Renae’s Blog

Life as a preschool teacher and busy mom

[rsmith7522]

Final reflection and recommendations

Wow, the last blog post of the semester. I have learned a lot this semester. I still stick by my statement I would not make a great social media consultant. That is okay because it is not really what I want to do.

As far as helping my client, not sure I really did. I gave them some ideas but they are limited on what they can do being a non profit. They rely on volunteers and with COVID have not been able to have many. The staff that are paid are doing with jobs and don’t have time to do the job of a social media team. But some of the changes they seemed to like. I hope that in the future that they listened to me and make some changes.

Some changes I suggested was to improve their presents on social media in the targeted area. This is a little hard for them as they have an audience in all age groups. We broke it down to the age groups and what social media each group uses the most. From there I went through that type of social media. Their main social media is Facebook. Their post get posted to Instagram. So that was helpful. I suggested they involve their volunteers in the different age groups for ideas that that age group would be looking for. Such as a younger volunteer might know their friends are looking for training a new puppy or tops for first time dog owners. But as the older age groups might be looking for how to care for a senior dog or traveling with a pet(for the snowbirds in MI).

They did like the idea of having more tips on their page. They didn’t want people to just be interested in their page for adoption but other things. We looked into what their goal was and what their purpose for being on social media. We talked about a calendar for them to have for when to post. The client liked that because maybe down the road volunteers could look at it and help out by posting live videos of the dogs. They just need to get a better plan of when to post things. They are pretty good at posting about the dogs when they come up for adoption. Their updates are all over the place. Which we talked about having one day a week for updates. So people will know what day they are posted and can click on their page. It is just getting a plan together that they need. We talked about different ideas to come up with. It will take some trail and error for them to find what works. It will be a little while before they can start to make the changes with COVID. But I know they will.

Again, I hope I gave them enough ideas and was helpful. Sometimes I felt I wasn’t helpful because I wasn’t quite sure of myself and what truly is involved with being a social media consultant. It has taught me more about social media. I am not a big social media person and don’t know a lot is the platforms. But I did learn more about them. Will I use them probably not but maybe one day it will help me in my job field I want to go into. This class did give me a headache trying to remember what feature went with what platform. Hopefully there is a cheat sheet out there. Thank you for reading my post this semester. It was fun reading everyone else.

[rsmith7522]

Socail media content and grabbing attention

There is so much socail media out there that everyone is trying to grab our attention. There are several different ways they do this. Created and curated. These are the two types grab attention of people. They are each different in a couple of ways. They each do different things on the socail media page.

Created content is the the ideas that will appeal to your online audience, both written and visual, that is created by your company or brand.

Curated content is content that is where your company or band finds the content and repost or retweets it.

When I think of the two different content I think of the NHL Twitter feed. They post information about the NHL put also repost scores of the games from the night, funny memes, important news about players.

Check it out here: https://twitter.com/nhl?s=21

The latest Tweets from NHL (@NHL). This is where you get your hockey fix. 🔄: @NHLGIFs 🏆: @StanleyCup 🗣️: @PR_NHL 📈: @NHLFantasy. 31 cities

Each help bring people to the socail media page.

A person in charge of a Socail media content needs to know many things to make the content attention getting. They have to be up to date on current topics in the field. They have to know where to search for the topics that follow the content they want on their own page to repost. The person also needs to be good at writing catchy phrase and tags of the videos. This will help with bring people to their pages and finding their content.

Some helpful tips:

Know different Socail media platforms

Know what audience your company or brand is to help with content

Know some graphic design

Know what lighting and some information about photography

[rsmith7522]

Building a Community

After reading the chapters in “The Socail Organization” I learned several different things. I learned first that you have to have a vision statement. To develop a good vision statement a company needs to have a understanding of when community collaboration is appropriate, know when the collaboration is going to delude er value, then apply the understanding of your organization’s goals and culture and craft and distribute the vision for the community collaboration.

