Thing 3: Photo Fun

I have had Snapchat on my phone for a year or 2 now and I have friends and get messages, but never check them or use it. I decided that this would be a good time to dig deeper into Snapchat and learn more about it. I decided to do some editing on a picture that I took recently when I got engaged so I could have some fun with it.

I read some articles on Snapchat and learned about filters, geofilters, stickers, adding text and more. I learned that you can add up to 3 filters to each photo. I changed the filter in the above photo. I also looked into geofilters.  I learned that you can create your own to use. The only problem is that you have to do it in advance because Snapchat has to approve it and they cost money. I tried doing an engaged one and it said it would be available within 2 hours, but it was going to cost $7.99. I decided to stick with my own editing and save my money. I also added text in which I was able to change the font, color, size, and move it around anywhere I wanted in the picture. Lastly, I added some stickers to my picture. Stickers were easy to add, there were a lot available, and they are easy to move around and change size. After I was finished with the photo, I saved it and uploaded to my computer from my phone which was very easy!

Overall, I had a lot of fun playing with photos and editing pictures. It was very easy to do so I am sure that it would be easy for 6th grade students to catch onto. The only concern that I have is  that I was looking around and couldn't access it from my work computer. An application has to be downloaded and it is not available in chrome. Could this still be used in the classroom or would students have to edit photos at home for homework and upload them at school? I kind of like the idea of switching up a regular math homework assignment to something more fun and exciting like photo editing. Also, this day in age all students either have a tablet or a phone so we do not have to worry about them having access to technology.

I would like to explore more of Snapchat and eventually begin to use it in my classroom. I envision using it first as away that students con contact me in the classroom in the evening time. I have an app. for parents, but many times kids are on their own and it would be helpful if they had a ways to contact me outside of school hours. If I make a Snapchat account, I could post information for my students to see and it would be likely that the students see my posts because there are already on Snapchat with their friends at home. I think it would be great not only for academics, but also for building relationships with my students. If they know I am available to them, then they are going to be more trusting of me. Solid teacher/student relationships means better behaved students and allows me to focus more on academics as opposed to nonsense!