In what I intend to be the final instalment of my posts on the use of social media by teachers, I will pull together my previous posts on why teachers should and should not be on social media to organise my thoughts on practical steps teachers can take to manage social media in a healthy way. So here goes: 5 ways teachers can use social media in a healthy way.

1. Limit your time

Time is the most precious resource anyone has: none of us know how long we have got, so we should recognise that time spent on social media is time not spent doing something potentially better. Teachers have a particular relationship with work / life balance, and our online presence should complement our wider values and goals.

Only a fool would suggest a specific amount of time would be suitable for all teachers, it really depends on the purpose of your social media presence. So set an amount of time that fits your situation, monitor it and have a mechanism by which you review and feedback.

If you are using a phone, most devices have a monitoring app to show how much time you spend; if using a laptop there are extensions like Google Chrome’s webtime tracker which will do similar. From a well being perspective, its important not to beat yourself up when you spend more than the time allotted: at the points of monitoring, accept the feedback as advice and have an actionable plan to reduce accordingly. For example, you could set limits on twitter on your phone that prevent access unless you type a preset code.

Its also worth spending some time understanding what the engagement metrics might be telling you, particularly if your purposes require a wider reach. Feed this into an iterative cycle of reflection and improvement so that you can achieve more with less time.

There are plenty of tools to help you improve your habits, but they are useless unless you are truly motivated to do so. This is where I have found an awareness of what other things we could have been doing, that align with our values and goals can provide a source of motivation.

Many people take regular breaks from social media. In my opinion this is healthy: a change is as good as a rest and all that. Distance from a space can bring new and valuable perspective about what we feel about it and how we can make the most of it.

2. Manage Notifications

All social media works on the attention economy. As such it’s easy to find your phone or laptop pinging alerts designed to pull your attention towards your social media feeds and interactions. These in turn increase the likelihood that you may be drawn in to thinking about something which it was never your intention to engage with. Before you know it, you’ve spent 30 minutes (or more!) arguing with a complete stranger about what’s happening in a school neither of you have been to that one media outlet or another has drawn into public awareness as if we should all have an opinion on it.

Whichever devices you use to access your social media, and whichever platforms you use, invest time in understanding how notifications work, switch as many off as you can, so that what you talk about and who you talk to is much more likely to be on your terms. This will help with good time management, and general well being.

This is not to say you should be silent on matters that are important to you – curate your feed so that you follow people who have similar interests (even if they have opposing views on that topic), that way you won’t miss opportunities to contribute to discourse you regard as important. One way to approach this is to organise your follows into lists, so that you can spend specific time on specified areas of interest. Sign up for notifications that reflect your major interests.

3. Stranger Danger

As teachers, online safety across the curriculum is now an expected feature of every subject. It may not feature in every lesson, but all staff should be aware of key messages that pupils should be hearing about how to stay safe on the internet. The things that will keep our pupils safe online will also keep us safe.

First consider whether or not to use an anonymous account; a locked account; your real name; check what your employer’s social media policy says, and whether it is guidance or should absolutely be followed.

Once you have an account, consider the nature of your interactions. If you are new to the platform, spend quite a while lurking rather than contributing. Which accounts are engaging in good faith on the topics your find interesting / useful? Follow those accounts and start to interact with them. Over time, people will start to interact with you: the best advice I can give is this: don’t reply to anyone until you have checked out their profile and previous interactions with others. This is where you can establish a baseline for whether they are worth your time and energy.

There are plenty of accounts that have their own agenda that will think nothing of making you collateral damage in their battles to push their ideology. If you find these interesting rather than dangerous, my advice is to ignore them rather than reply – if you find them disturbing or worrying, you have options to report, block and mute straight away: you will miss out on nothing of consequence and save yourself time and energy; plus reduce your risk of damage to your mental health. I have blocked people I have never interacted with on the strength of their interactions with others. Its like choosing to not go to the same pub as certain people.

Even then disputes are inevitable, so you should have some heuristics ready for when you find yourself embroiled in a potentially difficult exchange. A lot of this depends on the context of any dispute you may be in. A good rule of thumb is to consider whether you are punching up or punching down in terms of power: follower numbers, social & professional status are all proxies by which you can get an idea. Definitely spend time checking the profile of anyone you intend to have a public row with.

