Because a few teachers are instagram influences doesn't mean that "Teachers" as a profession are doing this widely. You could pretty much replace the word teachers with any profession and this would probably hold true.
I'm glad people are finally catching on to this fashionable narrative-generation tactic. When a reporter writes "X people are doing Y", all that means is that at least two X people each did Y at least one time. That's it. It doesn't mean Y is common or ascendant among X or the typical X does Y or even that any X is at the present moment continuing to do Y. This kind of headline sure sounds like a broader claim though!
Reporters and editors are people with a knack for language. They understand that for this phrase, the gap between denotation and connotation is a chasm. That we see this particular phrasing constantly anyway suggests a certain malfeasance.
I'm really tired of having to read my news adversarially.
Teachers are moonlighting by selling lesson plans online to make ends meet. Some of them use Instagram to promote. This isn’t new, the trend has been growing for years. Here’s a 2009 NYT article discussing it - https://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/15/education/15plans.html
This is significantly different than your average instagram influencer who generates revenue by finding advertisers and convincing them to pay based on reach.
Nice client placement, Teachers Pay Teachers publicity team. You've pulled off a real coup, getting a fawning article in one of the largest news websites in the country.
Poor news judgement, Buzzfeed editorial team. You've taken a handful of wildly successful and unverified samples to make it seem like this is a trend or widespread occurrence among professional teachers.
These two quotes stood out in particular:
School administrators have largely been supportive, too
Henry said her Instagram can help students and their parents connect in a more natural way and have more meaningful conversations about what they’re learning in school.
Really? Administrators have no problem with school facilities being used for this purpose, and parents think sponsored Instagram content is a "natural" way to connect?
I have kids in our local public school system and follow teachers and administrators who use social media channels to share events and special learning experiences. I am also well aware of the struggles to pay for supplies, and have paid the extra fees and donation requests when they've come up. But using these channels as a personal side hustle would be really disappointing, if I learned it were taking place at my kids' schools.
This article does a disservice to the profession, IMHO.
How: Primarily through product advertisements on their accounts.
Why:On the order of a few thousand a year for a big account, why is that surprising? It's not a career, even for most of the people making money off of the platform. It's more on the order of youtube videos. Yeah, a few people might make a living from it, but that's a vanishingly small percentage of the people pulling in some sort of income from it.
IG influencers might be most cost-effective way of getting your product in front of potential customers.
Example: If you sell novelty beer mats and there's someone on IG with 500,000 followers who posts images of novelty beer mats, you might consider paying them a decent chunk of cash to talk about your business.
Yes, and so are "rockstars". The thing is that not everyone who plays a guitar is a rockstar and not everyone who posts on instagram is an influencer. For the large majority there is no money to be had, but for few lucky individuals you can make a decent bug doing it. Though if you are planning on switching carriers I'd bet on rockstar over Instagram influencer.
Brands pay them to review / promote products with varying levels of control and payment depending on how influential the influencer is. If you have over 10,000 followers and are active people just send you hundreds of dollars of free product with no strings attached. They also give free stuff (and pay if you're important) in exchange for some specific amount of content, two instagram posts over X days and 1 blog post.
They also hire an influencer to run a promo or booth as a brand ambassador.
The why is obvious: it makes them more money than they pay.
I mean, I respect the hustle. Get paid and all that. No shame in the game. But pretending that you already aren't doing better than most people is kind of being dishonest.
The woman I wound up marrying said much the same. She heard other teachers complaining about the pay and how they need summer jobs, etc. She was like, "This already pays better than any other job I've had, if I could survive off of that, this is no problem".
$50,000 is on the higher end of the spectrum for teachers. In Texas, the starting teacher salary is around $38,000. Plus, teachers have to provide their own supplies, be at the school by 7 am every day, stay late helping with extracurriculars / helping students, and work late grading among other things.
Unfortunately humans by nature like to compare. I teach at a community college and for my level of education I'm paid much less than my friends in industry. I don't begrudge their success and I'm comfortable with my situation but others aren't. Our pay has been declining relative to the pay increases of people in industry and I think this exacerbates the problem.
In an absolute sense I'm well paid and I'm happy with my situation. If I were to engage in a keeping up with the Jones' attitude then I'd probably be bitter. I don't have kids so my need to keep up is greatly diminished from those who do have kids.
This is the real issue with inequality. Seeing so many other people have it much better than you despite relatively the same level of education and intelligence makes people angry. It's hard not to compare but it's much healthier emotionally not to compare.
> That's a salary better than the national average.
Not only that, but that assumes single income, with mandatory union membership and three months of vacation a year, during which time one can pursue higher education, work a side job or relax. That's a better deal than most others get at the finger-chopping factory or slaving away in a call center.
