Teachers are awesome people.
They care about kids. They force students to challenge themselves. They make learners question the world around them, and when needed, they listen. Yes, I am a teacher, but the stories from other educators are what inspire me.
There is one weakness of teachers that I would like to point out but hope to improve: sharing. For all of the awesome things that teachers do in the classroom we are afraid to have someone else look at our work as if somehow the miracles we perform on a daily basis aren’t up to someone else’s standards.
Here are three ways I plan on trying to start building a culture of sharing.
1. Make time to watch other teachers teach.
How?
I’ve been saying that I want to this for years now, but this year I’m going to make it happen. It is easy to make excuses.
-I’m a young teacher; I don’t have time for it.
-My curriculum changed; I don’t have time for it.
-I’ve got parents to contact and I’m behind in grades; I don’t have time for it.
-…you get the picture.
We make so many excuses that we don’t have time…and I get it, I make those same excuses. So here’s what I’m going to do (hopefully blogging this will help hold me accountable):
Make a list of people that I would like to see teach. Ask them if I could come watch them teach. Schedule a specific day and time to watch them teach and add it to my calendar. Things come up, yes, but reschedule and make it happen. Think of it as a meeting, but this meeting you will actually grow as an educator.
Why?
I will get a better understanding of what my students go through in an average school day. I will be able to see how other teachers question students, encourage students, and hold them accountable for their learning. To think that I know all there is about teaching or that my way is the best is simply foolish. How can I grow unless I am introduced to what else is out there?
I can create a better relationship with my peers. If they are comfortable with talking about it, I can ask them their rationale behind decisions. Did you notice you did this? Why did you make that decision? It creates an opportunity for educators to be reflective while having a meaningful conversation about improving learning for students.
2. Create a hashtag your district can use to collaborate and share resources or ideas.
George Couros is a boss educator, and I had the pleasure of listening to him speak at ISTE 2015. One of the many moving quotes was simple:
“Isolation is now a choice educators make”
Often we as teachers hide away in classrooms, overwhelmed with the tasks that lay before us, but twitter presents a new form of learning, connecting, and growing as professional educators.
How?
I plan on writing a more detailed layout of how this has worked in my district, but here’s the general roll out of what I have done in regards to creating a district hashtag.
1. Find a hashtag that is short and not already used by others.
2. Find other innovators and tell them about your idea. Keep this group very small for the first few weeks to generate content and help determine what type of content will be shared.
3. After three to four weeks try to expand your group to other early innovators.
4. Try to get administration on board – show them or, even better, have them try it!
5. Ask to share the idea with the rest of the staff. Take time during the next staff meeting to share your thoughts.
6. See if you can lead training sessions for interested staff members.
Why?
In this day and age we have access to all of the info in the world, but more importantly, we have access to one another (another Couros quote). In the crazy routine of teaching there are days we do not have a moment to eat lunch or even go to the bathroom. Getting out of our room to have a conversation seems daunting, but taking a minute to tweet one awesome thing that happened each day allows us as educators to connect, have conversations, and share learning at pace that matches our lifestyle.
3. Create a Tagboard to share experiences in the classroom, at sporting events, and in the community.
Districts are made up of much more than teachers. To fully create a culture of sharing, students, parents, administrators, coaches, and community members also need to be a part of the process. Many of these members are already producing content whether it is on facebook, twitter, or instagram. Tagboard allows all of these mediums to be collected and shared in one place.
How It Works
Anytime someone uses a hashtag on facebook, twitter, or instagram it is displayed on a tagboard devoted to that tag. For example, check out the tagboard for #badgers. As you scroll, you can see that most of the content came from twitter and instagram, but there are occasional facebook posts that appear as well. All that is needed is a simple tag you can use for your community and spread the word to start sharing.
Why?
Facebook, twitter, and instagram all tend to be favored by different demographics. From my experience, many parents have and use facebook. They love to post pictures of their daughter/ son’s sporting events or club outings. Some parents, teachers, and students prefer to use twitter to share experiences. For me, it is the preferred method to share content. Lastly, the preferred form of social media among students is instagram. They already throw a million hashtags on their pictures; why not add one more that will share a classroom experience/ basketball game/ musical/ band performance/you-name-it with others excited to be part of the community? Could you imagine a district where student learning and success was displayed openly and everyone was welcome to be part of that community?
I plan on writing more about my experiences as the next school year begins, but I challenge you to find ways to expand your comfort zone and push others around you to share more of what you do on a daily basis. Teachers are awesome people – its time to show off. Own your greatness; everyone loves learning.
