Today’s society constantly pressures us to share using social media. Share your vacation photos, share your weekend, share your home, put your best foot forward, and let everyone see your life.

Even as teachers we are pushed to share our stories, which I fully support. We want to share,, #TrendthePositive #CelebrateMonday, and there are so many ways to share our story. However, as a teacher, what we are sharing is not just about ourselves. Our students, classrooms and schools inevitably end up in our posts.. How do we share in a way that is meaningful but also protects the privacy of our students?

Our district has all parents sign a media/social media release, and we do not share any picture of any student who says no. With or without permission, I do not use last names in posts, and I let parents know from day one that I share on social media.

Since we are now a one to one district, we also start our year off with student discussions around digital citizenships. We also focus on good device care, and I have a social media manager job in my class. We have a more specific discussion around that. We talk about what hashtags are, making sure you have permission to use photos of people, using our best spelling and grammar, and making our posts short and succinct. Unfortunately, the device I was using for that job broke, so that has been put on hold, but I still share.

How do you handle sharing on social media in your school? Are you allowed to share pictures?

*This post was written as part of the #edublogsclub challenge week eight.