4. Choose your words wisely

Twitter has often been compared by many to a pub, where a person passing by jumps into your conversation when perhaps they weren’t evening sitting at the table with you. While this has a ring of truth to it, there is a fundamental difference.

When you are chatting in a pub, mostly only the people you are sat with are paying any attention to what you say, and ‘that controversial thing you said twenty minutes ago to get a laugh’ is quickly forgotten. On twitter (and other social media) everyone has access to your conversation (unless you have a locked account) and anyone might search your feed and find that controversial thing that your friends understood was a joke. People can see what posts you liked, what type of content you promote and they may try to use this against you.

One way to test the waters on this is the use of private messaging groups. Find a group of people you have built trust with, or individuals and that you are prepared to receive candid feedback from. Groups like this can support each other to engage in a safer space, prior to on in lieu of public contribution to discourse. This may help edit your contributions to centre on the substance of the matter and avoid falling into whataboutery. One word of caution, groups can lead to groupthink, which can lead to undue confidence in ideas that are not as well reasoned as we believe them to be.

You can manage the risk of the things you post being held against you to an extent using block to prevent malicious interlocutors from engaging with your contributions, but ultimately you need a way to hold yourself to account for the consequences of your own words, likes and retweets.

Often posts we might make that offer critque from our perspective need careful crafting. If you don’t generalise, individuals and individual schools can become easily identifiable. Its likely you’ll find yourself in the middle of a social media storm. On the other hand, if you generalise too much, your points will become reductive to the point of automatically alienating people into an out group – again this can get ugly. If it is your intention to court controversy, its a good idea to be prepared for the fall out. If it is not your intention, take time to craft your contributions.

Personally, I don’t always get this right, but over time I have developed a way to be more circumspect. Rarely are interactions time sensitive, so when I am engaged in discussion I have developed a habit of saving my responses to draft then looking at a separate part of my feed or do something else altogether before returning to review what I intend to say. I find that the urge to get my words out quickly more frequently leads to regret than when I have built in a filter. Often when I review what I wanted to say, I find that I now have more appropriate words to say it, or change my mind about saying anything at all. Sometimes the whole of my response was an emotional outburst rather than a rational contribution.

Sometimes I look back in my drafts and cringe at the things I thought or might have said. This (for me) is much better than actually having said them.

5. Contribute

Each of us is a person of value. When you are set up with your purpose for having a social media presence clear; your account visibility suitably set to how you want it, take part in the discourse on your terms. Whatever your interest, you have something to offer.

It’s easy to look at others online and see only successful people who perhaps know more than you, are more confident than you, have a better way with words, are funnier, prettier, healthier, happier or any other way of comparing yourself unfavourably. This is not only potentially a damaging outlook from a mental health perspective, but it is illogical. In a world on billions, you won’t have to look far to find people who are at different stages of their lives, have different strengths and interests. Yet none of them is you.

When you ask questions, share ideas and resources you open doors of connection. This is the liminal space in which growth and learning becomes possible. Even if some others have already invented the shiny new wheel you are sharing, some won’t have seen it. Others won’t have been aware that the problem you are trying to address was a problem. Some may take a spoke from your wheel and turn it into something magical, and your contribution will have been the spark that led to it.

For example, some people won’t click to open this post. Some will open it and think ‘what a waste of time’. Others will find something useful and perhaps send a message of thanks. Others will find something to disagree with, and either seek clarification or provide clarification. If it turns out this was a good post, great. If it turns out this wasn’t, I’ll get feedback and advice that I will have the power to do something with.

Every interaction, every like, retweet, reply, DM is an opportunity to grow and contribute. Guard yourself with the advice of points 1 through 4, develop them and other ways of being that allow you and those around you to flourish. Contribute because you matter and what matters to you matters.

Prosocial Media

Social media can be a difficult space to navigate, fraught with pitfalls and dangers. If we want it to be a better space, if we want more interactions to be dignified, compassionate and respectful, we should start with ourselves. In school, teachers are part of the fabric that sets the tone for the culture of the school. A school with teachers that are compassionate and model the values set out in the school’s vision is likely to achieve that vision. A professional teaching workforce can bring this skillset to bear in social media spaces. We can model the society we want for our children and maybe, just maybe we can make it a better space.

