Social Networking Reflection

Social Networking Activity

LSSL 5385; Spring 2019

I have been a twitter “tweeter” since September 2009 and I have decided that it is probably my favorite form of social media to engage with and spend time reading and discovering information. However, this assignment was much than just reading and occasionally scrolling through the feed. I had to be intentional with my time and document the information during the semester. I began following the members of the LS department and the majority of the required users the first day we began the semester, January 16, 2019 with the exception of Scholastic, I have been following them for a few years.

• Dr. Lesesne @ProfessorNana: Supports reading at all levels with recommendations of authors that range from early childhood to young adult. Bold advocate for reading to enjoy, change your perspective about life, confirm beliefs, and become lifelong readers instead of the emphasis of lexile levels and high-stakes testing (YAY!!) Books of all genres and subjects and highlights diverse books for readers. The Teach Me, Teacher podcast of “Is There A Reading War” part 1 was a must-share with my ELA teachers who are doing an incredible job of choice reading and building classroom libraries along with allowing students school library time to browse and find books they want to read.

• Dr. Perry @kperry: I love seeing her tweets every night posting the time and asking what viewers are reading. I responded a couple of times but I also like reading the responses to give me an idea of book I may be interested in reading. I add the responses to my goodreads account so that I can remember.

• Laurie Halse Anderson (YA author) @halseanderson: Strong female author advocate and fighter of sexual violence. With her recent release of SHOUT, she has been a very visible presence on twitter showcasing her public appearances. Promotes diverse books and I use her posts to recommend books to my students when I see them searching for more.

• Jason Reynolds (YA author) @JasonReynolds83- My students love reading his books and following him on twitter is fun and informative. He writes about the reasons we need diverse books in schools for our kids. He is a strong advocate of all authors and encourages teachers and readers to branch out and find books that will create empathetic readers.

• Jennifer Hubert Swan (YA Librarian) @ReadingRants - Following her twitter is great but the best part is that it led me to her teen blog readingrants.org where I have pages upon pages upon pages of book reviews of newly released books that my students are wanting to read. I then build a list of her books that are available to purchase for our library. A large part of my order to Follett and Bound to Stay Bound are a result of her book reviews. I love the clean look of her blog, the way she seems like the coolest person ever when she writes. I can only imagine the hours that she spends crafting her reviews. She is passionate and the type of librarian I aspire to be.

• Paul Hankins (HS teacher) @PaulWHankins- Lots of cool ideas, art projects that go along with literacy and tons of book recommendations. Creates photos and posts about book collections for themes and common topics. He also shares poetry and encourages poetry in the classroom. And he’s hilarious!

• YALSA (Literacy Organization) @yalsa- Probably my favorite account to follow for infographics and updated book lists for reluctant readers and suggested titles for students that I know would be interested according to subject. Everything was relevant to my current position and it takes the guesswork out of building my book orders for the library. I shared the infographic “reimagined library services for and with teens” with the ELA teachers at our school.

• Scholastic (publisher) @Scholastic - I have followed Scholastic for a few years now and use it to recommend books to students and teachers. Many of their posts are for a younger age group but still relevant to many of my students. They are also one of the more cross-curriculum twitter feeds that I can use to share the information with my Math, SS, and Science teachers. We subscribe to the Scope magazine and because they are so popular with our students, I am pushing to get subscriptions to the Math and SS magazines.

• Penguin Random House (publisher) @penguinrandom - This twitter feed offers a much wider range of book recommendations than Scholastic. I see more YA titles listed and even adult novels that have been recently released. The most recent posts for National Poetry Month have reminded me to display my poetry in the library and continue to recommend those books when my students are coming in for checkout.

Additional things I noticed with this assignment:

• Kylene Beers, Penny Kittle, Linda Rief and Donalyn Miller are very popular among all the twitter accounts I follow. I was fortunate to attend the Baylor Literacy Conference two summers ago and hear the incredible speakers and attend mini-sessions with them. I believe in the work that they do and I love that they push reading for pleasure and not reading for testing.
• I am part of a book study with my campus leadership team and we are currently reading The Innovator’s Mindset by George Couros. Chapter 11 of this book talks extensively about the opportunities for educators using twitter to share and collaborate on ideas that allow our classrooms and schools to reach further than the walls that confine us. I think my teaching and most currently, my librarianship, has improved and will continue to improve when I see the success that others are having in their schools. I get excited and energized when I read posts about students learning in schools that are willing to think outside the box and become problem fixers and finders.
• I HAVE to be intentional and thoughtful when reading through the twitter feed or I will mindlessly flip through it like I do Pinterest or Facebook/Instagram without considering how it could benefit me or others that I work with and serve. It’s easy to get lost in the social media and it becomes a time-waster instead of the resource it needs to be.