COUNCIL BLUFFS — The activity in teacher Erin Schoening's first-grade class at Gunn Elementary School looks like any other first-grade activity.
Schoening reads a story to the children about Lilly, a student who got angry and drew an unflattering picture of her teacher. Afterward, the children answer questions about the narrative.
“Lilly feels bad that she was mean.” “She apologized.” “Now, she was kind.”
It's like any other classroom until 7-year-old Kent Hyde, the teacher's helper of the day, is asked to use the reading session to provide a status update for the classroom's Facebook page. He slowly types in: “In Language Workshop, we learned characters, problems and solutions.”
Schoening's class is one of the first to use Facebook as a teaching tool, recapping lessons and “synthesizing concepts” while using the social media site to provide updates for their parents and others.
Schoening and her husband, Devin, also a teacher and the district's K-12 technology coach, helped write the district guidelines for using Facebook in the classroom. Devin Schoening said he and his wife came up with the idea before the 2009-10 school year, and school principals were intrigued by the proposal.
Now their efforts are drawing praise from Facebook and inquiries from teachers across the country about how they can bring it to their classrooms.
Facebook in the classroom, as used by the Schoenings, offers a way for parents and students to communicate.
It also offers students “an authentic writing opportunity, where they can get meaningful feedback from someone other than a teacher,” Devin Schoening said.
Students will not simply state “we had a writing class” on the status update. “We ask the students to create a status update that shows not only what they did but what they learned and why it's important,” Devin Schoening said.
Erin Schoening said it does not take away from instructional time, and the students in her first-grade class love it.
“We update the page two or three times a day,” Erin Schoening said. “I'll ask the kids what we should say.”
Another advantage of Facebook is familiarity. While there are other social media sites specifically designed for educational purposes, the Facebook advantage is that many parents already are on Facebook and know how to use it.
There are district guidelines for using Facebook in the classroom.
For example, a password guards against unauthorized Facebook use; the teacher has the password. Appropriate Facebook privacy settings also must be used.
“You have to be accepted as a friend of the page, and to be accepted you have to have a connection,” Devin Schoening said. That could include parents, siblings, teachers, principals, administrators or someone else with a legitimate reason to connect with a classroom of children.
Ella King, 6, one of Erin Schoening's first-graders, said, “I like Facebook because we send things to our parents and tell them what we do, and they send notes back saying they like it.”
That's another value-added element to the use of Facebook, Devin Schoening said.
“They write for an audience,” he said. “They'll get comments from students, parents and other classes. They get classroom dialogues.”
The visitors to Erin Schoening's classroom Facebook page now include educators interested in the project, some from as far away as New York and Bangkok.
The Schoenings have spoken nationally on their Facebook project and have fielded questions from around the nation from teachers curious about how best to use the site in their classrooms.
Erin Schoening said some parents initially were “cautious, a little worried” about the use of Facebook. However, many who started out skeptical have become fans of the page.
“The parents love it,” Devin Schoening said. “Many already know how to use Facebook, and now their kids can't say ‘I don't remember what we did in school today.' Parents can use it to start conversations with their children.”
The 22 students in the Kirn Middle School language arts class also maintain a classroom Facebook page.
The 12- and 13-year-olds are “digital natives,” children who grew up around home computers for the most part, so they did most of the setup for the page and the profile.
They take care of status updates and reply to messages, as well.
Facebook friends include parents, aunts and uncles, and even grandparents.
Jared Garner, 13, said his grandmother, Lola Garner, is now a Facebook friend.
“She said it's a good way to communicate,” said Jared.
Kirn teacher Nikki McIntosh agrees. “This keeps parents involved at the middle school level, and it allows information to reach the parents,” McIntosh said.
Students also like that they can talk to other classrooms. “Facebook lets us know what they do in school, and we tell them what we do,” Jared said.
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