The next thing I learned has to deal with where the community collaboration is going to deliver value. There are different attitudes toward social media. I knew some people don’t think we should be on socail media and more and more people believe everything that is on socail media. This is a scary thought to think. In a large organization you have to understand the different beliefs and values of socail media. A good model to use for this is the 6 F model Attitude Toward Socail Media. This deals with Folly, Fearful, Flippant, Formulating, Forging and Fusing.

Once you have a value it is good to assess it. There are different ways to do this. The book talks about using the following characteristics: magnetic, business-aligned, low community risk, measurable, and facilitates evolution. When the purpose has all these characteristics it will be a high quality.

The other model to use is the no, go, grow. There are three parts of this model.

The no stage the first hurdle a propose collaboration community needs to get over. The go stage is a determination if the collaborative community is likely to succeed or if it will need support. The grow stage is the last. If the collaboration move into this stage the company needs to figure out if there should be formal support and if it gets investment.

Some of the things I did not understand. A lot of it came with business ideas and business world that I don’t know. I haven’t taken much business classes so I don’t understand the business world. But I did learn some new things.

[rsmith7522]

Big data yes or no

After watching “the Legal Side of Big Data” I wasn’t to shocked to know that they keep our personal information. I have known they do keep our information and store it. I think back to when I first started collage my student number was my social security number. I didn’t like it because I felt like anyone could take my number and use it for what where. Which did happen....my roommate took my number and signed me up for several credit cards. She worked for the company that had students that asked on campus if you wanted a card. For every card she got someone to sign up for she got money. I ended up with 8 cards and I had to deal with it hurting my credit score for several years and closing them all. Now I wonder if that data is still being stored somewhere. How many times a get credit card offers in the mail is it because of those credit cards in the past.

With companies saving our data I agreed the need to watch what they save with our data. They don’t really need to save every click or website we have gone too. I don’t agree with using what we look at and then used it for our ads. I never thought about that I only get one side of things. The article stated we become in a bubble. I understand it a lot more. I can see that now.

What do I think needs to be done. I think companies that do keep our data need to discard some of it every so many years, months, days. I am not the same person I was 10 years ago. I am not the same person I was back when I got my first degree. Our lives change and we change over time. What I may have done or said is not the same. I do wonder how much of what I see plays into our views of the world and what is going on?

[rsmith7522]

Fake news is everywhere

After reading the article “Three reasons junk news spreads so quickly across social media” I agree with it and have seen it. I can remember several articles being posted by people I know posting it. The articles were about different things. The ones that stick out to me is the flat Earth theory and so and so died, like celebrities and royal family.

The flat Earth theory one sticks out the most. It started with a tweet and pick up in popularity. Some people were posting in support and other even though were questioning it were still posting spreading it around. The spreading by questioning can be dangers in there own right. It still is gaining information from it and some people might read it and believe it then continue to post it.

Why does it spreads so fast? It spreads so fast is because people either believe it or don’t believe it. They read things that go with what they believe or think they believe or are made to think. With made to think it goes with the algorithms that are used. When you only see certain things then you may start to believe it. The algorithms use what you click on and read or watch and then use it to bring up other things that go with it or people that are sharing the same thing.

When I got to number 2 in the article adverstising It made me look at what advertisements that I see. I know when I look up something on Pinterest it shows similar advertisements on Facebook or google. I then started to look at the advertisements I see. I have even seen shirts that are being sold on Esty or Amazon that go along with something I read or looked up.

How can we stop this? People need to remember that you can’t believe everything you read on social media. You have to be careful and even if you google it you still need to be careful. Will it change? I don’t think so. We saw it with the election this year and see if with Covid. Until the algorithms change things that are fake news will continue to spread.

[rsmith7522]

Social Media Consulting

What I think makes a good social media consultant is someone that knows different platforms of social media. How they work. Like the different type of features. I didn’t know you could follow a company but not publicly follow them to see what they post.

