Who gets a gold star for their edu-social media?

Social media can be a fantastic source of support, information, professional development, and humour when it’s needed most. Here's my round-up of who I've found to be the best.

There is a wealth of educators and teachers online sharing their golden nuggets with us all.

Jen Foster – Goodmorningmsfoster

Instagram @goodmorningmsfoster

I have been following Jen for about a year; I've spoken to her directly and taken part in several live events she has run. She is a primary school teacher with a focus on supporting and including every child without labelling or judgement. She runs mentoring groups with teachers online, puts together a magazine with other experienced teachers, and provides the cutest and most useful resources.

Having recently come back to London after teaching in Malaysia, she’s on maternity leave at the moment, but that hasn’t slowed down her content. If you haven’t already checked her out. She is at the top of my recommendation list!

Lee and Adam Parkinson

Web: ICT with Mr P
Podcast: Two Mr P’s in a Pod(Cast)
Instagram: @ict_mrp
Facebook: Two Mr P’s in a Pod(Cast) / ICT with Mr P – Tech to Raise Standards

Lee Parkinson (ICT with Mr P) is a primary school teacher who spreads himself across all mediums. Under his brand ICT with Mr P, he has a subscription-access website full of resources raising standards while using technology. He collaborates with other knowledge developers to provide videos to help develop teachers' abilities in using technology resources in class.

My favourite parts are Lee’s videos on Facebook talking about 'The Legend, Mrs May' from the Biff, Chip and Kipper books commonly used to support reading across KS1. Mrs May is the teacher who can do anything, and you don’t really twig until Lee points it out. It always gives me a chuckle when I need it most.

Lee and his younger brother Adam, who is a teaching assistant, come together for a podcast called Two Peas in a Podcast which has also done some live shows. In uplifting episodes, Lee and Adam share the most hilarious stories from the classroom, and their point of view on 'deep dives, etc is extremely tongue in cheek. Definitely worth a listen in the car (without any children!).

Katie Tollitt – ForTeachers

YouTube: ForTeachers
Instagram: @forteachers

Katie is an English primary school teacher based in Hong Kong. She aims to help those going through teacher training or with NQT with ideas for lesson planning; how to build your QTS evidence file; and classroom planning. Katie has also created an NQT guide (free until the end of April) which is very helpful and contains some excellent guidance.

Katie isn’t a prolific poster at the moment. Still, she has a superb back-catalogue of videos and posts to have a look through.

Sophie – Happywithmissh

Instagram: @happywithmissh
YouTube: happywithmissh

Sophie is an NQT who loves to share videos and stories of her week, giving a great insight into life as a new teacher and the lessons she is learning along the way. Her vlogs are a nice and easy watch and while not the most educational, it’s nice to get some awareness of life on the other side of obtaining your QTS.

Lois Jowett – Display Lady

YouTube: DisplayLady
Instagram: @displaylady

Lois is a Disney-obsessed Assistant Head, who shares vlogs of her week, mainly filmed in the morning in her classroom as she prepares for the day. Her blogs are an authentic no-filter look into the world of teaching. She makes some of the most amazing displays for the school's 'book tunnel' and her classroom, but it’s her weekly vlogs at 3pm on a Saturday afternoon that I enjoy the most. Sometimes there are tears, sometimes there are smiles, but it’s lovely to watch.

Michelle Ferre – Pocketful of Primary

YouTube: Pocketful of Primary
Instagram: @pocketfulofprimary
Podcast: teachingonthedouble

Michelle is a fourth grade teacher in Maryland, USA who specialises in maths and shares lots of information on her YouTube channel.

Due to restrictions from her local authority, she can no longer film her weekly vlogs around her day like she used to. Still, there is a back catalogue of these on her channel that are worth a watch.

Michelle is excellent for ideas of things to buy for your classroom to make life easier, productivity tips, and tutorials for online resources – especially Google Drive and Google Classroom.

So there we have it, my round-up of those I would most definitely recommend following on social media. There are many more, I even have a separate Instagram account dedicated to following educators online, but there are too many to mention here!

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Katrina studies Primary Education Studies at ARU. If you'd like to find out more about our education degrees – or any undergraduate courses – come along to an Open Day.