So, Teacher Goals is a hub for educators that offers courses, books, podcasts, conferences, among many other things, including hosting an Instagram page dedicated to memes on all things teaching.
Bored Panda had a chat with founder and CEO of TeacherGoals, Brad Weinstein, who elaborated on what TeacherGoals is all about:
"TeacherGoals is an organization dedicated to helping educators through the good times and the hard times through inspiration, innovation, and some humor. We truly believe that sometimes we need to laugh so that we don't cry in such an important, but demanding profession."
"TeacherGoals started out as a Twitter page back in 2014 when I wanted to create an account dedicated to making each day better for educators. I was a teacher at the time and experienced firsthand how frustrating being an educator can be and how educators also had little support," explained Brad.
So, Brad started posting inspirational content with the purpose of celebrating educators and the impact they had on students. This also served as a safe way for educators to vent their frustrations as teaching isn't the easiest of jobs.
"This is when I started posting humorous content that really connected with educators because of how relatable it was to their everyday jobs. Once I found the right combination of posting content that is funny, frustrating, and fantastic about teaching, the account started to grow at a quick rate.
Since then, Brad moved on to create a TeacherGoals account for Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and TikTok.
As of this article, the Instagram page boasts over 10,800 posts that have drawn in 225,000 followers, with the top posts racking up upwards of 250,000 likes, so you know this is the real deal. Among the sprinkles of website marketing material and some inspiration, the page consists mostly of some of the most spot-on memes about teachers.
Speaking of memes, there’s tons of them, and they seem to cover every corner of the educator profession.
Professional pains? You've got the pain of grading assignments, the pain of not being able to find a functional stapler, the pain of dealing with politicians' decisions regarding classroom sizes and other pressing issues, among many others.
But there’s also happiness to be found, like when you overhear someone say you’re their favorite teacher, or when you get a portrait of you some kid drew and you’re re-evaluating your life choices, and the joys of Spring Break.
"The content on TeacherGoals is fueled by my experience as a coach, teacher, principal, and curriculum director. I still have a lot of friends and families that are educators, in addition to still working very closely with educators and students at schools," elaborated Brad.
"Our original content is inspired by the TeacherGoals community, personal experiences, and what is currently happening in schools and the world. We also spotlight and share content from great educator accounts around the world."
Brad believes that memes are key in capturing the amazing things that educators do and also one of the best ways to vent frustrations.
"Memes are a quick, yet impactful way to see that educators around the world have so many things in common that they go through, no matter where they teach. Memes are also an escape where we can shut our brains off a little and consume content in a quick and easy format," said Brad.