The person needs to know how each one works and what age group uses each one. Each age group uses different social media. Your older generation stick to more Facebook and wedsites. The younger generations use Snapchat, Instagram. The person needs to know what age group the company is wanting to target.

The person needs to have an understand a little about the algorithms. These are important to be able to understand what a person will see on their social media. If a person doesn’t search for their product then maybe the companies social media doesn’t show up. How they can change their social media to appeal to something that is similar to theirs.

Some other things I think that social media consultants need is to be personable, some graphic design or design knowledge, creative, knowledge about business, quick thinkers. I think they need some of these is because they have to know how to talk to their client in ways that help them understand. Creative to come up with different ideas that might work. Thinking outside of the box to draw people to their social media. Think of ways that might draw in an older generation to use like Snapchat or tiktok. The knowledge of graphic design or design is because you want the social media to catch people’s eyes in good ways. They need to know what colors look good together and what doesn’t. The person needs to be creative and a quick thinker. If something is not working or drawing negative attention they need to be a quick thinker to change it fast. The person will need business knowledge in general how the business world works too.

There is a lot a social media consultant needs to know and know about. One last think I think they need to know is up to date on the newest apps. The person needs to be up to date because the social media world is always changing and new apps are launched daily.

I would not be a good social media consultant. I don’t know all the social media platforms. Iam creative but don’t have any business background or graphic design.

[rsmith7522]

After watching the Nexflix The Social Delimma it was kind of worrisome. I worry for my children. It is kind of scary that the big companies like Facebook, Twitter, etc use these formulas to get us to keep looking.

I worry more about the mental health issues that are on the raise do to social media. I like how the one guy compared Saturday morning cartoons to social media. I remember Saturday morning cartoons and how the commercials were toys or food. It was in a way for us kids to want our moms and dads go out and buy the new toy coming out. But it was easier for our parents to say put it on your list. But with social media it is right there. Kids can’t get away from it. In the documentary they talked about the increase in suicides after 2011. Like I said in a post earlier my son was going through some mental health issues and clicked on a click bate. It was a are you hot or not. The hot people listed see what people think. He clicked on it and oh course wasn’t on the list. It was hard as a parent to explain it was click bate. He was 11. He just got on to Instagram. So experiencing it as a parent I can see the effects. I worry about my children having to have so many clicks. It is scary to think what they watch and what they click on people are collecting that data to use.

I have joked my phone was listening or reading my mind when ads pop up that I have been talking about or googled. It is scary to think that someone is tracking my movements.

I would hope that the people in this documentary and companies start to change what they do and how things are viewed. I hope the data on mental health and social media show them what is going on.

It was a warning to parents and all parents should watch what their children doing on social media and how many hours they are on. My child do not have phones yet or a lot or social media. My son instagram and a lot of it is to keep in contact with a couple of friends that moved. He has one more messaging app and this is to again talk to those friends. Will he get a phone some day. Will he get to use a lot of social media, no.

[rsmith7522]

A day without social media and tracking my use of phone. I was not excepting what my day was like. I know I don’t use social media much at work but I couldn’t believe how many times I touched my phone for other little things.

I did this on Friday. I work as a preschool teacher. My day started with me turning off my alarm on my phone. There was a couple snoozes in there. I picked up my phone and opened my email. For work I have a Covid questionnaire we have to fill out. I filled it out. I wanted to check my email but got up and took a shower. I got ready for my work day. I looked at my phone once to check the time. I left for work and turned on a true crime pod cast for my drive into work. When I got to work my phone went into my back pocket.