Many thanks for getting this far through the post. As ever, any feedback / advice given in good faith is most welcome and actively encouraged.

I read @MrRaichura‘s recent blog on creating a culture in the classroom and was reminded of something I’ve found works well with my current class. I say this specifically as they are a higher prior attainment group, so I’ve not got any personal evidence of how this might translate to a group that is less motivated / confident.

Another thing to note is that, as I have been interim deputy this year, I only teach one group of year 8 maths, so there are other contextual variables to consider. Although we aspire for children to respond positively to all adults in the school, regardless of their title / position, I couldn’t claim that being a senior leader doesn’t impact how children respond to me in the classroom.

All caveats aside, what I can say is that I noticed a change in the class response to me when I started doing this, and that the benefits that Pritesh describes in terms of the number of hands up as a proxy for engagement were visible using this technique from the moment I started to employ it.

For background: This year we moved our Maths homework at KS3 onto Sparx Maths. After a trial with year 7 in the Autumn term, the team decided to press ahead with Sparx across our KS3 year groups after Christmas. One of the features of Sparx we really liked was the ‘Insights’ facility. We give pupils one week to complete the work, and as the class answer questions, an algorithm picks up questions that were harder for the group (I presume it looks at how many attempts were needed, whether pupils watched the support video, and the amount of time it took to enter a response.) As a ‘Do Now’ style starter, I can project 5 such questions that will act as retrieval and possibly discussion points, or I can pick just one question and 4 similar variants (or a combination).

So how does this relate to ‘all hands up’ culture and ‘check for listening?

After projecting the Insight questions, pupils start work individually in silence and are given a set amount of time for them. During this, I will take a register and circulate to be seen looking and signal the expectations are as they always are – we are here to learn : a culture of endeavour. At the appointed time, we stop (I use “3,2,1” although we don’t at present have a school wide expected signal.) Now comes the all hands up part:

When the class are paying attention (Pritesh has ideas here on how to make this quick), I say, “When I say ‘Show me’, I want you to raise your hand showing how confident you are in your answer to this question: 1 finger is not at all confident, 5 fingers is very confident.”

At this point, pupils raise their hands, and I get a quick scan. I can now see if there are pupils who are not engaged. (I’ve not yet found a time where pupils are unwilling to show me their level of confidence).Its now decision time for me. If all (and I mean all) confidence levels are 4 or 5, I will probably ask a pupil to talk us through their answer. IF not (Which is more often the case because insights has picked questions children have doubts about) I will go through a model on the board. This is followed by questioning: Why did I do this? Where does this come from? As I have narrated my model, any pupil might answer, and the ‘hands for confidence’ question has broken the seal on pupil’s doubts about participating. (I don’t always get all hands, but a majority which is good for cultural expectation and I will be able to note who is and is not for checking later.)

Now the fact that Insights can produce a similar question comes into play. I project a similar question, leave my narrated example on the whiteboard and pupils have a suitable amount of time to apply the discussed methods to the new example. I circulate to check.

At the appointed time, we stop (“3,2,1”): When the class are paying attention, I say, “When I say ‘Show me’, I want you to raise your hand showing how confident you are in your answer to this question: 1 finger is not at all confident, 5 fingers is very confident.” Every time I use this method, the class report of confidence is higher. Again it is decision time – if we are at all 4’s and 5’s now, I use turn and talk to get pupils to share with partners, then ask if any pairs had different answers. If confidence is still low, we may discuss how the question changed and use another colour on the whiteboard to study the impact before repeating with a third and fourth example.

This method of checking for listening by confidence has become a staple part, not just of the ‘Do Now’, but for other parts of lessons, and supports building a culture where pupils engagement in the task at hand is normalised. (At least, for me as Interim Deputy, with my one Y8 high prior attaining maths group.) When I return (next year) to being AHT and teaching more year groups and a wider range of prior attainment, I hope to learn more as to the extent to which this is transferable within my context. We will discuss its merits as a department too.

