Beyond my Grandma's Daily Updates: Facebook lives on!



My grandma's Facebook feed

My professional learning networks have really helped me grow in the area of identity. At the beginning of my teaching career, I thought being a "good" teacher meant prepping for hours past contract, standing up in the front of the room and talking for the entire period, and making sure classes were packed with information. Dr. Trust mentions the idea of becoming a "co-learner" with your students which is exactly what my identity has evolved into. Instead of prepping for what I thought was interesting or useful, I allowed students to lead the way. How did they want their class to look like? What activities pushed them out of their comfort zone while allowing them to still have some choice and control over their learning journey? I began to stop talking and start listening. Students engagement, willingness to ask questions, participation, and overall liveness was evident.


 Over the summer, I recently rediscovered Facebook. Facebook was my first social media account when I was way too young to be posting on social media. It was filled with cringey photo booth edits and pictures of Justin Bieber. Then, it evolved to the yearly album dumps to keep my family updated on what I have been up to. During AP Seminar training this past summer, I discovered it held much more potential. My training leader told us about a Facebook group that was for AP Seminar teachers. I instantly joined this group and began scrolling. This group was filled with the trails and errors of AP Seminar teachers and tons of resources. As a new teacher for this course, this was a gold mine. I still scroll almost everyday, nodding my head along as some teachers describe their struggles with the students or instantly downloading a potential resource or new way of teaching an idea. 

Screenshot of new Facebook group

                                                    Screenshots of new Facebook page/resources

 Today, I decided to join the "Leading ELLs" Facebook page. When I was looking for pages to join, I was looking at how many members and how many posts are added to the group each day. This page has 17.6k members and averages 5 plus posts a day. The more information, ideas, resources to scroll the better! Instead of scrolling a Facebook page that is only dedicated to helping 2/5 of my classes, why not scroll a page that could help students in all of my classes? After being accepted into this page, I noticed that there were resources for all ages. Although I only teach high schoolers, some of these activities are applicable for students of all ages. For example, a teacher posted an assignment that was called "edit and rewrite the quotes by soccer players". This assignment was geared towards younger students but I could still see a place for it in my classroom. Students could edit and rewrite Shakespeare's quotes or quotes from any other text we are reading. In addition, there are also links to virtual conferences and potential classroom posters that you can print out to hang in your room. The virtual conference that is happening this weekend on 3/22 is a literacy matters conference with speaker Dr. Chris Emdin. It is awesome that this conference is free to attend.

Comments

  1. NMZumpanoMarch 19, 2025 at 3:16 PM

    Facebook gets a lot of bad press, some of it unfairly. There are some super generous groups out there with teachers learning and growing because of them. Thanks for sharing about your new discovery AND the virtual conference!

    ReplyDelete
  2. IreneMarch 22, 2025 at 9:46 AM

    Facebook along with Instagram are the two platforms that keep me intrigued. Not only because I can stay in touch with friends and family, but also because there is a lot of free content out there. Just like the conference being offered for free this weekend, I have attended several of these virtually and have learned so much and all from the comfort of my own home. Another perk is there is no travel time. :) I do admit that sometimes I do have to snooze a page for 30 days and change my notification settings on some of these pages. This allows me to only take what I need.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Evan van BreemenMarch 22, 2025 at 2:50 PM

    Hello Anna!
    It is nice to see you reconnecting to Facebook. I have not used Facebook for awhile myself, not since before I started my MLIS degree. Even then, I only used it for casual conversation. This week has taught me that social media can be used to develop by expanding your professional learning network. Perhaps I should look into Facebook again and see if I can reconnect with friends and family or find my own Professional Learning Network there.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Lizzy PrainMarch 23, 2025 at 3:05 PM

    Hello Anna!

    Thanks for sharing your journey as a teacher and how you’ve reconnected with Facebook. Facebook was my first social media as a kid too, and after high school, I didn’t use it much, but recently, I’ve been using it to connect with family and friends, or to look at cute animal videos or look into interesting groups like you have been. And don’t worry about being cringey, all of us were at some point or another. Being cringe is part of being human! It was clear from the tone of your post that you are really excited and passionate about having discovered the teaching group on the “Learning ELLs” Facebook, I hope it continues to bring you joy, friendship and helpful resources for your career going forward. I really love the title of your post by the way, its fun and eye-catching. I think discussing Facebook as part of your PLN was a really inspired choice, even if not too many people use Facebook these days, at least not when compared to the height of the site’s popularity at least, but your post highlights the many ways in both community groups and potential resources or tools that can be found on Facebook. Great post, Anna!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Maggie MoralesMarch 23, 2025 at 6:43 PM

    Hi Anna, I too recently got back into Facebook. There is so many communities that you can join. I mainly have joined groups that relate to my interests, but I have never considered to look for any group that might be able to help me with work! That is awesome that someone connected you to that community and that you are able to utilize it for the resources it brings to you. I am in my first year of teaching and while I totally want to be a co-learner, I know there is so much I can still do to get me to proudly say I am. I am still working my way towards that title!

    ReplyDelete

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