Once I opened my work email checked that. Then logged into Child Plus which is a program we use for attendance, meal count, notes, and other things. I looked at Pintest for a template of a leaf found one fast and printed. I then opened up pages. Printed a couple pictures of my preschoolers. After that I put my iPad down and got things ready for the day. When my preschoolers came in I picked up my iPad and took attendance. About a half hour later I picked up my iPad again and entered in meal count. We head outside for recesse. I checked my phone as I felt it vibrate a couple of times. Answered a quick text to my husband and made a quick call to my daughter’s school. Put my phone back in my pocket. I pulled it out one more time to check the time. Bought my littles in back to the classroom.

I didn’t touch my phone or iPad for a couple of hours. I picked up my work iPad to enter in meal count for lunch. After lunch I went to the bathroom. As I was coming back I pulled my phone out sent a quick text and looked to see how many steps I had done so far for the day. My phone went back into my pocket. I picked up my work iPad about an hour later. I entered in meal count for snack. I sent two emails. As my littles we’re getting ready to leave for the day my coworker and I were talking about complients and filing one. I pulled out my phone and googled LARA rules. We looked up the complaint form online. After that I sent my husband a text.

I left work for the day. I left early for my son’s hockey tournament. While in the car I wanted to check emails and get rid of some of the notifications I saw when I checked my steps. When I see the notification my anxiety goes up. I put my phone in my purse. It was nice to look out the window and feel the sun shining. My kids, husband and I had a nice conversation. My daughter read her book to us. When we got to rink we couldn’t get in as fans. Again I wanted to pull out my phone and scroll to pass the time. But I didn’t. We watched the hockey game and after headed to the hotel.

Once we got to the hotel I used my phone to send a couple text. I looked up meijer and found where it was. We ran to meijer. When we got back it was late so we all got ready for bed. I normally will play a game or read my book on my iPad before bed. But I didn’t. My husband set his alarm on his phone.

This experiment was a little easier because I was at work. I don’t have time to be in my phone. But I didn’t realize how much more screen time I get being at work. I left early too so I didn’t get my full day in. I can tell I would look at my phone more if I was home and it was a weekend. I know I have caught myself scrolling through Facebook, yahoo newes endlessly for awhile. Even though I did use some other apps that I could have gotten away from using. I didn’t need to listen to my podcast but it’s my me time I get during the day. Steps I didn’t need to look but wanted to see how many I had walked. It was also easier for me to call from my phone with the number right there. Overall I did better then I do on the weekends. At work with the limited use of cell phones makes it nice to have that break. I do carry my phone on me in case of a phone call or text. My kids school know my cell over my work number. This experiment did make me realize I don’t like to see notifications or email. I use it a lot for the time. I want to have my husband track his phone useage and compare his and mine.

[rsmith7522]

Welcome back. I enjoyed this weeks talks and talking about how social media and technology has taken over our lives. I lived during the internet infancy and the first cell phones.

I have told my children I lived without the internet. Their response was disbelief and thinking I lived before cars and during world war 1. They can’t seem to understand life before it was right in our hands. I find it funny because they don’t realize it wasn’t that long ago there wasn’t internet. When we talk I have to remind them that I grew up when the internet was just becoming available to everyone. I was in high school when AOL came to be. They think life was the Stone Age. I just left at them and then think how they look at my parents.

In the article “Before the Internet” I can relate to all of those. I was outside all summer long. We couldn’t settle a bet until we could get to the library like the two fitting over cat’s eye or opal. You would just both agree to stop and look later. Most times you would forget. It didn’t stop you have having the fun. It was harder to find the answer. Now when I can’t remember something or don’t know I pull out my phone and look it up on google. Does that mean people are remembering less things? Maybe. Does it mean we have less brain power? Maybe. Has it made life easier? Maybe.

https://youtu.be/oHNEzndgiFI

This YouTube clip makes me laugh anytime someone post it. It shows how far phones have come. Most people don’t remember phones like this. I do because both my grandparents had them. My grandma even had a party line. A party line was when you shared a phone line with another house and you had to check to make sure the other house wasn’t using the line before you used it. My children’s school had a landline for students to use. The office ladies laugh each time the students come in and either ask how to use or what their parents numbers are. It’s hard now a days to know what other people’s numbers are. I can remember my childhood phone number to this day. Can I remember what my doctors office number? No. This has changed and I do think it is harder if a child does need to call one of their parents if their phone is dead. Which probably doesn’t happen often. I know for my children who are limited on screen time worry when their phones or tablets drop down to 50%.

