From Oct. 15-Nov. 15, 2019, the English department at Ball State is going to devote a whole bunch of our online bandwith to highlight our amazing English Ed program.

If you’re a current student or a recent graduate, you probably know that over the last 5-6 years, we’ve used our online platforms to successfully “flip the narrative” about what you can do with an English major–besides teach; now it’s time to talk about becoming a teacher!

  • All month, we’ll be sharing poems about teaching. Make sure you’re following us on Twitter, @bsuenglish.
  • We’re creating a bookmark that promotes the major.
  • We’re helping the EnglishEd Club crowdfund to get to the NCTE conference!
  • But mostly, we’re telling stories.

We want to push back against negative attitudes about teaching by flooding the internets with positive, true stories. To that end, we’re running a social media campaign…

#WeFly #WeTeach 

The #WeFly #WeTeach campaign on Instagram will be a bit like “Humans of New York.” 

If you’re an English Ed student or alum and want to participate, here’s how!

Use your instagram account
  • Share your post (not a story, a regular post) on your own Instagram account (set to public) 
  • Use the hashtag #WeFly #WeTeach and tag our new Instagram account, @BSUEnglishED. 
  • We will re-post to the @bsuenglished and @bsuenglish Instagrams and archive on Facebook 
  • Create your post anytime you like during the campaign, but we will only repost one a day max. 
Use our Instagram account
  • If you don’t use Instagram or don’t want to share this on your own account…
  • Write your caption and insert your photos using this form.
  • We will post this from the @BSUEnglishEd Instagram, and repost from @bsuenglish Insta and FB.
  • Here’s an example!
Guidelines
  • Make sure you’re okay with your post going public. 
  • We want at least one of the pictures to be a picture of you! At school or at home, a selfie. Whatever.
  • We know there are rules about photographing your students. Don’t break those rules! 
  • Don’t think of this as purely a “promotional” campaign. It’s an opportunity to let others know what’s up with your life, what matters to you, and to continue to build the EnglishEd community!
  • If you know another alum who might like to participate, feel free to send them a link to this post! Or just tell them to tag us, and we will re-share their post from @BSUEnglishEd. The more the merrier.
Types of “story arcs” 
  1. Day-in-the-life Instagram post. Story of a typical day. Because you don’t always feel like you’re “changing the world” every single day. And because we want to show that teaching isn’t an impossible job. Can be multiple photos.
  2. Here’s-my-why Instagram post. Story of a particularly special or inspiring day or collection of special moments from different days. Can be multiple photos. 
  3. Flip-the-narrative Instagram post. A positive response to a negative stereotype about teaching. Can be multiple photos. 
Talking Points

The strengths of the English Ed program (and there are many!) can be found here on our website.