From Lesson Plans to Likes: Unveiling the Impact of Teachers and Administrators on Social Media

Join us for a powerful discussion on educators making waves on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. These teachers and administrators are not just shaping young minds in class; they're creating a global impact online. Social media provides a platform for showcasing creativity, connecting educators globally, and humanizing education through personal stories. Beyond likes, it's about building supportive online communities, seeking advocacy, and addressing 21st-century educational issues. Coming up, hear inspiring stories from Mr. Kyle Cohen, a 4th-grade teacher with 125,000 Instagram followers, and George Carter, a New York City elementary school principal revolutionizing school highlights and transparency. Stay tuned as we celebrate these educators-turned-content creators, applauding their creativity, dedication, and impact on education. 

Transcript

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I'm Adam Todd and welcome to Classroom Dynamics, a teacher podcast. I believe that the best way to engage students in a 21st century classroom is to immerse them with the transformative tools that will empower each and every one of them to excel in the future world that awaits. My focus is to ignite the spark that propels you and your students into an advanced tomorrow, and your journey into that future starts right now. Classroom Dynamics is supported by Logitech. As education continues to evolve, so does Logitech education, your partner in content creation for the classroom. With Logitech's cutting edge technology, students not only learn but also become content creators, whether it's in-person or online, Logitech's tools are designed to inspire educators and learners alike. Capture every educational moment in stunning detail and edit, produce and share your creative journey with ease. Logitech education, inspiring the next generation of creators. 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Always connected, always focused, always learning. The zone learn headset, your key to success. Welcome to Classroom Dynamics, the podcast where we get into the exciting world of technology and education. Hi, everybody, I'm your host, Adam Todd, and today we're talking about teachers and administrators who are also content creators on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube. These educators are not only molding young minds in classrooms, but are also making a mark on social media with their peers and the communities that they serve. So why are teachers and administrators embracing this digital world more and more? First and foremost, social media offers a platform for educators to showcase creativity and innovation, from highlighting engaging lessons to putting a spotlight on meaningful classroom and school-wide activities. These content creators can now show off, support other teachers and share best practices on a global scale. And it's not just about reaching a social media audience for likes, it's about connecting with other educators, students and parents in the community, as well as those who are passionate about education. Now beyond teaching methods, educators are also using social media to humanize the educational field. They're sharing personal stories, daily challenges and triumphs, illustrating that teaching is a calling fueled by a passion and dedication. Additionally, social media platforms like Instagram could be a great place for teachers to ask for additional support, advocate for materials that they are so desperately in need of and anything that can help them bring the real world into their classrooms. And best of all, social media can serve as a hub for collaboration and networking. More and more educators are connecting with their peers, exchanging ideas and building supportive online communities, fostering continual improvement and better than just best practices and education. Some educators even use their online platforms for equitable advocacy, addressing issues affecting the teaching profession, exposing areas that desperately need attention, promoting student rights and campaigning for positive educational policies, especially in a 21st century classroom. And coming up next, we'll talk to Mr. Kyle Cohen, a popular fourth grade teacher from Ohio whose Instagram account has nearly 125,000 followers and an elementary school principal from New York City who's highlighting the amazing things happening at his school in ways that have never been seen before. Stay with us as we celebrate these educators turn content creators along with their creativity, dedication and impact that they're having. Stay tuned, we'll be right back. For over 20 years, Higher Ground has designed functional technology protection, helping students to work or learn anytime, anywhere. I'm Mark, president of Higher Ground, and I want to share with you how you can get a free sample of any of our rugged shells, sleeves or clear backpacks. Visit hggear.com/sample and use your school's email and address. One thing, don't tell Alex because he'll be stuck with all the paperwork. Request yours and see for yourself how Higher Ground can help save your students and school, downtime and money. Just remember, don't tell Alex. Mark, we're on the sample request filling my inbox. He's a fourth grade teacher that sells some of his classroom creations on teachers, pay teachers, books, private coaching and consultations with teachers, operates a TikTok and YouTube channel and has nearly 125,000 followers on Instagram. It's my pleasure to welcome the very popular Mr. Kyle Cohen to classroom dynamics. It's awesome to have you here with us today. Thank you for having me. Excited to be here. It's great to have you here. Before we even start, just tell everyone about yourself. When was the moment that you decided to put yourself out there on social media to document everything you do in such a unique way? Awesome. Well, really excited to be here. My name is Kyle Cohen. I am from the Cleveland area. I am currently a fourth grade teacher in Cleveland and this is my sixth year in the classroom. I'm also an aspiring administrator and looking forward to stepping into that world of administration here in the near future. I decided to tap into the world of social media, like a lot of us did back in 2020 when we were sitting at home for far too long. I posted a video to YouTube just kind of documenting my quarantine experience of teaching remotely myself, like so many educators nationwide were thrown into remote learning and in a lot of ways it was absolutely horrible, but it's my personality and my who I am as a person to really try to make the most out of a situation. And there was also a lot of it that was just really funny. And what we were asked to do in the ways that we