Looking for something fun to add to your school’s social media?
WOODBURY’S NEW THROWBACK THURSDAY! Featuring: Miss Joyce: It was 1992 and I was 2 years old. I was eating one of my favorite Japanese dishes called Cold Soba. Clearly, I couldn’t use chopsticks yet, but I sure was going to try. With my curly black locks and strong will power, you bet that I ate that whole bowl of soba. #tbt #foodie #coldsoba #oishii #japanesebaby #babykat #ninetiesbaby #meanwhiteonesie
For me, social media is a powerful way to share our school culture beyond the walls of our school and into the community, so I’m constantly looking for new ways to share our fun and student-centered culture, as well as our amazing (and super cool staff). One Thursday I was perusing Facebook and Instagram and I quickly became immersed in a bunch of #tbt posts. Some of the posts were of the teachers on our staff and I loved seeing them as kids, so I thought this would be a fun addition to our school’s social media. If I loved all the TBT photos, then why wouldn’t the parents love it too?
I immediately setup a shared folder in my Google Drive titled, #TBT. I e-mailed the staff explaining the new idea and within minutes, teachers started uploading their childhood photos. I included a spreadsheet in the folder for teachers to include the caption and hashtags for their photo, making it incredibly easy for me to cut and paste them into the post. Now, each Thursday, we post a TBT photo of one of our staff members and the response has been extremely positive. Parents enjoy sharing the photos with their children and the kids are reminded that their teachers were kids once too. These TBT photos are fun, super cute, and adds another fun aspect to our social media. With our Instagram Takeover Tuesday and our Throw Back Thursday, these regular postings continue to increase the engagement on our social media accounts and are easy enough to maintain throughout the school year.
Teachers upload their photos in to the designated Google Drive folder, name their photo, and then write their caption and hashtags in the spreadsheet.
I love to hear students talking in the halls about how they saw their “teacher’s kid photo on their mommy’s phone.” Their face lights up and that’s what makes it all worth it. I have noticed that even though I love social media for how it communicates our school culture to the community, it actually adds to and strengthens our school culture as well.
Parents, students, teachers, instructional assistants, office staff, and other community members are often heard talking or laughing about certain posts they recently saw on our accounts. Social media has had a tremendous impact on our school, its culture, and the community. Social media continues to make our large school feel like a tight knit community. I continue to look for ideas to add to our school’s social media presence. What ideas do you have? Lets collaborate and share!
You can checkout our #TBT posts on our WoodburyIUSD’s Facebook and Instagram accounts.
Teachers write their own caption and hashtags. As the social media admin, I cut and paste the text when photo is posted on Instagram and Facebook.
