is up on each question, those playing the game will be told if they got the question/statement right or wrong. Whoever gets it right will get a certain amount of points, which continues to add up after every question which is where the game portion comes in. 
Kahoot! was launched to the public in September of 2013. It was originally created with the intention of using it in the classroom but has expanded beyond that to businesses, sporting and cultural events, and other social gatherings. The Kahoot! company has international teams located in Norway, United Kingdom, and the United States. 

How does "Kahoot!" work?
In order to get the most engaging results from Kahoot! as a teacher, you need to Create, Play, Share, and Reinforce! To Create, you can make a variety of multiple choice questions. The format and number of questions is completely up to you. You can also had pictures, videos, diagrams, etc., to explain further explain questions. For a step by step tutorial on how to set up Kahoot!, watch the short Youtube video provided. To Play, you will typically conduct this a group setting, like your classroom. The questions and answers will be shown on screen for everyone to see and the students answer the questions on a separate device. Each of the answers has a corresponding shape and color; a red triangle, a blue diamond, a yellow circle, and a green square. The students or whoever is playing the game will have a separate device and to answer the question they click on the corresponding shape that matches the answer to the screen. It may sound a little confusing at first but once you get started it's extremely easy to catch on! To Share, encourage your students to create their own game or play different games already created. Also as a teacher, share your own Kahoot! as well as explore others that have been created. Sharing is a great tool to use especially in Kahoot! because it promotes leadership as well as expanding the students knowledge globally because it's a global site! To Reinforce, teachers can revisit Kahoots and implement them for homework. Kahoot is not only a website but an app too, so students can use the challenge feature outside of the classroom to get more practice!

Ways to Use "Kahoot!" in the Classroom
There are many ways to Kahoot! in your classroom but you first need to address what grade level you as a teacher are address. While Kahoot! is a great resource to implement 21st century learning in your classroom, it will probably be most beneficial to students 1st grade and above. In lower level grades, like 1st-5th grade, students most likely will not own smart phones, so teachers will need to make sure that there are class iPads or schedule computer time to play. Around 8th grade through high school, more students own a smart phone, so Kahoot! is a great way for them to be able to get that joy of using their phone in school but in an educational way!

The most popular use of Kahoot! in the classroom is for the teacher to obtain data on where their students are at on the content being taught. It's a great way to see how many of your students are understanding or not understanding the material being questioned. Teachers and the students are able to see how many students put what answer and from there, the teacher can move on to the next question or pause to discuss why the answer was the correct answer. This is also helpful for the students to test themselves because they may think they know the content but when they are being "tested" they actually find out they don't know as much as they thought! I personally have had this happen when I played Kahoot! in the class. I thought I knew the material very well but when I was asked in a different way than normal, I saw that what I needed to focus more on. 

Another way to use Kahoot! as a teacher, is to "break the ice" at the beginning of a new school year. Teachers can create a Kahoot! game with selfies or other pictures with questions regarding fun facts about yourself so your students can get to know you! Not only is this a fun way to introduce Kahoot! in your classroom but it also shows your students that Kahoot! doesn't have to just be used to test or review content. Teachers can also use this on their back to school nights with their prospective students and their parents. This allows the parents to get to know the teacher personally as well as getting the parents involved in resource their kids will be using throughout the school year so parents are more familiar. 

Why Should You Use "Kahoot!"?
"The 6 Reasons To Start Kahoot!'ing" (what-is-kahoot).

1.  It's Flexible
2.  It's Simple
3.  It's Diverse
4.  It's Engaging
5.  It's Global
6.  It's Free

As teachers, we are always looking for new ways to engage our students especially in a 21st century way. Kahoot! is the answer to that. That's why Kahoot! has over 70 million users monthly, with 60% of them in the United States. Kahoot! states, "Our founding principles are Social, Play and Learning. Driven by our mission, we’ve built a game-based platform that creates an emotional, playful, engaging and truly social learning environment. Instead of looking down into their textbooks or devices, learners are encouraged to look up while playing and connect with each other – we call it a ‘campfire moment’". Kahoot! is a great resource that can be used in multiple ways, in and outside the classroom. As a teacher, you have the ability to use this program to change your teaching and bring fun back into learning!


References
National Geographic Society. (n.d.). Play Kahoot. Retrieved from https://www.nationalgeographic.org/bee/study/play-kahoot/


Advance Education. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/amitchowdhry/2017/08/28/how-kahoot-quickly-hit-one-billion-players-while-helping-advance-education/#736870337393


Learning Games | Make Learning Awesome! (2018, September 21). Retrieved from https://kahoot.com/welcomeback/

Chowdhry, A. (2017, August 28). How Kahoot! Quickly Hit One Billion Players While Helping