were, like I could view that as a huge negative or I could turn this into something positive. So what was just filming a silly video in my apartment turned into more videos and I started to gather the attention of a few people on YouTube and I really started to use my voice hopefully in a positive way to share with people who are teachers and not about what's going on in the classroom during my pandemic teaching experience and continuing it to this day. It's amazing. You know, social media is such a far reaching online platform and you know, just from your point of view, how does sharing some of that daily grind that you experience along with some of the tips that you have for the classroom benefit or you know, I don't know if you even expected this to happen, but to benefit teachers around the world. We're not talking about just Cleveland anymore. We're talking worldwide. How do you view that? Yeah, I see it's twofold. First of all, like I turned to social media before I even started filming as someone who was consuming content. I was learning so much from teachers on YouTube and at the time on Instagram and implementing these different techniques and activities and games and resources into my own personal classroom. So for me, I was taking it all in as a learner and I over time started to contribute to that community and really share what's working for me in the classroom. And I find that there is no better immediate professional development than social media. For me to attend a conference or go to a workshop, I have to take off work or I have to go during my breaks and that's not usually how I want to spend my break, but how I'm able to turn to social media for five minutes when I have five minutes here or there and learn real tangible things that I can implement. It's really powerful to both consume that and to also be able to provide that outlet for teachers as well. You know, it's funny you mentioned that because this this podcast itself is professional development. It's taking, you know, how do we infuse technology into the classroom on a professional development level for anybody around the world to listen? And I've actually had feedback where people are doing that on the treadmill. People are doing that in their cars. So you bring up a very valid point as to, you know, where social media can be even podcast to this point now where professional development does have a little bit of a wider scope. Yeah, absolutely. And as teachers, we're constantly learning and we're constantly developing. And I think that the most effective teachers are those who are taking on these different opportunities to learn new things to bring to their students because we want to be providing them the best. And in order to stay on top of that, we have to be finding ways to take it in and again, like attending a workshop isn't always feasible. So finding the moments when you can throughout your day, I think, has been really helpful. And you can get it in a much smaller amount of time. Right. You don't have to go anywhere and spend the whole day to get something that you could have done in five minutes. You could do it in five minutes. Right. And it's not to say that there's no benefit of going to a workshop. Right. I've attended countless professional development sessions that I have taken a lot out of too. And I think that's the most important thing to do. And I think that's the most important thing to do. And I think that's the most important thing to do. And I think that's the most important thing to do. And I think that's the most important thing to do. And I think that's the most important thing to do. And I think that's the most important thing to do. And I think that's the most important thing to do. And I think that's the most important thing to do. And I think that's the most important thing to do. 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And I think that's the most important thing to do. And I think that's the most important thing to do. And I really hope that my content is able to provide not just teachers, but parents and people in general with just a look at what's actually going on in our public education system, both the positive, but also the real to get these really important messages out there about how we need to advocate for an education system that all of our kids deserve. We're going to get into the more serious in a second. But do you think highlighting the, let's go for the personal human side, right? Do you think highlighting that personal human side of teaching is a great way to show people how difficult teaching really can be a times because it can, you know, it's, you know, we're both educators are both in the classroom. We both do this. It can be hard sometimes. It could be a challenge. It could be an uphill battle. Do you think that's the case? Absolutely. I mean, what we do is hard and it is hard and we're underpaid and underappreciated by society. So when I can't think of many careers like that, like teaching. And I think that in order to approach this conversation in the right way, we need to be able to spread our message about all of the great things that are taking place, all the positive things that are taking place. And find our way to also weave in what teachers actually need in this moment and what our students actually need in this moment so that again, we're building towards the future that they need. Yeah, I couldn't agree more. You know, you've mentioned it before teaching is not just an eight to three or nine to three kind of job. Many teachers do work during their lunch break. I do. I sometimes I don't want to take something home. So I'll sit there and eat lunch and do some work. They frequently take home a tremendous amount of work. I don't know if the general public and it's a good point. You know, just to build on what you said, I don't know if the general public can actually comprehend how much time teachers really do put in away from their classroom, whether it's, you know, working on less in plans, wrapping, grading assignments and everything that comes with the job. Where do you find just and this is just like the bridge to everything else that you do? Where do you find the time to plan and create your videos and edit them and also keep up with all that's needed to maintain your social media presence and, by the way, maintain your website. I think in also right, your newsletter and create material for teachers, pay teachers. You do a lot. You do it all because if you really think about it, teachers who follow you are most mostly expecting a poster to every day, you know, they're probably waiting for a post and if there's no post, you know, what's wrong with Kyle today that something happened is he sick. It has to feel like another full time job in and of itself because as I said, you know, I know how much time and effort it