Snap Chat For Blogging...Wait...What?

At the recent Manhatten Beach Bloggers’ Meet-up, a few of us were talking about our fave social media outlets.  Of course, I was all, “Instagram all the way, baby!”  BUT I also chatted about my other love...

SNAP CHAT!

It’s seriously addicting and once you’re past the initial set up (which let’s be honest, is NOT user friendly), it’s super fun and can be used to keep in all day contact with your followers.  

So today’s post is all about how to set up an account & how you can use it to strengthen your blogging family.

1.  What is SnapChat?

You know when you first got Instagram and you thought everything was post worthy, so you chose your favorite filter and bugged everyone who followed you?  That's what SnapChat is for!

SnapChat is a social media app that let’s you share instant photos & video clips with friends and followers for limited times...think PeriScope.  I think originally it was meant for inappropriateness, but I love it for sending photos throughout my day to my friends and husband of things that make me laugh or roll my eyes. 

Rather than innandating my Instagram feed with photos only my bestie would like or understand, SnapChat let's me share photos with only the people I chose to send it to!  No more losing followers bc you thought everything was post worthy when really only you thought it was cool ;)

It also doesn’t take up data on your phone unless you save a photo to your own camera roll.

Basically, I support your use of SnapChat!  I Snap more than I text because it is so dang fun!

2. Choosing a user name

When creating your SnapChat account, chose your user name wisely!!  You can change your name in your account at anytime, but your username is set for life! Dun, Dun, Dun!

Your “Name” (as SnapChat calls it) is how you will appear on the app, so choose something your friends or followers will know you by.  If you are using this primarily as an extension of your blog & Insta family, consider making your blog name your SnapChat name.  

Depending how you add friends or how they add you will dictate what you are displayed as in their phone or vise-versa.  For example, if you add someone from your address book, their name will be what you have them as there.  OR if you “scan someone’s ghost,” you will see their SnapChat name in your app.

3.  Why use SnapChat?

It is a great way for you to share a lot of classroom and product content without annoying people on Instagram by flooding their feed with your pics ;) 

  When I use my SnapChat for blogging, I post pictures to my story. 

This let’s anyone who has added me view anything I post for 24 hours...so be sure to post tasteful and school-safe photos.

In the above picture, you can see where I would select "My Story."  You can also see my top friends that I send “exclusive” photos to (some are listed by user names, others by my phone contacts).   

 

Another way you could use SnapChat to benefit your blog or TpT store is by announcing flash sales to your followers to give them exclusive information!  

4.  Adding Friends

To have people follow you, share your "ghost" and username on your preferred social media of choice and let your followers add you!

Do not add anyone that is not your real life friend, or else you will receive random pics and videos from strangers!  I repeat: Let people add YOU and then share with them via your story.

5.  Beware!

People can screenshot your videos and pictures...so ya know, use with caution.  SnapChat users are also allowed one replay of a video or picture per day!

6.  How to use SnapChat

"Snap" a photo of something cool you're doing in your classroom or the pile of papers you have to grade, add a caption and some emojis, choose the length of time you want people to be able to see your photo, press the bottom arrow, select "My Story."  To record videos, hold the button down and follow the directions from above.  You can also add illustrations and filters over top your videos and photos.

My favorite blogger to follow on SnapChat is TheAlisonShow... she's the funniest person alive.

Now go add SnapChat to your brand, add me on SnapChat, and check out my SnapChat story!

 

   

Music For Munchkins

I’ve been wanting to do a Mr. Kell CD giveaway and after seeing so many great penguin resources from our #teachersofinstagram community, I decided now was as good a time as ever because there is a Mr. Kell Penguin song that talks about Antarctica and the tuxedo penguins wear!!

My school has been blessed, nah SPOILED to have musician Tom Kell as our music teacher for the past 10 years.  He quickly stole the hearts of students and parents alike with his fun songs about God, school, and just plain nonsense.

