Workshop Title: Learn and Apply: Using Social Media for Language and Content Application
Social media has transformed over the years from a place of entertainment to a contemporary and engaging learning platform that is immediate and personal. Reviewing language and content through social media posts is a great way to help students connect their learning to bigger issues outside of the classroom. This virtual workshop will demonstrate how to set up a social media project for unit or semester-long content and language review. Participants will learn how to guide their students in social media posts that will improve their skills in summarizing knowledge, enhancing language with imagery and new vocabulary, and applying critical thinking.
Bio
Crystal Bock Thiessen graduated with Bachelor’s degrees in both Photography and Spanish and received her Masters in TESL from the University of Central Missouri, USA where she eventually worked with the Intensive English Program (IEP) for a year and a half. She taught EFL in Sapporo, Japan for three years, and in Lugansk, Ukraine for one as an English Language Fellow in conjunction with Georgetown University and the U.S. Department of State. She has worked as an English Language Specialist in Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Moldova, Georgia, Belarus, and Russia, with an emphasis on team-teaching, photography and video for the language classroom, and language-learning through community engagement. Currently, she is an ESL instructor at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln, Nebraska, USA and working on her Ph.D. in TESOL education. Besides teaching, she is a professional photographer and, combined with her love of travel, has photographed and visited 46 countries and 29 U.S. states.