takes to be a teacher. I know how much time and effort it takes to put in the time to plan and put together a podcast. So how do you handle all of that? That's I just said a mouthful and that's just a portion of what you do every day, right? Yeah, I'm a workaholic, but I say that my principal jokes on me all the time. He says I'm a workaholic. I work too hard and I need to like have more boundaries and I hear that and I get it and for some people that might be true, but I love what I do. And I find that in a lot of ways my job is also like my passion and my hobby and I also do have the ability to turn it off when I need to turn it off. Like I didn't do anything this entire weekend, nothing for school, nothing for social media, like nothing. But with that being said, I'm really strategic with my time and time management is really, really important to me and something that I consider to be one of my strengths. So I have a set schedule for my week of when I'm going to be doing all of the different tasks that I need to do. And that takes a lot of time to build and it takes a lot of time to figure out and I've been doing social media now for four years and I've been teaching not nearly as long as you like I've only been teaching for six years, but I've really found what works for me and what doesn't work for me in order to build those routines. I'm also super fortunate like I don't have kids of my own, I look at my colleagues who have their own children and do the work that I do and then they go home and spend their evenings with parents like I can't even fathom what they do. Like I can whip out a video for social media like I can't I can't even come to understand that experience, but I for me it's like I know that for this one hour I'm going to be filming for this one hour I'm going to be editing for this one hour I'm going to be writing and having that routine in that schedule for me allows me to do what I do. Yeah, because if you're a teacher and you're not organized and you don't have a schedule and you don't understand what routines should be or you're in trouble. And boundaries like I remember in my first and second year of teaching I was grading everything I mean if my students touched that paper it was getting graded and I was spending hours and hours and hours grading and that wasn't making me a more effective teacher. I also have the ability now to recognize the most important things that I need to do in the classroom and the extra things right and there are forever extra things like there is always another paper I can laminate or something I can make look cuter or better like I can always do more but it's really finding that threshold and that nice fine line of like okay this is worth it for my students or this actually won't make a big difference in the long run. Right, because you're an entertainer in front of your class and you're also an entertainer in front of 125,000 people so either way you look at it you're an entertainer and a lot of prep has to come with that. Yeah and it's exhausting so you have to find the ability to recognize when it's time to say you know what that's enough on that let's move on to the next thing because tomorrow I have to give another math lesson and then I'm going to have to do it again the day after that. And if my video flops today I'm going to post another one tomorrow and you have to have the ability to just move on and take criticism and build on what is working what's not working because I got to get up and do it again tomorrow. It's great advice because it's self-assessment all the way. Yeah, 100%. So let's switch gears to a more serious part of teaching. You've used your Instagram and other social media platforms as a way to visually show people what teaching can look like what the roblox teachers face on the daily basis could look like and the constant need to be on right we talked about even being an entertainer. You know because being a teacher you know you are up in front of a group of kids all day long and you and I both know that that's truly unlike any profession that's out there. As a fourth grade teacher and content creator, how do you use your platform to advocate for those issues that directly not only affect you but might affect your students and even your colleagues? Yeah, I would say what really got my platform to like the next level was a video that I made talking about teacher pay and that was a video that I shared on TikTok. And that video caught the attention of millions of people Buzzfeed wrote an article Yahoo wrote an article CNN wrote an article and I shared in my video that in my first year of teaching I made $31,000 and I made a follow-up video responding to someone's comment who talked about the fact that I only work for nine months of the year. So it makes sense that I only get paid $31,000. I hear that all the time right? You only were capped the year 180 days is only half the year. Exactly. And the purpose of making that video was for me to really start a conversation in the greater world about teacher pay, which is one of countless issues that we can talk about with our public education system. It all comes back to me about how we value education, how we value teachers, how we value the work that we're doing here. And for me, I really want my content to shine a light on the great things that are happening in schools, but also the things that we really need to address if we want to have an education system that is built for the future. Right? Like I want an education system where we are recruiting and retaining the most high quality professionals because our kids deserve the best. And we need this to be a profession that everyone or not everyone, right? But like that is that is sought after that this is something that people see as a career worth taking and a career worth staying in. And we have a long ways to go until that's a reality. And hopefully my videos are just moving us one step closer to making that reality happen. It's well said I mean as a result of that have you seen any improvements made you know based on that exposure the articles that were written going viral. What did you see as a result? It's hard for me as an individual to really put my finger on like what that one piece of content or what my even my page in general has done. But what I can say to that is I've had the privilege of gaining thousands of followers across multiple platforms who are tuning in to the stories that I'm telling about the realities that are taking place. And I assume that the people who are tuning in are people who are supporting the words that I'm saying and are people who are resonating with the content that I'm creating. And hopefully this will continue to snowball and I hope to inspire other educators and other people to really share their stories to because the more content that we can get made that's put into the right hands of people who are sitting in the rooms that create the systems that we are living in right when I think about people in politics and people in our government and people who are really behind a lot of these social movements. It's our voices that they're going to turn to and it's our voices that hopefully that they're going to be listening to because we're the ones in the trenches doing the work every day. So while I can't necessarily say like I saw this as a result of those videos. I am optimistic to the fact that hopefully we're moving in the right direction. So then let me ask you this how do you maintain that balance of the very humorous and entertaining posts versus the informative and even serious ones. Right because balance is going to be that's the hardest thing of because you're putting yourself out there. No, and there is a very fine line right very fine line of of you know showcasing all the awesome funny cool stuff that happens but also pointing out it's not perfect. 