Today, no genre of the population has been untouched by the positive effects of social media. Whether he/she is a youngster looking for making new friends online or a teacher thinking about developing personal learning networks, social media has served itself as an accessible platform for achieving all this and much more. Teachers and social media are collaborating with quality education. Popular social networks such as Edmodo, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest have helped teachers learn about new and improved teaching techniques. These sites leave no room for any kind of confusion regarding the innovative teaching methodologies. This blog will walk you through some exciting tips to manage social media for teachers.
Teachers and Social Media
Teachers should handle their social media accounts very carefully to prevent any dispute or controversy. You can use the same social media for educators to interact with parents and students and bring quality results.
1. Keep a profile picture professional
As a teacher, you need to maintain a professional outlook over the internet. For this, the very first thing that you need to do is keep your profile picture/avatar as professional as possible. Never opt for uploading casual pictures as your social media profile’s display picture. Always ensure you’ve dressed conservatively in the images that you choose to post on different profiles created on social networks.
2. Stay away from controversial topics
When somebody creates an account with a particular social media website, he/she gets into the habit of liking every post that’s published on the site. Doing this is fine if you’re a non-professional, but if you belong to the elite group of professionals like the teaching community, indulging in something like this can get you in trouble. Hence, it is recommended to “Like” only those posts that fall under the category of “Non-controversial”.
3. Always write positive comments
Someone who posts positive feedback about an individual/organization is bound to receive positivity in return. As a teacher who’s continuously exploring the social media world for better teaching techniques, you must never post negative/derogatory comments for your colleagues or students. Ensure all your comments are logical and have a positive vibe attached to them. Doing this will make it simple for you to leave impressive digital footprints.
4. Watch out for images you’re tagged in
Photo tagging is one of the most common activities undertaken by social networking freaks. Hailing from a teaching background, you must keep a check over the images you’re tagged in. It is simply because some of your college buddies or fellow teachers might post and tag you in some pictures that will be unacceptable to the educational institution you’re employed with.
5. Create a healthy friend list
As a yet another social media tip for teachers, it is recommended to create a “healthy” friend list. By the term “healthy”, I’m referring to individuals who are genuine and whom you’ve met either in person or online. Being a teacher, you can choose to segregate your friends using different categories such as students, fellow colleagues, school/college management and so on. For all such categories, you may choose to adjust the privacy settings for gaininPendingg complete control over everything that the concerned people can see on your social media profile.
6. Always report spam
Every social networking site has a reporting mechanism for you to report any problems such as hacked accounts, phishing, misinformation, etc. As someone who’s working in the teaching domain, you also might have to face similar issues during your journey of unveiling the secrets of social media. Hence, make sure to report all your concerns to the concerned site for maintaining a flawless social media presence.
Wrapping Up
Social media is a tool with its unique pros and cons. It is entirely up to us to leverage the pros and dump the cons. As a teaching professional, don’t forget to analyze the purpose of your social networking. Doing this will help you achieve your goals amicably. Do share your views/opinions on the above post. Also, if you have a social media tip to share, don’t hesitate to use the comments box provided right under this post.
