As an educator, it's important to keep yourself connected to the world outside of your classroom. Social media, though sometimes viewed as a distraction from education, can be a great resource for building engagement among your students.

You already know your students are likely spending lots of their free time on social media platforms, making it all the more logical to use it as a resource versus viewing it as an obstacle to their education. Here are some tips on how you can use social media to build engagement in the classroom:

Creating Class/School Social Accounts

If your school or class doesn't currently have a social media presence, consider creating one. By sharing supplementary information like infographics and videos about current topics being studied in class, you can facilitate access to learning beyond your own four walls.

Social Media and Community

It's no secret that social media has the power to build communities and movements that can affect change. Some ways to engage with your school's community via social media include highlighting special events, showcasing student work, and sharing deadline reminders.

Starting Discussions

Social media posts can often serve as fodder for water-cooler conversations, and your classroom shouldn't be any different. Task students with sharing a social media post relevant to their current coursework with their classmates to help start new and exciting conversations about the material they are currently working through.

Teaching History or English courses and finding your students aren't taking much from the subject matter? Asking them to fill out a social media profile for a historical figure or fictional protagonist is a great way to get them to dive deeper into the subject matter. Using social media as a tool for engagement isn't exclusive to being on the platforms themselves. Try creating a bulletin board in your classroom where students can post “status updates” to share thoughts and insights with their peers.

Follow the links below for more examples on how you can start a social media initiative at your schools and start to build engagement with your students:

5 Inspired Ways to Use Social Media as a Teaching Tool

Making the Case for Social Media in Schools