100% and I think it's a really great question and I think when I think critically about what I'm trying to do here both in the classroom and on social media. I'm first of all being authentic like I am a very naturally like energetic exciting like fun person at least I like to think so like I like having a great time. That's why I went into this profession a lot to like I want to create memorable moments for my students. We have a amazing time in the classroom. My kids love coming to school at least I hope so like that's who I am as a person. So creating content that's fun and entertaining is something that I love to do. So deeply passionate about public education like I I want to spend my career advocating for a better system like that is the work that I am trying to do I want my students in my room to have an amazing experience. I want to take that and take it to a building level as a principle. I want to take that as a principle and take it to a district level. I would like I don't see myself stopping like I want to do more and more because I know what we need and I know what this is going to take. So I think that's kind of how I approach social media too right like I'm being myself so I'm speaking from my heart and I'm talking about the issues that are really important. But I'm also I'm having fun like I'm going to make silly content about the ridiculous thing that my nine year old student said the other day. So it's finding that balance and I think that is something that resonates with people too. Hopefully they think of me as someone who he knows what he's talking about when he's getting serious but also maybe he'll entertain us and be relatable at the same time. Well listen some of your posts really are funny and truthful because I find myself sometimes watching and go oh my god that I that happened to me last week or you know I like that I've seen that one before where have I seen this before. So you do strike a chord in the truth you know of the funny but also the serious thank you I appreciate that and it's a great segue into this next question and it comes from one of our listeners. Krista Cartwright who is a fourth great there you go perfect right fourth grade teacher from Indiana what problems either good or bad have come with having such a huge social media presence and how have you dealt with them. The only I am super lucky to work in a district and an environment that has been so supportive I mean I will be clear before I film the single video ever in my classroom I got permission from my building administration. I got permission from central office like I would I'm not trying to be sneaky I'm not trying to do anything wrong I'm also not trying to put my students in the spotlight that's not interesting to me whatsoever this is about my experience as a teacher sharing my personal experience so never will you see my district never will you see my students because I think that boundary for me is really important not saying that's for everyone but that's for me personally but with that like I'm sharing my voice with hundreds of thousands of people and people are mean. People will comment horribly mean things and they will talk about me my character the things I'm saying they'll bash my profession like that whatever but like I don't care. Like it there that's I'm not taking that personally I don't know who they are they're probably deeply hurt and they're probably struggling and I I turned to empathy and I think about how upset someone has to be to comment something terrible on something that someone makes I could not do that I could never comment something I can be the worst video I've ever seen and I'm probably still not going to comment on it so I try to turn to empathy in those moments and recognize that that's not who I'm trying to make this content for anyway and there are so many amazing people out there who are understanding where I'm coming from and trying to block out the haters. I love when you become the student and you have that it's just that perspective as to where it's coming from and what you see but you're the you're the kid I love that that's something that you don't see that that often you know portraying what you're experiencing from eight or nine in the morning all the way to the end of the day that's it's it's true you know what what you what you put out there is what we all see you know that is reality for teachers sometimes. Let me ask you then what advice would you give teachers who are thinking of even starting their own posts on Instagram or TikTok besides get ready to put in a lot of work what would you what would you say to them do it come on like come on if anything you're going to have a great place to look back on and reflect on your experience I look I look back at some of my early posts and yes I cringe but I'm also so grateful I documented in like vlog form in video like long form YouTube videos. Of my entire pandemic teaching experience like I have my first day of work in this building in I taught in a different school for two years and then I moved to this building and I have my first day of work I have when I moved from one room to this room and I feel like in 25 years I'm going to look back on this videos and be so grateful that I have them even if I'm sitting back at laughing at the ridiculous things I may or may not be up saying I think that alone is a powerful way to like inside the world. I think that's a great way to consider starting social media and then I also think it's a great way to connect with other educators I have made so many friendships with educators across the country who are doing the most phenomenal work in their classrooms day in and day out and to be able to connect with them let along contribute to that conversation to has been really beneficial and you never know what can happen social