Sharing With Our Lakeville Board of Education, Superintendent and Cabinet!

SHARING!  We are all taught to share our toys when we are little.  Now, sharing our work, our play and ourselves has a whole new meaning.

Since I began blogging, I have gained an understanding of why digital "sharing" is so important! (and a little bit addicting!) Although the Oxford Word of 2013 is "selfie", someone should name SHARING as the digital icon and concept of the decade!  Although sharing is not a new idea, it has taken on a whole new meaning with social media.  Now our greatest concern is that our students are "over sharing"!!  But as much negative press as digital sharing seems to get in the media - depicting students glued to their devices, heads down, posting images of everything, Vining, Snapchatting, Twittering...every thought making it's way to an audience...there truly is a decidedly up side that I have now tasted myself.

Sharing pushes us all to be more creative, more engaged and more diligent!  As a teacher, I have always known that publishing student work makes them "care" more about the outcome, but even I continue to be pleasantly surprised to see just how engaged students are when they know they may reach an audience beyond their own family.  The biggest "AHA!"moment for me has been that I am not immune to this same effect.  I get so excited to share the latest thing that I am doing with my students.  As I plan lessons for my students, I am always thinking about how excited I am to share with everyone!  And I take a great many more pictures than I used to!!

As for the very real concerns about student sharing, it gives us, educators and parents, a great opportunity to teach them from an early age to be thoughtful content creators...and hopefully future thoughtful social media users.

Last week, Mr. Labatte asked me to share my blog with the Lakeville Board of Education, Superintendent, Dr. Snyder and Cabinet.  It was fun!  I loved having an opportunity to show off what our Oak Hills students can do and to share their creativity and their good ole fashion hard work.  They have become digital natives right before my eyes and I am happy to share it with parents and readers!  Thank you to Mr. Labatte, the Board of Education, Superintendent and Cabinet for letting me SHARE!!!  (And thank you Mr. Skelly for sharing the image that you took with your iPad while I was presenting!!:)