Education and Social Media

Most everyone participates in some type of social media these days—even my mother-in-law has a Facebook page, and she’s in her 70s!  And I would be willing to say that these people have a love-hate relationship with social media.  Personally, I joined Facebook as a means to keep in touch with friends and family that live in other cities and states.   That’s the “love” aspect of it—being able to talk to people we don’t get to see that often, seeing pictures and funny posts.  Now to the “hate” aspect of social media—and we’ve all been there!    We either read a status update that makes us angry, or post a status to relieve stress.  Either way, it starts a posting frenzy where everyone feels their OPINION is correct.

I could say this is true for almost any post I read about Common Core Standards.  They typically make me angry.  I have many friends that post their frustrations with Common Core due to how their child is being taught math.  Below is a screen shot of a conversation that took place on one of my personal friend's Facebook page.  

I began a reply, but decided not to comment.  There was some strong language used, and I knew that anything they said would only make me angry, which is silly because all of their comments simply come from a lack of understanding.  No one has explained the "Common Core" process to them, so naturally they are frustrated.  The reoccurring complaint seems to be the number of steps and/or ways to complete a math problem.  Parents want to know why they can’t “just solve it”.  I have to constantly remind myself that their frustrations are due to a lack of knowledge about Common Core.  They hear what other people are saying, and haven’t talked to teachers themselves.  I once commented on a post to explain that students are asked to show all the steps of a math problem because we want the students to understand the “WHY” of math, not just the “HOW”.  I continued to explain that they would learn the algorithm—what they refer to as the “traditional way”—eventually.  Just as there are fundamentals in sports, there are fundamentals in math.  You must learn and understand the fundamentals before you can move on.

This school year, I had a parent ask me if we teach Common Core math.  Once I clarified what she was specifically asking about, I explained to her that we are simply teaching them problem solving strategies.  For example, when adding two digit numbers, we break the numbers apart into tens and ones.  Add the tens, add the ones, and then add them back together.  She said, “Well that makes sense!” 

And as for the question of “Why do they teach them 15 different ways to solve the problem?” there is a simple answer.  Education has evolved.  We, as educators, have discovered that students learn in more ways than one, and we do our best to accommodate students’ needs.  I believe I remember the complaint “What difference does it make how they do it, if they get the right answer?” when I was in elementary school. 

Parents simply want what is best for their kids.  As a parent and a teacher I can use social media to help parents understand the “hows and whys” of my teaching style.  As a professional, when I enter a conversation I should “analyze, discern, inform, and participate” (Hicks, 2012, pg. 144).  As stated in chapter 7 of Crafting Digital Writing, “social network posts are often first draft thinking in final draft form” (Hicks, 2012, pg. 147).  One must take care in what words they use, as well as complete any revising and editing before the message is sent.  Hicks also states that social media provides us with opportunities to produce content for wider audiences; therefore, the ability to reach more people (Hicks, 2012, pg. 154).  Perhaps we can find yet another positive method to use social media—as a way to extend our classrooms to the outside world.  

For more information on how to use social media in the classroom, visit edutopia and check out the article A Guidebook for Social Media in the Classroom.  The University of Phoenix also published an article How Teachers Can Use Social Media in the Classroom.  PBS discusses the pros and cons of social media in the classroom in the article Should Teachers be Using Social Media in the Classroom.

References:

Hicks, T. (2013). Crafting digital writing: Composing texts across media and genres.

Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.