media is crazy like I never expected a video to reach millions of people and I feel really grateful that that happened and I believe if if that is your goal that you have a story that you have to do that is a great thing to do. You have a story that you want to reach others you have a voice that you feel like is important in the greater world in social media I deeply believe that you can make it happen as you said it's a lot of work it's a lot of consistency but it's possible you're not going to make a lot of money from it and you're not going to like become you know that's rich and famous person maybe you will and I will support you but I think if you're approaching it from a point of I want to have my voice out there there's a ton of opportunity and you should take it. I couldn't agree more when we started this podcast it was just this past August so we're only six months in and the fact which blows my mind the fact that it's been listened to in 43 countries and over 335 cities around the world to me that blows my mind. I know you can send out a tweet and 1.2 million people could see it instantly but to have that exposure and that kind of reach just it just makes me think wow like wow that's that's impressive like in just a short period of time around the world to be able to to reach people like that so I couldn't agree more with you. So we have about two more minutes left I like to play a game I like to call input output I'm just going to ask you a set of questions just give me the very first thing that comes to your mind I'm excited let's do it. I'm not like a plan. Okay you ready. Yeah all right let's go. Besides Instagram or TikTok what's one app on your phone that you just can't live without my calendar if you could go back in time and give your younger self one piece of technology from today that you didn't have as a kid what would it be and why. Whoa I would say you're pretty young though I am pretty young so I mean like I had Twitter like I feel like Twitter was my first piece of technology like in middle like middle school. I'm pretty young see for me I'll date myself now for me when I was eight years old I remember my parents bringing home our first microwave oven and to me and it was huge it wasn't like you know it was it was it was big and just the idea that you can make something in 30 seconds heat up that to me blew my mind yeah but and that but that dates me but so because you're pretty how old you know I'm 27 27 so you're relatively still young to the technology you kind of I don't want to say you grew up with it but you kind of did oh I'm not sure if you can do it. Oh absolutely like we had laptops in middle school like that that's something I remember I would say though like FaceTime or like good video chat my students we use if I have a student outside we will hop on like a zoom call or something just to catch them up and that is so helpful and like from a school perspective but they also like all hang out on FaceTime at home and I think that's like so great because it's not always convenient for families to drive their kid from one place to the other or to do that but they have that like human connection even though you know it's over the phone I think it's it's pretty cute and pretty sweet see something good that came out of the pandemic right zoom in video chatting that that they had a really up the anti and and make it a little bit better so that it can handle all that yes but I will never go back to that and do it with 20 of them at the same time. We just had a snow day last week and now our snow days are online days. I'm not kidding you that's a crime that's a crime I couldn't agree with you more I would I I don't even get me started on I'll tell you that much it was horrendous yeah horrendous and you know just to go back to that and do that for one day was enough for me to say oh boy something I appreciate about my super intended is when ever a snow day is called which is not frequent enough he will say help around the house read a book and go play outside yeah like every time and for me like as a kid like that is what a snow day is all about it is not about hopping on your Chromebook and sitting into your lesson that your teacher can catch you up with tomorrow right like our kids lives are too short and we need to let them be kids and I think that's something that some educators might lose sight of I hope a lot of people heard that because I'm right with you the subject that you're most comfortable teaching math when do you typically start your summer vacation countdown is it the 50 day mark is it the 25 day mark the 10 day mark what when do you typically start that summer vacation countdown I would say like May 1st right about them yeah if you hadn't gone into education as a career what might you be doing today I would I wanted to be a pediatrician I knew I wanted to work with kids and I loved watching Gray's Anatomy so I thought that being a pediatrician was great but if I didn't go to medical school and I wanted I still needed like a career without like that high level of education I would be a cruise director who is a good one well we should be having fun absolutely and seeing the world at the same time right the strangest place that you've been recognized by another teacher or an Instagram follower of yours or has that even happened it has happened it blows my mind I would say at a bar of all places of all places teachers often are found at bar and or like Starbucks it's it's so bizarre to me I don't know it's so funny what do they say to you I'm just curious is it oh my god it's it's Mr. Calcone I mean like it's really you it's usually like the the few times it's happened it has been like I love your videos and then I'm a teacher and then it's a conversation about where we teach and that sort of thing I've never met someone who has followed me who is not a teacher and I feel like the algorithms work like in your area I might totally be making that up but I feel like I have a strong Cleveland Ohio type of audience finally if you could have one person it could be past a present doesn't matter up to you come to your class for a career day visit to talk to you and your class and then of course to throw it all over social media who would it be and why wow I would say my grandfather he is passed away but he was always someone who is just like so genuinely proud of me and what I do and anything that I do and I think that there is something really powerful about sharing yourself and your family with your students I think that that is part of the educational experience and having that authentic connection is so real and I've had the privilege of bringing my my mom to class my aunt to class my sister to class but letting my grandfather come and speak about his experiences and let my students ask questions I think would have been pretty cool