Do you use social media in your classroom? If not, I highly suggest using Instagram to get your feet wet! I started it this year and it is interactive, engaging, and {best of all!} easy.
I use Instagram to keep in real-time contact with my students’ parents. I love that when my students go home from school, if they are asked “What did you do at school today?”, they can’t say “Nothing” if there is a picture right there of what they did!
I try to take 3-4 pictures a week and I can immediately upload the pictures to the account. I add a quick caption to explain the activity and the parents see what we’re doing in the classroom!
At the beginning of the year I send parents a permission form. You can download a copy here. Luckily, I got all of them back this year. However, if you don’t get all of the permission slips back there is an option on Instagram to blur out any faces of kiddos who can’t be in the picture.
You have to create a log-in name and password. My username is a variation on my first/last name that I feel is easy for parents to remember. The great thing about Instagram is that you can make your account totally private! The only ones that can see my pictures are the ones that I approve.
My kids have come back to school telling me how it’s so cool that they saw their picture on our class Instagram! :)
As you can see, these 2 are pictures of my class buddy reading with a 6th grade class.
Here is a reminder for my parents about our Scholastic Book Order. This is a screenshot of an email I sent.
If you don’t already use social media in the classroom, you should totally try this one out!
Great idea!
I've been wanting to try this. Thank you for sharing. This is definitely something I will be doing next year.
I've been using Instagram with my classroom for two years now, and I LOVE it! I've had good feedback from the parents; they've said things like you did: they love that the kids can't respond with "nothing" when they ask what the kid did during school. Even my mom follows because she thinks it's neat to see what we're doing in class! I've even set up hashtags for each grade level that I teach so that parents can search specifically for their kid's grade if they don't want to sift through all the other pictures. You are totally right: IG is truly an easy way to get started with social networking in the classroom.
~Mrs. K. from The Teacher Garden Blog