SnapChat for Teacher Development
Snapchat has a place at school! (I'll repeat that again for the disbelievers) Snapchat has a place at school! Just like any tech tool, teachers and students can use it to enhance their learning, rather than automatically thinking it is a distraction.
This past June I had the opportunity to present at the national ISTE conference. My presentation titled: Snapchat Coaching, aimed to describe ways educators might use snapchat to grow professionally in their craft.
The idea initially grew out of a struggle I've had as an instructional coach. Due to limited collaboration time, I often ended up leaving notes or e-mails to support teachers in honing their craft. One struggle of notes and e-mails is that the recipient misses out on a large part of communication, which is the tone and non-verbals that go along with a message. Being able to use snapchat, allowed me to send a video message to the teacher. The video could then be viewed when the teacher had time later in the day. This often happened during plan, when they were sitting at their kids ballgame, or watching tv later that night. Since the video disappears after it is viewed, teachers viewed the coaching comments as formative and were more open to sending a short video clip back to dialogue about their instructional choices. Snapchat also allowed me to make use of bitmoijs to send quick affirmations to teachers recognizing all the great things they are doing in their classrooms.
Beyond coaching, teachers can use snapchat to collaborate with their PLN (professional learning network). They can ask for ideas planning lessons or share ideas they considering. This tool can be especially helpful when supporting younger teachers who are new to the profession. These teachers are already using snapchat in their personal life, and welcome a way to informally get help as they are growing in their craft.
Snapchat may also be used by principals or other instructional leaders to spotlight schoolwide instructional methods using the "My Story" function. As a principal tours the school and visits classrooms, he/she can snap pictures of ideas and post them to "My Story". This then becomes part of their story for the next 24 hours, and any faculty member who is on their friend list will be able to see the spotlighted instructional method. Using "My Story" in this way allows the leader to publicly affirm teachers for good instructional methods as well and give ideas to all faculty on methods they may use.
A few cautions in using snapchat for teacher development. It is never appropriate to discuss specific students using the tool. Snaps should be limited to instruction and curriculum.
The world of technology often means people think you are available 24/7, and because snapchat shows the user if you have or haven't viewed a message, lines can easily be blurred. Set parameters to when you will and won't respond to snaps (and then stick to it!). Work will always be there, and a response can wait til the next morning.
Do begin with the willing. This may be teachers who are using snapchat in their personal life. It may also be teachers who you are having trouble reaching. Be strategic, and let the tool grow over time to include more staff.
When creating videos, be aware of your non-verbals. When I first started making videos, I noticed I had the tendency to look up when I was thinking about what to say. On video, this came across as rolling my eyes. It took some practice to get it right!
Lastly, choose a focus for snapchat. There are several ideas here for how it might be used. Focusing on using the tool one-way will help the staff to see the benefit of snapchat. Initially using it in too many ways will spread the purpose thin, and muddy the waters eventually leading to tech tool abandonment.
Get to snapping!