I love that answer well listen this has been so much fun today I'm really glad we had the chance to learn more about you and and how you're using social media to promote what you do your everyday life in school the tips and tricks that you share teachers all over the world and of course how you're bringing the outside world into see all the amazing things that you're doing in your classroom before we go tell everyone where they can go to find out more about you and all of your social media platforms absolutely you can check me out at Mr. Kyle Cohen on Instagram on TikTok on YouTube Google just I'm all over thanks Kyle this has been such an amazing experience a great conversation really appreciate it and I know our listeners and your followers will really enjoy this conversation as much as I did today so thank you so much for the time I really do appreciate it thank you so much for having me this was blast coming up next will sit down with a principle from New York City that's taking social media post to a whole new and transparent level don't go anywhere we'll be right back are you a dedicated educator searching for fresh and engaging resources to inspire your students look no further than highly motivated on teachers pay teachers discover a treasure trove of easy to use lesson plans vibrant visuals and interactive activities designed to captivate young minds and ignite their love for learning unlock the potential within your classroom with highly motivated from differentiated lap books to test prep passages on a multitude of topics our wide range of materials cater to most elementary and middle school grade levels join the community of passionate teachers who have already transformed their classrooms visit highly motivated on teachers pay teachers and get ready to inspire motivate and empower your students like never before highly motivated on teachers pay teachers were knowledge meets inspiration he's a New York City elementary school principal with over 26 years in education was the recipient of the con distinguished principal fellow and has recently added content creator to his resume his Instagram at principal Carter and the PS 79 not only showcases what's happening at his school to his community but also showcases the human side of education and all of the celebrations that it contains I like to welcome principal George Carter to classroom dynamics it's great to have you here with us today oh thank you I'm so happy to be here really excited so listen before we begin just tell us a little bit about yourself and what brought you to the field of education in the first place it's an interesting story I like to say that my fear of heights brought me to education I was not sure what I wanted to do and I was spending a summer as a rougher and I round out I was deathly afraid of heights and I decided I was going to go back to college because that was not the life for me climbing up three story ladders and I thought that education and teaching is something that I can enjoy doing and that's what really got me on my path wow so traded ladders for well chalk at the time probably right yes definitely chalk at the time dating myself but yes chalk it's a little bit different now very so today show is all about social media accounts and putting yourself out there and you are doing that for sure and you post and maintain social media accounts like Instagram and TikTok to let everyone virtually see into your school along with the amazing things that happen inside of it from your perspective what's your definition of what content creation is in terms of showcasing the creativity and the innovation happening within your school to your wider audience in your community the way it started for me was coming out of the pandemic I'll enroll men started to dip and also personally I was in a very dark place during the pandemic most of my school was remote when we came back in New York City in the hybrid year and I really needed to find my joy and I had at the time hired some younger staff members who are much more into social media and one of them came to me with the idea and I thought we had some really cool things happening at my school and we try to be cutting edge we try to be innovative and we prioritize fun and I thought after they spoke to me about using social media that it might be a good way to showcase our school and maybe get our enrollment back up and it actually worked so it's been really it's really fun it's interesting too because you know you do your your posts are entertaining you know there's something about it that brings just like the human element to it it that's very true and I try I like to say that we we take the job seriously here at p_s_79 but we don't take ourselves too seriously so I mean as being a teacher for over 10 years now being an administrator for over 10 years there are a lot of funny things that happen throughout the day so I think it's fine to showcase that into like this is the real world like where teachers were not up on some pedestal like weird stuff happens in education too and like sometimes it's funny and sometimes it's good to show that I totally agree more would you consider yourself an influencer though I don't know if I consider myself an influencer I have had people reach out and ask me tell a promote products and after school programs it's not something I'm really into I'm not doing this to influence my main focus is on my school like I'm very proud this school is my baby like it's my third child sometimes becomes before the rest of my family as my wife would tell you so I don't know I'm just I'm always so proud of the work that we do here I'm proud of our community that we built I'm proud of my teachers and my staff so for me it's just really all about showcasing that and showing off all the great things that we do here in terms of influencing though do you think you're you you're an influencer to other administrators out there who probably do check in on your channels people definitely follow it I think yes and no I think some people really like it and think it's interesting but they might not be as brave to put themselves out there others have told me they would never do something like this it's a it's really a mixed bag but yeah I do think there are tremendous amount I find more teachers follow I get a lot I've apparently become a little bit New York City famous among New York City teachers and now student teachers that come into my building they all know me and they're all excited to be at the the tick tock school but yeah so I think I think it has changed one thing I will say is a lot of the technology that we post that I got my staff that has had a big influence on other and a lot of principles will reach out to me like how did you do that where did you find that where did you come up with that idea like how do you decorate