Isabelle Buser: school, influencer and handicrafts

While in the cantons there is a discussion about cell phone bans in school, Isabelle Buser shares her everyday life as a teacher on social media. She does not see a contradiction in it.

Shortly after school, at 4:20 p.m., she shared a handicraft exercise on Father’s Day in her Instagram story; A foldable heart. Several thousand people have already seen their video during this time, five inquiries have already arrived from colleagues who ask about Buser’s materials.

Isabelle Buser, shoulder -length hair, darling -embroidered sweater, hair tie on the wrist, is the teaching profession in the blood: her father was already a teacher, like her uncle and her sister. Buser has been teaching at a primary school in the canton of Bern for eleven years. She has been active on social media as a woman teacher for over eight years.

Buser is part of several dozen teachers in Switzerland who share their everyday life on social media. And also earn money.

From Challenges to Bubble with over 70,000 people

Since the first Instagram challenge for teachers went viral, the influencers have been sharing their ideas, experiences and templates online. This allows you to achieve other teachers – and those who still want to be.

« Social media are just as much a part of everyday life for teachers as for everyone else, » says Beat A. Schwendimann from the umbrella organization of Swiss teachers LCH. The association has knowledge of the online presence of these influencers. Your work could contribute to a broader exchange and bring the apprenticeship closer to a large audience.

Busers follow over 70,000 people on Instagram; Your videos reach several hundred thousand people, sometimes millions. Buser shares exercises for restless classes, handicraft instructions or memes about schoolchildren who endured a new pen. In between, Buser also posts collaborations. Several plants in their classroom are sponsored, as are a colorful carpet for the chair circle.

But if she earns money with her online appearance, then on your website. There she sells posters for the classroom, lists with entry rates for location talks, index cards with game ideas. Materials as you could seek prospective teachers. The template for the Father’s Day Herz also ends up in Buser’s shop that evening.

The exchange has grown online, especially during pandemic, Buser says. So much so that you can make additional earnings.

A hobby that brings several monthly wages

This is basically not a problem, says Beat Schwendimann: « As long as this is known and declared as a part -time income, there is some scope. » So far, the association has hardly received any complaints. If so, it is about complaints about teachers who were on the Internet, for example, more freely. In such cases it is about the role model function of the teachers; However, this is hardly affected if someone talked online about their own lessons.

Some of their colleagues are now so successful that they no longer have to teach and only sell their own materials. But Isabelle Buser does not want that: « Without lessons, I would lack something in life. »

Your online presence should remain a hobby. One that brings two to three additional monthly wages a year depending on how much time she can and wants to invest.

It sees no contradiction, as in the cantons and at schools about mobile phone bans and dealing with social media. On the contrary, says Buser: « I am much closer to all the trends, the reality of young people. » So you can build on the experiences of the students.

For example, when it comes to hatred on the net. Because sometimes Buser’s videos “get into the wrong bubble”; They go virally and reach over 2.5 million people. « That gives real hate, » says Buser. She then receives dozens of comments on how incapable and lazy teachers are today: « I think people simply leave their frustration on their own or former teachers on behalf of me. »

« I only share things that I can stand in front of the parents »

Data protection is therefore all the more important. In addition to the role model function, this is the really critical point when teachers are active on the Internet, says Beat Schwendimann. In Switzerland, too, influencers had already shared anecdotes that children could be identified on the basis of which children were identified. « These stories are then open to the entire Internet, » he says.

The umbrella organization cannot proceed: « We trust that the teachers are on the road with the necessary caution and adhere to the professional ethical requirements. »

Buser also makes sure that even in the background of a photo there are no names, drawings and objects that a child could be identified. She only publishes with reserved under her real name. Her family hardly shows her on her channels, she doesn’t share anywhere where she lives or at which school she teaches.

A few of the students know about their hobby, many not. « I just publish things that I can also stand in front of the children and parents, » says Buser. In everyday school life, their online presence is hardly an issue. If so far, she has only received positive feedback. Most of the time she is one thing above all, says Buser: « A teacher like everyone else. »