![Social studies teacher Virginia Nguyen uses her social media platform to promote her non-profit, Educate to Empower, as well as share her classroom values. “If you want to know who I am, how I navigate and live my life, my classroom teacher self, my nonprofit director self, my mom self, my friends self, my daughter self, [the account] is very much who I am,” Nguyen said. “When they look at the social media, I hope that authenticity comes through where students are like, ‘Oh, that's so Ms. Nguyen.’”
Photos Courtesy of Virgina Nguyen, Otto Lopez and Kearci Thompson.](https://portolapilot.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/@-1-1200x675.jpg)
While others chase virality on social media, these teachers are using Instagram not for likes, but for creating lasting impacts on students and educators alike.
Visual arts teacher Kaerci Thompson created her Instagram account @__mrs.thompson__, which features the work of visual art students as well as glimpses into her personal life, such as friendships with fellow teachers during her first year of teaching at Portola High. What started as a way to spread the word about the newly developed visual arts program grew to not only feature Thompson’s own choices of student work, but the personal favorites of other visual arts students and ongoing projects in the art classroom.
“I really just enjoy using it as a space to celebrate our artists,” Thompson said. “Because our work is not loud, it’s a quiet piece that you look at, we might not have as many opportunities or as many showcases as other departments on campus might. This is a way to get their work out there in a way that works best for us, so that it’s not just something we’re announcing in class.”
Spanish teacher Otto Lopez started his account, @mrlopeznation, in late 2019 before he joined Portola High. Originally a way to stay in touch with his middle school students after they started high school, Lopez’s account has evolved to fit the needs of his students, whether it’s posting campus activities or remaining connected to his senior students.
“Now it’s just an extra page for resources of what’s going on at school,” Lopez said. “Usually, I just repost things from counseling or ASB, or I’ll post if I’m at an event, supporting my students. When I post something, it’s fun to see all the students that interact with it.”
Social studies teacher Virginia Nguyen’s Instagram account, @edu_to_empower, highlights a different perspective towards teachers’ presence on social media. The page features her non-profit organization Educate to Empower, founded in 2021 with former middle school teacher Stacy Yung. Created in response to the rise of racial tension caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, Nguyen and Yung began providing advocacy tools to students and educators, such as conferences and teacher training workshops.
“What we always want to lean into for our social media are three words: love, care and community,” Nguyen said. “I would hope that if you looked at our Instagram and saw what we’re sharing, it would always be rooted in that. We never do things in isolation. We always do things as a community.”
