Connecting With Students Through Instagram

The majority of my students have an Instagram account. I don't blame them! I love Instagram just as much as the next guy, I'm constantly sharing pictures of my daily happenings and putting my dog in weird clothing or strange scenarios. 

Exhibit A:

OR! Finding adorable pictures of my boyfriend at his parent's house and posting them for other people's enjoyment. 

Exhibit B:

Earlier this year, I wanted to try and connect with my students through Instagram. During our conversations about digital citizenship, I wanted to show my kids Instagram can be more than selfies and regramming weird pictures they find on the internet. I'm always encouraging them to follow noteworthy accounts (ex: National Geographic, NASA, etc.). 

We had to start somewhere, so I started an Instagram account for the 5th grade. I encouraged students to follow the account. When I originally began, we were in our weather unit. I challenged students to post pictures of the clouds and use the hashtag #sotoscience (note to teachers: check your hashtag FIRST, I learned this the hard way). 

Slowly but surely, students were taking pictures of the clouds, uploading the images to IG, and using the hashtag! We had a winner! I even had a parent come to me and say, "You made taking pictures of the clouds COOL, way to go!" I was excited to see students using their phones and tablets for science and connecting outside of school. For those students who don't have an IG account, I was able to pull up the images on my SmartBoard for students to look at during the day. We all benefited from it!

#sotoscience

Throughout our next unit, I utilized the video feature and posted 15-second videos of activities we were doing in science to spark interest. Plus, I hoped it may start a conversation at home. Perhaps they forgot after the bus ride home, but seeing it on Instagram may jolt a conversation with a family member. 

Since we've been back to school, we have completed our Animal Classification unit. Through the IG account, I issued a challenge for students to photograph examples of all five classes of vertebrates. I jump started the challenge with Chip as my model. Watch out David Beckham! 

Thanks to my PLN and Twitter, I stumbled upon another fantastic idea for Instagram! Challenge students to create a 15-second book trailer. I posted an example one for Origami Yoda a few weeks ago.  I haven't had many students jump on board, yet. Rome wasn't built in a day!

Click here to my book trailer!

Do you use Instagram to connect with your students? How have you used Instagram in the classroom? Share your ideas with me below!