My main reason for sharing this post is to articulate the process clearly to myself, so that I might develop a better understanding of how it impacts culture, and then re-examine Pritesh’s post to see how I might leverage this as a way in to improving ‘all pupils engaged in the task at hand’ culture. Another reason is that sharing how our practice is developing contributes to the wider discourse. You may think I’m doing something unnecessary, inefficient or wrong, or you may see a way to either incorporate it into your practice, or develop its further, all of this seems a good thing.

Rational feedback welcome.

Four years ago, I wrote this post detailing 5 reasons why teachers should be on social media. The decision to be a social media presence is not a straightforward one to make. In the interests of balance, here’s the opposing side of the argument:

5 Reasons Teachers should avoid social media

1. It is not a safe space

Social media thrives on the controversial: you are far more likely to make an impression and gather a high profile if you are engaged in hyperbole. With this comes a whole host of exposure, much of which could put your job security at risk. Although your statements are your own, the actions of others on the back of them are not. Such is the range of opinion and perspective on social media that there is a good chance even the most nuanced and reasonable of views will be regarded by somebody as controversial. You are only ever one malicious complaint away from causing your employer to follow due process. You can mitigate against this by having a locked account, making your account anonymous, and judicious use of mute and block (or of course by being exceedingly bland). But the trolls and keyboard warriors are out there, in numbers.

2. It sucks time

Social media platforms are designed with attention hopping in mind. You will be presented with an embarrassment of competing choices for your attention: passionate pleas for your attentions; demands for you to take a position on a subject hitherto unconsidered; fascinating titbits; the joys and woes of friends and colleagues; nostalgic “who remembers” posts; events close to home or far from your lived reality. A learning mind can lose itself for hours in such an environment. Worse still, allowing yourself to indulge in such apparently luxurious use of time will take its toll on your wellbeing: emotive issues such as education live long in the mind after engaging in them. The subconscious habit of processing will likely take up working memory space, not to mention the emotional toll of any ill-tempered disagreement one can find oneself involved in. Doom scrolling is addictive and habit forming. To mitigate against this you need to be sure of your purpose when you engage, and be aware that you are giving away two of your most precious resources, time and attention, for an uncertain return.

3. Vanity

Social media has a way of appealing to the base elements of humanity. Teachers are not immune to vanity: it doesn’t take much for a post where one intends to share something wonderful of which we are quite possibly rightly proud to turn into a vanity post which could easily be interpreted as “I’m better than you”, or “They behave for me”. With the range of perspectives, recent experiences and contexts of others on your timeline, if you are here to celebrate yourself and only yourself, it will shine through very quickly. We won’t always get the balance right, but having a few rules / checks of your own timeline will mitigate. Are you transmitting only, or are you engaging with others in good faith? Do you spend more time listening than talking? Do you promote others as well as yourself? Keeping your ego in check is always likely to be an issue on platforms that base success on ego inflating metrics: ‘likes, retweets, follower count’.

4. Arguments

What does it mean to be successful on social media? Getting connected to others who you can support and can support you to develop as a person, as a teacher, or in any other way you choose to value. Connection involves engagement. Edu-twitter engagement will involve trying to understand the perspective, choices and contexts of others, yet the short form nature of it means it takes skillful and measured dialogue and trust in the people on the other end of the conversation: the principal of charity. To get the most out of it, you will need to engage with others. Trust won’t exist unless it is built together, and the principal of charity can’t be relied upon universally. You will find yourself involved in arguments, how good are you at agreeing to disagree, at consensus building? If you are not fond of difficult conversations, maybe social media is not for you.

5. Complaining

Teaching at this point in time gives us any number of things to complain about. I’ve seen plenty of people come on to social media to complain about SLT, parents, or a specific department at their school. If you’ve ever joined a parents of school X facebook group, you will already have access to an endless supply of examples of how not to complain. It can be so tempting when on social media to put something personal out there. In my experience, its the wrong way to go about a specific complaint. You might be able to generalise about the experience in order to get advice from a wide range of colleagues, although good advice is likely to be available from your union, or through private messaging where the risks of such a message backfiring are significantly reduced.

So there you have it. I ended my original post 4 years ago with this paragraph:

It is my belief that entering the arena of social media with a professional approach to debating ideas can only enhance the individual and the profession as a whole.

N Wood

Despite the above reasons, I stand by this.