your building and celebrate the way you do like how do you get your custodian to go along with it so I do get a lot of questions about that from other administrators. You kind of touched upon it now so it's a great segue into this next question what are the reviews like you know what's the feedback that you received from just even your friends you know forget colleagues and even parents too you know could be in that category you know all about those posts what what's the feedback like it's in parents love it they love that our school gets showcased they love to highlight our community here is really it's really a wonderful community although we are a lot of people in transition in my 10 years that I've been here as principal there are some strong like deep roots in the white stone community where grandparents that drop their kids off will tell me they've gone here and there's a lot of pride in we try and offer so many unique programs for kids so the parents and the students love it a lot of my students get upset that they can't have a tick tock or Instagram technically till they 13 but they watch on their parents feeds from other to active it's been like my lot of my friends think I'm crazy especially my administrator friends and they don't understand how I have the time to do it and like a lot of my tick tocks are filmed at six o'clock in the morning in my office before my day starts or after hours like we're doing this podcast now or during the rare times I take like a 15 minute lunch during the day but overall the reviews have been really good I listen I get feedback sometimes if people think I push things a little too far like I made a comment just like how not even good or bad way how attendance for students and staff has been down post pandemic not making any judgment on it and teacher talk did not like that and came from a little bit and I heard from my superintendent on that he was like maybe not the best thing to post he's very good about is they're always very supportive but listen you live and you learned and I think it's but I also think that that's kind of like a sad commentary on like the state of education where we are there are so many people that are unhappy that they can't see the humor and something and that I'm not it's not a really that serious and account on tiktok and Instagram we are kind of oftentimes poking fun at ourselves and especially administrators who do negative things to teachers and are very hard on teachers I'm exceptionally pro teacher my my staff is awesome they do an amazing job so what do you get also to feedback but overwhelmingly it has been positive I hear that some teachers of jealous that they're not at your school I have heard that yes I have had I get a lot of applications via Instagram and and tiktok direct message that's funny that's what is your family think about it my wife thinks I'm crazy my kids like it and they want to have followings like I do because I have over 30,000 followers now so my seventh grade son is is trying to get his follower count up and he'll tell me his friends follow me and they think it's a little strange but yeah they like it my younger son his dream is to be a youtuber and a social media influencer so he can't wait till he can have old enough to have his own accounts and thinks he's going to hit and be famous and with whatever video game genre that he wants to do so they like it my wife thinks I'm crazy though listen but it's a good crazy it's a fun crazy it that you have this way about you that there's this perfect balance between humor and good sound educational work that you're that you're showcasing you know that's the human part of it you know so in terms of that how do you see that in terms of going out beyond the classroom even the walls of the building and into the community or the city or even the world for that matter I think one of things that like I feel like if I just like look at it from this way like people sometimes don't want to change with the times and I'm all about meeting everyone where they are that's my students and changing the way we teach to meet them where they are but that's also our parents like the world is different now people are glued to their phones they communicate differently they receive information differently so this is a way for us to meet them where they are and families want to know what's going on in their child's classroom and some of them don't know to ask they don't know the right question so I like to think that we're giving them a little vision inside on a daily basis we do have events where parents come in during the day and at evening but not everyone can make it but everyone you see has a phone doesn't matter what your circumstances no matter what someone always has a phone and they're on their phone so this is a way for them to see what's happening in their kids school and get an idea of what's going on so yeah and I think only good things can come from that I know I agree you know you're helping to positively change the way school principles are even viewed and by doing that and and showing the involvement that you have in your school and then even in your community there's this this very unique way this very unique transparent way that you're communicating with them you're showcasing the fun and silly but you're also showcasing the serious and good work that you're doing would you agree with that statement with you know how do you view that I would definitely agree with that statement like we again I think I said earlier I'm very proud of the work that we do here I'm very proud of my school I'm proud of my students I'm proud of my staff but like we also don't take it ourselves too seriously we do remember this is an elementary school I have four year olds in the building so it's not like we're not splitting the atom we're trying to provide them a sound education give them the basics that's going to set them up for life and also like we pride ourselves on having something for everybody my whole philosophy with education everyone over copic is a simple I want them to want to be here when they want to be here everything else is easier it's easier for my staff it's easier for me and it's easier for them to learn so that's why we have so many different programs and we highlight all the programs and we highlight all those programs and selfishly I wanted my enrollment to go up healthy registers equal a healthy school and like right now we're bursting at the scenes we're up to a 1777 kids we're coming out of the pandemic we had dipped well below a thousand and this year this year in particular we were projected for 980 kids and we beat that by almost a hundred kids and like for those in the D o e New York City that's a tremendous amount of funding and allows us to provide more opportunities for kids think about that reach even just within your