



Most teachers use technology to communicate with parents today -- 70 percent, according to a new survey -- but many are probably not using Snapchat.

The popular mobile messaging app, known for its short, disappearing photos and videos, is a hit among teens and young adults: Sixty percent of Snapchat's monthly U.S. users are 13- to 24-year-olds, the company says. Parents and teachers may not be as familiar with how it works, and that is intentional.

[Get three tips for high school teachers to use social media responsibly in class.]

"We've made it very hard for parents to embarrass their children," Snapchat co-founder and CEO Evan Spiegel said at a conference this past January, reported Bloomberg Business. "It's much more for sharing personal moments than it is about this public display."

That hasn't stopped some high school educators from experimenting with using the app for educational purposes.

"We got on it a few months ago and the reason behind it was we wanted to try to reach our students on the social media platform they are using the most," says Aaron Plas, assistant principal of York High School in Nebraska, and that was Snapchat.

He created the school's Snapchat account -- yorkhsdukes -- with Stephen Sautter, a tech integration specialist with the district.

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They thought it could be a great avenue to showcase things happening at school and to provide reminders and announcements.

About 40 students followed their account right away and they've been gaining more followers each week, Sautter says.

And while they started the account with students in mind, surprisingly, a lot of parents have followed their Snapchat account as well, Plas says.

Like the educators in Nebraska, Katelyn Gilroy, a library media specialist at Peters Township High School in McMurray, Pennsylvania, created a library Snapchat account -- pthslibrary -- a couple of months ago after noticing that many of her students were using the app. Her school allows students to bring their own device and she was looking for a way to connect using social media.

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She likes the privacy aspect for her students, too. She doesn't follow her students, so she can't see what they are posting, but her students who follow her can see what she's posted.

She snaps things like library news and information, new books and different events they host as Snapchat "Stories."

Unlike snaps sent to individuals, stories can be viewed by anyone following a Snapchat account for up to 24 hours. The Nebraska educators share content with students via stories as well.

Gilroy only has about 30 followers so far, but she thinks she needs to get the word out more. She plans to continue to use Snapchat.

"As the librarian, I need to constantly grow my library program and also grow kind of with the times," she says. "So if they start using a different app, I could definitely see myself incorporating that into the library as well."

Both Sautter and Gilroy agree that consistency is important. Because if educators don't use it, students are not going to follow or continue to look at it, Sautter says.

Sautter meets with Plas at the beginning of each week to make a plan for what they are going to post on Snapchat.

Many students are starting to want to be a part of it, Plas says, and more announcements are being given by teens. He says the students like to use the filters and lenses -- often amusing overlays that change the look and feel of the content -- when creating snaps.

In a recent snap, a student used a lens that made her look like a rabbit with a long tongue to announce the theme for the student section for the state basketball game, Plas says.

"The students have really enjoyed it," he says.

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Alexandra Pannoni is an education Web producer at U.S. News. You can follow her on Twitter or email her at apannoni@usnews.com.