Thanks to recent education initiatives over the last few decades everything is about teaching to a handful of standardized tests so the job is automated to the point of being glorified babysitting anyway.
It's a cushy gig with benefits most would kill for. I don't have sympathy for teachers anymore.
[+] [-] Mitchhhs|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] quotemstr|7 years ago|reply
Reporters and editors are people with a knack for language. They understand that for this phrase, the gap between denotation and connotation is a chasm. That we see this particular phrasing constantly anyway suggests a certain malfeasance.
I'm really tired of having to read my news adversarially.
[+] [-] gthtjtkt|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] stevecalifornia|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] teej|7 years ago|reply
This is significantly different than your average instagram influencer who generates revenue by finding advertisers and convincing them to pay based on reach.
[+] [-] ilamont|7 years ago|reply
Poor news judgement, Buzzfeed editorial team. You've taken a handful of wildly successful and unverified samples to make it seem like this is a trend or widespread occurrence among professional teachers.
These two quotes stood out in particular:
School administrators have largely been supportive, too
Henry said her Instagram can help students and their parents connect in a more natural way and have more meaningful conversations about what they’re learning in school.
Really? Administrators have no problem with school facilities being used for this purpose, and parents think sponsored Instagram content is a "natural" way to connect?
I have kids in our local public school system and follow teachers and administrators who use social media channels to share events and special learning experiences. I am also well aware of the struggles to pay for supplies, and have paid the extra fees and donation requests when they've come up. But using these channels as a personal side hustle would be really disappointing, if I learned it were taking place at my kids' schools.
This article does a disservice to the profession, IMHO.
[+] [-] Fellshard|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] vowelless|7 years ago|reply
Wow. That's some serious cash.
[+] [-] masonic|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] shiftoutbox|7 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] phakding|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Sileni|7 years ago|reply
Why:On the order of a few thousand a year for a big account, why is that surprising? It's not a career, even for most of the people making money off of the platform. It's more on the order of youtube videos. Yeah, a few people might make a living from it, but that's a vanishingly small percentage of the people pulling in some sort of income from it.
[+] [-] christudor|7 years ago|reply
IG influencers might be most cost-effective way of getting your product in front of potential customers.
Example: If you sell novelty beer mats and there's someone on IG with 500,000 followers who posts images of novelty beer mats, you might consider paying them a decent chunk of cash to talk about your business.
[+] [-] jVinc|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bseidensticker|7 years ago|reply
They also hire an influencer to run a promo or booth as a brand ambassador.
The why is obvious: it makes them more money than they pay.
[+] [-] saudioger|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|7 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] shiftoutbox|7 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] bena|7 years ago|reply
That's a salary better than the national average.
I mean, I respect the hustle. Get paid and all that. No shame in the game. But pretending that you already aren't doing better than most people is kind of being dishonest.
The woman I wound up marrying said much the same. She heard other teachers complaining about the pay and how they need summer jobs, etc. She was like, "This already pays better than any other job I've had, if I could survive off of that, this is no problem".
[+] [-] ccccccccccccc|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] skh|7 years ago|reply
In an absolute sense I'm well paid and I'm happy with my situation. If I were to engage in a keeping up with the Jones' attitude then I'd probably be bitter. I don't have kids so my need to keep up is greatly diminished from those who do have kids.
This is the real issue with inequality. Seeing so many other people have it much better than you despite relatively the same level of education and intelligence makes people angry. It's hard not to compare but it's much healthier emotionally not to compare.
[+] [-] jstarfish|7 years ago|reply
Not only that, but that assumes single income, with mandatory union membership and three months of vacation a year, during which time one can pursue higher education, work a side job or relax. That's a better deal than most others get at the finger-chopping factory or slaving away in a call center.
Thanks to recent education initiatives over the last few decades everything is about teaching to a handful of standardized tests so the job is automated to the point of being glorified babysitting anyway.
It's a cushy gig with benefits most would kill for. I don't have sympathy for teachers anymore.
[+] [-] gedy|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|7 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] aantix|7 years ago|reply
50,000 * .65 = 32,500 / 12 = $2,708.
$700 for health insurance, dental, life insurance.
Home in a neighborhood where you feel reasonably safe : $900 month. Hopefully in an OK neighborhood, because you can't afford a private school.
$300/month for a car that actually starts reliably in the winter for the next five years.
Child care for a couple of small children ($500/mo per child).
You won't teach in the state of Nebraska without a four-year degree. $18,000/year*4, $72,000 of debt.
Let's hope nothing major comes up.
[+] [-] wbracken|7 years ago|reply
"The average annual pension for a retired Illinois teacher in fiscal year 2017 was $54,180"
https://www.trsil.org/news-and-events/pension-issues/teacher...