I am not going to be sharing any photos from my classroom on Instagram this year. In the past, I have occasionally shared a #feetupfriday post, or maybe a shot of my anchor charts or my messy desk, but this year I'm doing things differently. Over the last year or so, I have felt less and less comfortable posting images of my classroom on the internet and slowly I have backed off from sharing classroom photos. There are a few reasons why I made this decision.

It's easy to feel lost in the sea of teacher Instagram accounts. Often you might feel like your reach is so small that what you're posting and saying isn't reaching anyone's ears. Here's the deal, though. No matter how big or small your audience is, you're impacting the people who see your content. If you're using Instagram, you have an influence.

Have you seen a trend lately of teacherprenuers using Instagram to grow their audience? Maybe you've heard of some big names in the teacher-instagram land and you've got heart eyes wondering how they were able to find so much success. You may have even started your own teacher instagram, but you're feeling a little lost and you're wondering if you'll ever have more than 20 people like your photos. Maybe you're dreaming of the day when teachers will talk about your account or share your resources during lunch.

When I first started my teacher instagram, I felt a lot of these feelings. It seemed like there was some big secret to success that no one was willing to share. I felt alone and desperate and I wanted to give up, but I'm so glad that I didn't.

There are a lot of trendy quips people say about self care. Things like "self-care isn't selfish," or "almost everything works if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you,"an empty lantern provides no light." Usually, when people use these quotes to talk about self care they're promoting an idea that it's okay to make time to pamper yourself or encouraging you to take long baths and make appointments to get your nails done. I'm not saying you shouldn't do those things if you enjoy them. I'm just saying that long baths, fresh manicures, and splurging for a soda aren't things that you necessarily NEED in order to survive.

True self care has to do with the essential tasks you make yourself do to take care of your real human self that needs sleep, food, comfort, entertainment, and security. Real self care is eating enough vegetables even though they're not your favorite. Real self care is making time to clean the kitchen floor regularly. Real self care is sticking to your budget and going to bed on time. And you deserve that kind of self-care, too. 

I'm a big believer in the power of your mindset because your core beliefs influence everything you do, think, and say. The great thing about mindset is that you can CHANGE it just by choosing to believe something different.

I believe that Instagram should be about more than liking perfectly edited photos. It should be about more than scrolling through filtered perspectives and well crafted captions. It should be about more than saving ideas for later and dreaming of being like someone else. It should be about more than emojis and giphys and stickers and follows and likes and shares. Instagram should be about the relationships you make with other people.