school because you're talking about over a thousand elementary school kids at your school that reach that that community reach has to go pretty far wide it does and like we get a lot of good feedback even just from the local politicians who have been very good to us council member Vicki Paladinos here all the time burger does a lot of work with us and a lot of them follow me on the social media accounts and they like to see what's in the school and they like to highlight and they asked to come visit and only good things can come in that because they're engaging with their community at large which is our parents and their students here social media if you really think about it can be if it's used correctly it could be amazing right you know I think we could all agree with that but there could be times where it may not be and it could leave a bad taste in someone's mouth as a principle and now a principle that also produces content on different platforms what would you say to school administrators who feel uncertain you know you kind of touched upon it before you know just that uncertainty I don't want to put myself out there there's a vulnerability out there that I don't want to put myself how would what would you say to them you know similar to the way you've done things I would say start with something that you're confident in like showing parent engagement showing an event that you're having at your school like one of the things that we post all the time is our sports events like we have basketball games and the parents let's see it there's nothing risky or about that there's nothing little dangerous about that like you're promoting your school as long as everyone has photo consent it's fine you know with the strengths of your school everyone knows what they do well everyone knows what their school is doing well and I would always build from strength and I would highlight that as the way to put kind of dip your toe in the waters so if a school administrator or even a teacher for that matter wanted to get started and just create post that are similar to the way you do it and in that very healthy mix you know what advice would you have for them don't take seriously don't get into a back and forth with people in the comments no matter how positive your content is there's always going to be someone who who has something negative to say and just start slow and just make sure that you're comfortable with what you're both if like you it's a very easy barometer like if you even have a question that someone might take this the wrong way I would say don't post it don't post it always like take a breath always run it past someone else. I'm very lucky here I have a teacher that she basically runs a lot of my social media accounts she's much more technologically inclined than I am and knows how to manipulate things and will help film and and all that in her free time so when you if you're not sure get help from someone who knows it's great advice you know listen this has been really incredibly fun great conversation really refreshing conversation to have the silliness and serious mix is nice I'm happy we have had the opportunity to utilize this time to talk about social media and how you're sharing your school experiences along with some of the ways that you're showcasing the incredible things happening in your school I want to thank you for the time before we go is you want to give out your social to our listeners at principal Carter on tics hoc at principal Carter PS 79 on Instagram and Adam I just want to thank you for having me on I have now made it as I've been on the classroom dynamics. I'm a classroom dynamics podcast so big fan of the show and thank you guys so much for having me on thank you so much thank you for the time it's been a lot of fun all right take care well for those of you who I've been listening thank you for tuning in today and make sure that you share which you've learned or any takeaways or reflections that you've had and tag us on Twitter at class dynamics or Instagram at classroom dynamics podcast we always look forward to hearing your thoughts on our episodes and sharing the different ways in which you're using what you've learned you can also help to support classroom dynamics with this little is $3 a month at classroom dynamics podcast dot buzz sprout dot com once again I'd like to thank mr Kyle Cohen and principal George Carter for joining us today on classroom dynamics thanks for listening and that brings us to the end of this episode of classroom dynamics where knowledge and inspiration meets innovation I hope you've enjoyed today's discussion and founded both insightful and uplifting as always my goal is to provide you with practical strategies engaging stories and powerful insights that can fuel your motivation as an educator I believe that when knowledge and inspiration do come together incredible things can happen in your classroom and for all of you who may feel that it's too late to strengthen your craft I challenge you to make it your mission to do so you've worked hard to get to where you are today and it's never too late to infuse new life into your work so why not make today that day to do so I'm Adam Todd and you've been listening to classroom dynamics a teacher podcast you can follow classroom dynamics on X at class dynamics or on Instagram at classroom dynamics podcast if you haven't already go to Apple podcast and subscribe rate and review this podcast and if you know a teacher who may benefit from today's show please share it with them we'll be back soon with more captivating conversations inspiring stories and strategies that you can implement into your everyday routines until then keep igniting that spark in your classroom and never stop believing in the incredible impact you have as an educator you are more powerful and inspirational than you think if you love this episode you'll enjoy my conversation with educational leader and author of disruptive thinking Eric Shenninger join us as we sit down with the visionary educator and true trailblazer in the field of educational leadership and technology integration Eric shares his unparalleled insights on transforming schools into dynamic hubs of innovation from digital learning strategies to fostering a culture of continuous improvement our conversation with Eric offers invaluable wisdom for educators administrators and anyone passionate about the future of education and disruptive thinking and you know what I always you know really think about is you know two things how are learn how are students using technology to learn in ways they couldn't without it and number two if you're an adult how does your use of technology represent a fundamental improvement over what you did in the past without it and if you can't answer those questions it's okay not to use technology(upbeat music)