Social media is essentially the rocket fuel that shoots awareness of anything so high that it surpasses our atmosphere.

Facebook, Twitter, Google+ (because yes, some people use that), LinkedIn (some people use this one, too…I think), Tumblr, Instagram, Flickr — all of these mediums of social media provide an open window into the worlds of others.

They can also be an open window to the worlds of our classrooms and schools.

It’s important to use social media to show kids and their families what’s going on inside the classroom, but I also feel as though it’s equally important to show other teachers what’s going on in their classrooms, too.

There are a few Twitter and Instagram accounts that I follow that are constantly posting about teacher’s practices and how their classrooms are laid out. I appreciate seeing the way other people implement organization in their classroom or choose to set things up in a certain way. It gives me a fresh perspective on a concept, and it’s so awesome that technology can make that concept reachable to people everywhere.

I also find social media to be a great platform to preach. I feel as though I’m constantly posting about the latest in education news, or I’m joining in as many Twitter chats I possibly can manage at once (TweetDeck can only get me so far, y’all) so I can further my practice as an educator. I tell people about my involvement in online PD with Twitter and often am met with snarks or smirks, but I can easily say that some of my best conversations revolving around this passionate profession have stemmed from social media.

There is power in numbers, and social media is a multifaceted way that we as teachers can reach not only students and their families, but other teachers and administrators, too. We can learn and grow together, whether we’re in the same district or in a completely different time zone. We can use words, pictures, videos — tweets, filters, Vines — to communicate and reach one another and show off the great things that are happening in our classroom. When great things happen, why wouldn’t we want to share with the world!?

This is what teaching in the 21st century looks like: working with others around the world to expand our knowledge of how to be better educators using a social media lens.