The massive growth in social media over the past decade or so has been hugely influential on almost every industry, and the teaching profession is certainly no exception – channels such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube have quickly become very popular in the classroom.

Indeed, some 45 percent of K-12 (kindergarten through twelfth grade) teachers update a social networking site for work purposes – almost two-thirds (65 percent) have used YouTube to upload videos and eight percent use Twitter for professional tasks.

This infographic takes a closer look at how teachers can (and do) use social networking to stay ahead in the game.

(Source: Scholastic Instructor. Learn button via Shutterstock.)