At the beginning of the school year, I strongly encouraged (e.g., walked the class to the activities fair to sign up for a club of their choosing!) the students in my Social Symbolism classes to join a club at school, so that they will be part of their community (i.e., school), have a chance to build new relationships and foster older friendships. By being part of a group (i.e., a club, a team, the band, etc.), students have a place to practice the skills that they are learning about in class in a natural environment.

For the last two weeks, students have been discussing social networking (i.e., Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc.) and how it relates to social communication skills, and what type of information should not be shared on social media (e.g., anything personal you would not share with a stranger).

They were asked the question: Does social media/networking sites help or hurt social communication skills? Anonymously answer: yes or no, and to explain why. The results were interesting. Some stated that they thought social media/social networking helps social communication skills, because "you are able to stay in contact with friends and make new friends." It was interesting that some students disagreed, because as one student put it, "you can stay in contact or make new friends by joining a club."

Several students stated that they felt that social media/networking sites hurts social communication skills, because the "technology isolates you from others." Another student stated that "it hurts social communication skills, because you can't read body language or tone of what is written. Also, people may post a comment on a profile page that he or she may not say to the owner of the profile's face."

That conversation lead to the topic of cyber-bullying. The class learned the definition of cyber-bullying, what it looks like, and what do you do if it happens to you. Below is how the students answered the questions:

• What is cyber-bullying? 
• The act of harassing someone online by sending or posting mean messages or mean comments about a picture, it can be done anonymously.
• What does it look like? 
• Mean comments made about a picture or a post on social networking site to one specific person with the intention of harassing/hurting the person
• What do you do if it happens to you or a friend?
• Tell someone you trust, such as a parent, teacher, administrator, friend
• Save the evidence of the bullying by printing it out or taking a screenshot of the evidence
• Take down or delete your social media account
• Block the cyber-bully and the people who "follow" the bully
• Report the bullying to the social media site, because they can shut down the cyber-bullies profile/access to the site.

They learned about "digital footprints." A digital footprint is a trail (email, comment/post, picture, video) that people leave online; which means that even if you delete a picture, post or comment that has been put out on the internet, it will always be there. Yet another reason why cyber-bullying is so serious.

This has been a very busy and fast moving month! Students have learned what it means to be a "Flexible Thinker," and the types of thoughts they give others when they use flexible thinking. Flexible thinkers are people who can "go with the flow" and are open to other peoples opinions and ideas. Rigid thinkers are people who have a difficult time seeing other people's opinions, thoughts, ideas as having merit, and often have very strict ways of doing things (think about Sheldon from the Big Bang Theory and how he feels about his couch...and I will be referencing Big Bang Theory a LOT)!

Other topics covered include:

• "Expected and Unexpected Behaviors" in different environments (i.e., school, friends, school clubs, sports, family, work etc.)
• What type of thoughts communication partners have when they (the students) use “expected” and “unexpected” behaviors
• What type of feelings communication partners have when they (the students) engage in “expected” and “unexpected” behaviors.
• Topic Maintenance...an expected behavior (i.e., how not to "go off on a tangent")
• Asking the 5 “wh” and how questions
• Keeping comments short
• Am I adding a thought (on topic) or am I sharing an experience (off topic)?
• Size of thoughts
• Small thoughts are thoughts others have about you when you are using expected behaviors
• Medium thoughts are thoughts others have when you are doing something that is unusual for the situation, and;
• Large thoughts are thoughts others have about you when you are engaging in unexpected behaviors
• Asking for clarification during class
• When and How
• "Social Fake"
• Pretending to be interested in something that does not interest you
• Look at the person who is talking to you
• Matching facial expressions to the message
• Make positive comments and ask questions that will keep the conversation going.