If you follow me on Instagram or Snapchat (username: ChristinaV.), you have definitely heard one of the hundreds of Mr. Kell original songs as he leads our worship time at the beginning of chapel and teaches my kiddos on Tuesdays.  He is truly the highlight of my students’ week.  With his charming and witty songs, you can’t help but sing along

We all love incorporating music into our lessons and we know that students learn best when they are engaged, which is what the rhythm and rhyme of songs give them!  That's also what Mr. Kell gives them.  He writes songs for our Christmas programs and has even been known to write songs for teachers after looking at a bulletin board.

He once saw a contractions bulletin board in my classroom and came back the next week with a song to help students learn what a contraction is and which words are contractions.  Now when I begin teaching contractions, we listen to the CD and get to reference it all the time when we “put an apostrophe where a letter used to be [so that] everything gets easier to say!”

In kindergarten, students learn about apples, firemen, and have a gingerbread unit...you can bet that there are songs for those too!

So if you haven’t been able to tell already, Mr. Kell is one of a kind and I want one of you to be able to add his music to your classroom, whether it goes with a science unit on weather (yes, he has a weather song) or just to have silly songs playing in the background while your students work.

 

  a Rafflecopter giveaway

Mr. Kell is such an icon at my school that he had a book written about him!  If you’d like to purchase a book based on one if his songs "The Bucket List Song," click here...you won’t regret it!

What music artists are you using in the classroom?  Let’s keep the conversation going in the comments!

Really Easy Rewards

Happy New Year!!  

This week back kicked my booty, but I sure did miss my kiddos.  I had to jump on here to share something I rewarded my class with this week for the first time in my six years of teaching:

A TALENT SHOW!

In my class, my students work as a whole to earn bean parties.  You know, when they move all their beans from one jar to the other by doing well and following directions, they get their party.  I used to put off my kids earning their beans though because I was making the reward too complicated and costly.  That's why I decided to compile this list and share a little bit more about the positive reward system in 2A!

 

As we all know, camaraderie goes a long way in the classroom and I've found using these rewards in the classroom are invaluable.

 

At the beginning of the year after explaining the ins & outs of our classroom & the bean jar, we set a goal to work for as class.

 

We choose this goal together by brainstorming a list of fun, FREE things & then vote on them & start earning beans to earn that prize.

No matter what gets voted as our goal, we have a ton of fun!  Here are some of my personal faves:

1.     iPad Day:  This means every subject involves the use of our one-to-one iPads!  Of course I make sure the day we have our bean party is my class’ scheduled day for the iPad cart.  I stick to the day’s lesson plans & subject matter & simply find apps that lend themselves to what my students are going to be learning about!

Check out my very official modified plans for iPad day:

 

There are so many great apps out there, but for your reference, here is a link to a blog post I checked out when planning this day.  It’s from my Bloggy Bestie Jen Bonner from Sparkling in Second! (You probably already know her because she’s amazeballs.)

2.    Talent Show:  This was the reward that made me write this blog post!  When we chose the goal of a talent show, I told the kids to start thinking of what they could do; is it something they needed to practice like a dance routine or are there any materials they would need to bring for a magic trick? 

This was a low-key talent show done in the classroom without a stage or parents or costumes.  The day after they earned all their beans, they performed their talents!

It was truly entertaining!  I didn't think I would enjoy it as much as I did!

Here are some talents shown by my students just to give you an idea of how low-key this reward was:

·      Double-jointed fingers

·      Magic trick

·      Yo-yo tricks

·      Hair braiding

·      Singing

·      Break dancing (hehe)

·      Duct Tape creations

 

This student showed us how she makes these and then had samples!!! Raise your hand if you love samples!

I was so blown away with how fun & creative everyone’s talents were!  We really bonded & had a lot of fun. 

Now I don’t dread my students earning their bean party and instead can’t wait for us to do something fun & out of the ordinary together!  

What do you do to reward your students?  Leave some of your ideas in the comments!~

If you want to read about my tiered behavior management plan, click in here.