How can I participate in local and global learning communities to explore creative applications of technology to improve student learning?
(National Education Technology Plan 2010)
The word networking to me as a public school educator is such a foreign concept. An idea meant for young entrepreneurs and marketers. Even more for those who are just graduating from college in a more mainstream industry like computer science or business administration to get their names out there and have their faces seen by the “right people” because it is all about who you know and creating connections. But as I have learned through the Digital Educational Leadership Program at SPU teachers need to get into the mindset of networking for their own benefit. I used to ask myself why/what would I need to network for because I already have a job? Or why/how would networking help me or my classroom become a better place to learn? Networking is not just for getting a job it is also about helping new teachers coup with challenges, finding allies outside your own school, and just having someone to talk to outside of your own business bubble. The U.S. Department of Education stated a similar sentiment in the 2010 report “online communities of practice support teachers’ learning, enabling them to ‘collaborate with their peers and leverage world-class experts to improve student learning’ and ‘extend the reach of specialized and exceptional educators”’(p. 42 – 44).
As Getting Smart states in their post “20 Tips for Creating a Professional Learning Network,” Networking is essential for all professionals and “a prime form of 21st-century learning.” Education is becoming one massive global collaborative project where our end goal is to help the student the best way we can. As many start their first teaching job, I was given a class roster and told to “teach” with a textbook in hand. This was at the beginning of the Common Core movement, and SBAC was in the looming future. Of course, we had standardized tests to guide what the students should be able to accomplish by the end of their 9th and 11th-grade year but not many more expectations other than that. I needed help, and although my mentor was incredible, it was difficult for me to comprehend filling up 55 minutes with materials all by myself. TeacherspayTeachers became my first ally, but that got expensive and not sustainable. Then after a couple of years and realizing I will never know it all in teaching, I reached out to other sources. Getting Smart explains it well “as educators, we aim to be connected to advance our craft. On another level, we hope to teach students to use networks to prepare for them for a changing job market” (2013).
I have focused mostly on Twitter for growing my Professional Learning Network (PLN), specifically working with PSESD and Corelaborate organizing and participating in Twitter chats about education for the past couple years. I also attended the recent EdCampPSWA “Unconference” at Annie Wright to help grow my PLN, and although I have not attended a large educational conference before I feel like it would be a useful adventure. But the reality is that since I have started growing my own PLN I have certainly felt less alone, and I know that my feelings as an educator are actually validated across the country. Teaching can be such an isolating job because we live in our classrooms and I see 150 middle school students daily but days can go by without me interacting adults on an authentic level.
- Edutopia Grow your PLN & Twitter Chat Suggestions: https://www.edutopia.org/blog/twitter-expanding-pln
- Google Edu Twitter Chat Calendar: https://sites.google.com/site/twittereducationchats/education-chat-calendar/chat-calendar-pst
- ISTE Education Related Twitter Chats: https://www.iste.org/explore/articledetail?articleid=7
It is important to remember all public school teachers feel isolated at some point in their careers. In Rebecca Alber’s article, she explains, “Six Ways to Avoid Feeling Isolated in the Classroom” and she specifically says “Unlike our friends and family working in the private sector, we teachers spend 98 percent of our time, not with peers, but with children and in our classrooms. So it’s easy to forget to reach out and have adult conversations during our workdays” (2012). Her six options are all about person-to-person suggestions and I am always thinking about more online/technology ways to connect with other educators but she does mention Daniel Gilbert’s research on happiness, a Harvard psychology professor. He puts it this way: “We are by far the most social species on Earth,” explains Gilbert. “If I wanted to predict your happiness, and I could know only one thing about you, I wouldn’t want to know your gender, religion, health, or income. I’d want to know about your social network — about your friends and family and the strength of the bonds with them” (Albers, 2012) And as the U.S. Department of Education reiterates “collaboration is an effective approach for strengthening educators’ practices and improving the systemic capacity of districts and schools—and, ultimately, improving student learning” (2010). Without the outside collaborating I do on a daily/weekly basis online and with my SPU cohort outside of my school, I would feel lost. One small fish in a gigantic pond with a little foothold on how to bridge these gaps and inspire my students to do better and more.
Resources:
Alber, R. (2012, January 09). Six Ways to Avoid Feeling Isolated in the Classroom. Retrieved May 24, 2017, from https://www.edutopia.org/blog/avoid-teacher-isolation-stay-connected-rebecca-alber
Clifford, M. (2013). 20 tips for creating a professional learning network. Retrieved May 28, 2017 from http://gettingsmart.com/2013/01/20-tips-for-creating-a-professional-learning-network/
U.S. Department of Education Office of Educational Technology. Connect and inspire: online communities of practice in education. Retrieved May 30, 2017 from https://cdn.tc-library.org/Edlab/0143_OCOP-Main-report.pdf
