The supportive reminders I post to our class Instagram account are a result of classroom discussions, writing prompts, Morning Meeting lessons, wellness practices, etc.
Most lessons are planned out, while others happen more organically. If a student is tired and they tell me so, I’ll ask how much sleep they got the night before. I’ll ask what time they have to get up for school in the morning, and how much time they need to get ready in order to catch the bus on time. I’m good for throwing some scientific research in there about what the American Academy of Pediatrics have to say about the number of sleep hours a student their age should get, and then we have a Math lesson until we arrive at the appropriate time they should consider heading to bed in order to feel ready to learn the next day.
An obvious post that day or the next would be one that looks like this:
Most of the teachers in our school have Instagram accounts that we use to showcase what’s happening in class with the parents, and the students if they have permission from home to have an account. Primarily, the account is for home-school communication.
Depending on the teacher, accounts may not be private. Mine is. In order for someone to follow our class Instagram page, they must be accepted by me. It is a boundary that I feel very confident setting and I like being able to tell parents so.
Because I have an equal number of parents and students who follow the account, and many past students and parents as well, I use the opportunity to socially and emotionally support the well-being of my audience by posting musings or inspirational thoughts every third post.
I also like to use the opportunity to post videos of breathwork during the summer months to remind kids to keep practicing. The videos also help those students who’ve left my class and moved on to the upper grades. If their teachers aren’t providing time for them to tap into their inner wisdom, I want to give them that opportunity to remember it’s a muscle that needs to be strengthened.
There are many apps out there that create these memes. My favorite is Word Swag. Some others you may want to check out are: Quotes Creator and Canva.
There are free versions of each, but I pay a little over $5 a month to not have the Word Swag logo on all of my memes. It’s worth it to me. I can also add any of my business logos to the memes as well.
I like to post these things to think about because they will often support what I am teaching them in class, what’s happening in the world, and most importantly, what’s happening within themselves at this stage of their lives.
It’s very important for me to let children know they are ok. That what’s happening to them is a normal part of growing up. That regardless of our age, we all have difficulties, confusion, make mistakes, get over excited, become sad without knowing why. And I’ll often use these messages to remind kids about the tools they have that they can use to help themselves shift to a better place.