My children are limited to 2 hours of screen time during the week and 3 hours on the weekends. Yes sometimes I am not always good at limiting them but I try. Phone and social media have become such a part of our lives. Just yesterday my son, who is 12, was throwing a fit because his dad wouldn’t let him use his tablet right away when we got back to the hotel from his hockey game. He came over to me and was crying and said “I just want to play because all my other teammates are. I just want to fit in.” It broke my heart. He was so upset about fitting in and being on a game right away. My son has suffered from mental health problems. I have seen him become really depressed because he got an add on ad on Instagram about to see if friends think you are hot. He wasn’t on it as it was click bait. It was for you to go to this page. He was upset so hard on himself, calling himself ugly, disgusting. At the age of 12. In the Max lecture it talked about getting you to click on things to get data on where you click and ads. I do believe it does have an influence on our mental health. Even if the data is inconclusive.

Some of my take always, is I do agree we are becoming more additived to our social media. I do find myself sometimes scrolling through just to pass the time. I also don’t like to see the red alerts. Or having emails. For me I will just click the app and look but not look just to get the app alert to go away. Emails I delete most of them. Does it cause problems in relationships? Yes, I does. Will you get people have to deal with the after affects of what it does? Yes. Is social media bad? That depends on the person and what it is used for and how they use it. I do believe it is easier for me to not be on social media then my kids. I know life without and don’t have a lot of social media. I have Facebook to share my life and my kids life with my older family members. I have Instagram to keep an eye on what my son is doing. I didn’t have Twitter until this class. I text and prefer text over phone calls. My mom in-law prefers a phone call over text. Will life end up like Wall-y maybe. But people are becoming more aware of the health issues. Will life go back to before the internet? Nope.

[rsmith7522]

Let me tell you a little about myself. First and for most my name is Renae. I am a mom of 2 very strong willed children. My first born is a 12 year son. We will call him C for now until I can come up with a better nickname. My second is a daughter. She is 7 years old. We will call her cupcake for now. I am married to my wonderful husband since 2005. We live with our 3 cats, Gracie, Oliver and Luna.

My life is very busy. My two children are into sports. My son plays hockey for the HAWKs. He plays a forward/wing. His favorite spot is in front of the net. He has been skating since he was 3 years old. After hockey is over he plays Lacrosse. He is a goalie and really enjoys it. When not doing those sports he likes to golf. My daughter is on a gymnastic team. She loves gymnastics. She hasn't found about her sport she likes. She did play hockey for a couple of years. When not doing gymnastics she likes to play school and be a teacher like her mom.

Other then being a mom I am also a teacher. I teacher for Head Start 4 Kent County. I have worked for Head Start for a year now. Before Head Start I ran an I home child care. It was a job I loved and miss. I switched to a classroom to give me more time with my children. I am going to college to get another BS degree in Child Development. I have a BS degree in Psychology. I have an AS in Child development. I am also working towards a minor in entrepreneurship.

I am getting this minor because I did run my own child care. Some day I would like to open up a child museum/play place. I love taking my children to the Grand Rapids Children's Museum but it can be costly. I would love to open on somewhere close and be able to run programs like mommy and me workshops or play dates, Parent night outs, and summer camps set around different themes. My other idea is to set up summer camps or a feild trip based summer care program. Lots of ideas and hoping some day to be able to do one of them.

If I am lucky to get some free time I love to read crime friction or true crimes. I love spending time with my family and doing different things. I love my job in the classroom and spending time with my family. This pretty much sums me up