Social Media and Your Digital Tattoo

Last week, I had the pleasure of partnering up with the counseling department in Bedford High School's first annual Social Media Awareness Day. I must say that not only was it fun to help organize the day, but is was also very rewarding.

Last year the counseling department came to me with an idea to work together to help remind students (and staff) about how to handle social media in showcasing the 'goods' and the 'bads'. Throughout the school year, we got together in meetings to brainstorm what we exactly wanted to accomplish. We knew that there was going to be a presentation but we wanted to make the day even more than just that.

When it came to the presentation, we knew that we did not want to just lecture about the negatives of social media. Instead, we wanted our message to come out that it is ok and encouraged for students and staff to use social media with keeping precautions in mind.

To open this Prezi presentation in a new window, CLICK HERE.

We also wanted to make it real and personal for the students. With that, we surveyed our staff at BHS as well as all of our freshmen and sophomore students. That is right, we surveyed almost 600 students and staff!

We asked similar questions to both staff and students so that we would be able to make comparisons amongst each group. The results were very informative and helpful. Not only did we share the results in the presentation, but the counseling department also created posters to showcase in the main hallway.

We also decided that since we wanted to highlight how social media can have a positive impact on others (and we did not want students to get 'bored' of listening to Mrs. Puffer and I) we interviewed some teachers in the building. We asked them how social media has had a positive impact on them. It was really interesting to hear what the teachers had to share - personal and professional examples are both given in this video. To view this video in a new window, CLICK HERE. 

At the end of the presentation, we highlighted the YouTube video, "Look Up" by Gary Turk. If you have not yet seen this video, then you must take a look at it. This video really makes you think about your 'screen time'. We decided to challenge the entire BHS community and 'Look Up' during the lunch block that day. If you would like to view this video in a different window, CLICK HERE.

As students walked into the commons, some of the National Honor Society members as well as the BHS counselors reminded students of the challenge to not look at a device for 25 minutes and to be present.

These students actually took it another step further and placed all of their phones in the middle of the table while they were hanging out socializing and eating during their lunch break.

All in all, it was a great day! It was very refreshing hearing from teachers talking about how it either impacted the students or themselves in some way. The day would not have been possible without the Counseling Department - all the way from concept to reality. And a big kuddos to Ms. Puffer for helping give a great presentation. I know that I am already looking forward to next year.

Another GREAT Day to be a BULLDOG!