Three Ways to Get Your Professional Development on Instagram

Sometimes professional development is on target and really beneficial...and sometimes you sneak a stack of papers to grade in and try to make your PD Day productive!

How about some professional development you can do in your pajamas? And personalize to target just what you're teaching? With proven tips from real teachers in the trenches? PD that is FUN?

It exists, and it's called Instagram! Twitter and teacher blogs are excellent, too, but today is all about the Instagram.

I was later than many joining Instagram, because I don't have a smart phone. Did you know you don't need a smart phone to benefit from Instagram? While you can't publish from your desktop (as far as I know), you CAN see everything anyone else is posting!

We teachers love keeping  up on the latest brain research and best practices, but we don't always have time for long reads during the school year. You do, however, likely have time to scroll through a few pictures, and you'd be surprised how much benefit you can derive from it!

Here are three ways to get your professional development on Instagram: 

1. See what real teachers are doing in their classrooms and adapt their ideas to fit yours.

Scroll through posts for inspiration, or search for ideas on a specific topic. Teaching place value? Search the hashtags #placevalue and #valorposicional. You'll find posts like this one from me:




2. Get book recommendations from teachers who are in the trenches with you.

We all know how hard it is to find great literature, especially authentic books in Spanish (not translations)! That just got easier, particularly if you teach lower elementary. Teachers and bloggers are sharing books with the hashtag #hoyleemos, and more people are joining in every day!

From @schoolencasa

From @elcuentodelanoche


3. Extend your PLN worldwide

There are Instagrammers all over the world, and as bilingual teachers, we're uniquely equipped to communicate and connect with them! You can also connect with companies, like book publishers; they pay attention to what people are recommending and saying about the books they print, and they'll respond to your questions and comments!

How else would you know that today is Día de la Comunidad Valenciana? Sharing culture with your students just got a lot easier!


From @ninosenmochila

And here are three things to remember when you post on Instagram:

1. Everyone can see your photos, and anyone can steal them.

Be cautious. You are sharing with the whole world, and while you don't want to be paranoid, you also  probably don't want to share all the details of your whereabouts and habits publicly. Also, while you can't right click and copy photos off of Instagram, there are lots of websites that allow you to do so. They're not illegal. (And that's how I got the pictures for this post!)

So, at least consider watermarking your pictures. Then when they are floating around the internet, they're at least identified as yours. I use the free app A Beautiful Mess; you can add text easily and share straight from the app.



2. Respect student privacy.

Your school may have policies about taking pictures in which students are identifiable; even if they don't, parents may not appreciate it. I generally take pictures so that my children are included but their faces don't show. Other teachers put hearts on top of student faces (also easy to do with apps like A Beautiful Mess).


From @maestrasandovalin1st

3. Hashtag, hashtag, hashtag!

Hashtagging on Instagram is essential to helping people find your content. And while you want to be careful on Twitter not to use TOO many hashtags, on Instagram you can use all you want! Having ten on a post is not uncommon or considered uncouth. Here is a list to get you started with hashtagging; you can search any of these in the search bar to see how people are using them!

#duallang #duallanguage #iteachbilinguals
#literacy #iteachmath #iteachscience
 #iteachsocialstudies #teachersfollowteachers #teachersofinstagram
 #iteachtoo #iteachk #iteachfirst
#docentes #maestras #educar
 #educación #enseñar #aprender
 #bilingUe #colegio #hoyleemos
#lectura #librorecomendado #lectoescritura
#pedagogia #manualidades #matematica #matemática

So, if you're not on Instagram yet, check it out! And because it's way more fun if you have people to follow from the beginning, here's a list of our I Teach Bilinguals crew's Instagram handles! Just search these in the search bar, and you'll find us. You can click on "follow" and then all of our posts will show up in your feed! Can't wait to see you there!

@schoolencasa
@learningattheprimarypond
@kindergarten_corps
@lecturaparaninos
@maestrasandovalin1st
@mrmrsbrightside
@kinderbilingue101
@thedualtrio
@bittybilinguals
@mmbilingual
@languagelizard

And if you want more recommendations of people to follow, you can sign up for my newsletter! I always include several recommendations in each issue!

Virginia of School en casa is a teacher by profession, now homeschooling 4th grade, 1st grade, and preschool bilingually. She loves integrating Montessori theory into her teaching, and sharing their experiences on her blog!