OMG I am speechless!

Yeah right…like that’s ever going to happen, but it nearly happened this week as I started to read through my English students’ contributions for our social media unit.

I would be lying if I didn’t admit that I had high hopes of being able to catch this class’s attention with this unit topic. Let’s face it, nearly all teenagers are using social media to varying degrees. It is a rare teen that makes the conscious decision to step away from this social context at a time when social connections and friends seem almost more important than anything else in their lives.

I started the unit off with some fun and light-heartedness, looking at Memes. I shared some of my favourite memes,which gave me the perfect excuse to embed some insights and messages about learning and growing up via this relevant pop-culture communication style. The best part of the lesson came when I extended the invitation to the class to share their favourite memes with me. The classroom burst into life and the students became the teacher and I became a willing student, as they shared a range of humorous, insightful and ironic observations about their lives and what is important to them. Right at the end of the lesson, I had to shout over the top of the buzz of sharing in the room to call out my challenge; “create a meme of your own,  for homework tonight!” I wasn’t confident about my chances of getting too many memes in the morning, but I am always willing to be pleasantly surprised.

The next morning I started up a padlet page and invited each student, as they came into the room, to add their meme onto this shared space. It’s always great if one person can start the ball rolling without the need to bribe or cajole and that’s what happened in this lesson. Sharing is a powerful motivator for communication and soon other students were getting excited about being ‘published’, and to see and hear their friends’ reactions as each new meme was displayed on the screen. I was blown away by the students’ insights and use of word play that seemed to be so effortless and quick. (In truth most students made their meme in class as we started on our new topic – these teens are the champions of multitasking!)