Social media and sites such as Pinterest and Instagram are helping teachers to stay creative and connected to the teaching community. Chicago teacher Melissa Dillard has a Facebook resource page for teachers that has more than 20,000 likes and is also very popular on Instagram and Pinterest.
Dillard uses her blog, Seusstastic Classroom Inspirations, to share teaching techniques such as her “warm fuzzy” system, which acknowledges and rewards students for positive interactions, as well as other approaches to positively managing the classroom.
Dillard’s efforts even led Pinterest to approach and partner with her to create a new initiative called the “Teachers on Pinterest” program. “All of these networks have really opened a new world for us. I’m connecting with teachers from all over, sharing ideas, getting each other excited, which in turn is offering a lot more to my kids,” Dillard explains.
Michigan kindergarten teacher Marsha McGuire uses her blog, A Differentiated Kindergarten, to teach her peers about meeting students where they’re at instead of teaching to the middle of the class. While opinions are mixed on the benefits of using social media, specifically in the classroom or involving students, many teachers find these websites to be very helpful.
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