7 Reasons Every Teacher Should Have a LinkedIn Profile

Friday, January 21, 2022

LinkedIn is one of the fastest growing online communities on the planet - 180 million members in the US and over 660 million worldwide.  And yet, we as educators are largely absent.  Time to fix that. Here are several of many reasons while being a part of the LinkedIn community can help further your classroom experience and your career.

1. Connections & Resources

As teachers, we always have moments that come up where we wish we had a specific professional to tap or a set of supplies to take the learning experience to the next level.  Most of us resort to spending our own money, getting on DonorsChoose or posting to Facebook in hopes of finding what we need.  

However, most of what we look for (i.e. volunteers, school supplies, field trip locations, etc.) relate to people in their professional setting --- AND most people are looking for ways to leverage their professional expertise or company to positively impact communities, even if it is small.  Having a LinkedIn profile allows you to put your needs in front of people while they are thinking with their professional hat on, which generally means they feel more capable and willing to help!

Case in point - I needed school supplies for a set of students and posted to LinkedIn.  Instead of getting a bunch of random friends giving me Ziploc bags of pens, I found a professional whose company was transitioning to a new office and had endless supplies to give away.  Much better.

“Having a LinkedIn profile allows you to put your needs in front of people while they are thinking with their professional hat on, which generally means they feel more capable and willing to help!”

2. School Leaders Are On It

Not that you want to leave your school any time soon...but it is always good to keep your options open.  The vast majority of school principals have profiles on LinkedIn and make a habit of posting updates.  As essentially the “CEO” of the school building, their jobs often require them to have a public face to promote their schools so LinkedIn can be a perfect place to connect with them.  And if you ever do want to leave the classroom...

3. Capture All of Your Skills

At TARA, one of the reasons we are so excited about having data to share about teacher strategies is that we think it will finally start to show the level of expertise and nuance that goes into teaching a set of students of any age any subject or skill.  To be more blunt, most people think of teachers as glorified babysitters...but those of us on the inside know how far from the truth that really is.  But we need to do a better job of capturing and telling that story.  TARA can capture the strategies you use and help develop your teaching style and profile.  But you still need to put that out there.

Having a profile on LinkedIn and getting “endorsements” for different skill sets you have - presentations, data analysis, communication, research to name just a few - can not only make finding new opportunities easier, but also make it clear that we as teachers actually have a far wider range of skill sets than many of our peers might think (and have themselves :).  

“To be more blunt, most people think of teachers as glorified babysitters...but those of us on the inside know how far from the truth that really is.”

4. Find New Opportunities

One thing teachers do far less than we should is look for ways we can leverage our skills for other opportunities while still in the classroom.  I know many educators who have secured multiple consulting contracts to help develop curriculum, support school transformation efforts, or lead trainings for education companies, charter networks, or non-profits in the education space.  By having a robust presence on LinkedIn, opportunities like these might just find you.  Things like Teachers Pay Teachers are nice and all - who wouldn’t want an extra $5 or $10 here or there - but as a collective, shuffling our hard earned dollars amongst ourselves does not necessarily serve us as a whole.  We can create a lot of value for others as well.

“Things like Teachers Pay Teachers are nice and all - who wouldn’t want an extra $5 or $10 here or there - but as a collective, shuffling our hard earned dollars amongst ourselves does not necessarily serve us as a whole.  We can create a lot of value for others as well.”

5. Find New Tools

In the meantime, LinkedIn is also a great place to get exposed to the latest tools and innovations debuting throughout the education ecosystem.  Professional level tools like TARA and others are debuted in professional places like LinkedIn.  Like other social media platforms, you can follow groups or hashtags to curate your feed and make sure these types of things pop up, which can often be more effective than googling when you are frustrated or tired later.

6. Careers Outside a School, but Still in Education (they do exist :)

Most teachers do not realize how many different opportunities that are out there for people with our sets of skills.  In addition to the typical education roles in different school settings (i.e. private schools, charters, education management companies, etc.), there are also all of the support industries for education to consider like education technology, curriculum, professional development, procurement and logistics, etc.  At TARA, we have built a web application for teachers, but the majority of us are former teachers ourselves, not coders.  It is our classroom experience and expertise that informs the design of the platform, sales and marketing to schools, and so much more.  

In the coming decade, educators also will likely have significant opportunities in the broader fields of learning and training.  As antiquated careers get eliminated and new ones created, who do you think is best suited to design new training programs…? Probably someone who has spent their career training others...you know...like a teacher.

“In the coming decade, educators also will likely have significant opportunities in the broader fields of learning and training.  As antiquated careers get eliminated and new ones created, who do you think is best suited to design new training programs…? Probably someone who has spent their career training others...you know...like a teacher.”

7. Be a Part of a Professional Community

As educators, we do a pretty terrible job of building community amongst ourselves.  And when we do, the community is often mostly social or emotional support for OURSELVES as opposed to one centered around our expertise - nothing wrong with that in any way - but a profession needs both.  

LinkedIn provides that space by joining groups like TARA and also taking advantage of how easy it is to create posts of your own.  While many of us resort to throwing our serious thoughts only on Facebook in a longer, soapbox rant-ish type of way (which can feel great, don’t get me wrong) - LinkedIn’s setting can help you push yourself to potentially formalize your thoughts a bit and start making a name for yourself as a thought leader.  

Take the Teacher Support Languages Quiz

You might also like

By putting your teachers first, you will stop surviving and start thriving.

Save Time
Save Money
Save Your Teachers

Because when teachers come first, students win...and teachers stay.