Social Media for Educators/Forty Years Later

There are all kinds of opinions out there about using Social Media with your students.  The Case for Social Media in Schools is one example by someone who has outlined very valid reasons to use sites like Facebook, Edmodo & Edublogs in the classroom.  Here is a post about the recent Missouri Facebook Law which "limits teacher-student interaction online".     

My post really doesn't address the above thoughts except that it IS about teachers and students interacting online via Facebook!


Back in the beginning of July I received a Facebook invite from one of my 6th grade teachers...okay, well, one of my former sixth grade teachers.  He and another one of my former 6th grade teachers, decided to start a Facebook group for those who belonged to our little neighborhood school from the years between 1971 - 1981 (I'm sure I'm dating myself NOW!).


Little by little the group started growing.  In just a short month over 180 now adult, former students (and teachers) of the Fisher School joined the group. Posting after postings are filled will all kinds of memories and memorabilia (photos, newspaper articles, pics of buttons and more).  One might think that this was just a group 'going down memory lane', but it is far more than that.  Here, on Facebook, is where a group of people (in their 40's & 50's) have found a way to let some very special educators know the important role they played in their lives.  

 


  
This is a group of extraordinary teachers who have not forgotten their students, who have kept in contact with a few people, sporadically over the years.  They have been invited to weddings, attended the funerals of our classmates and even seen some of us at retirement dinners.   I guess the point here is: I  think the use of social media (in this case Facebook),  has provided an outlet for many more of us to thank those who made a difference in our lives. 

 
 

Imagine...Tom Monaghan, Suzanne Gillam, Ellie Muldoon  and the other teachers in this group might never have known the impact they had in our lives were it not for the likes of Facebook!


Henry Adams once said,  "A teacher affects eternity he can never tell, where his influence stops." I'm thinking in this case, by using social media the influence doesn't have to stop!

                                    


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