For me, the teacher networks I belong to have two functions. First, the networks connect me to a community of like-minded people with a common professional interest and objective in life. Second, I want to find resources that will have a positive impact on my teaching practice.
Oddly enough, the idea of developing connections with teacher networks only occurred to me in the past two years. As a National Board Certified Teacher, I decided to attend the Teaching and Learning 2014 Conference in Washington, DC. While perusing the list of presenters, I was immediately energized and interested to attend. Until this time, I was proud of being Board certified but didn’t know what else the organization did or how it could further impact my teaching. Attending this conference further opened my eyes to the scores of talented and knowledgeable people involved in education. Being interested in policy and practice, I found myself with a buffet of choices involving both. I was able to listen to Angela Duckworth discuss her research involving the impact of grit and self-control on educational success. I met Pasi Sahlberg and listened as he discussed educational practice in Finland which led his home country to a #1 ranking on the PISA exam. Charlotte Danielson led a panel discussion on her teaching Framework. I found out about a website called www.noredink.com developed by a former English teacher, Jeff Scheur, to help with grammar instruction. This conference changed my view of the National Board of Professional Teaching Standards from certification granting entity, to a living, breathing organization that was dedicated to being a teacher network and positively impacting the practice of all teachers (admission to the conference is open to anyone who is interested). Teaching and Learning 2015 provided another stimulating session and I am looking forward to 2016! Attending this conference is invigorating.
Recently, I’ve discovered the value of Twitter in connecting with educational people and organizations of interest. Until fairly recently, I could not understand how Twitter was worth my time. I’m not very interested in the daily lives of “celebrities” or the opinions of athletes. This year our principal created a Twitter account for our school https://twitter.com/WarwickPPPRIDE I joined to check it out. After a few minutes, I quickly realized that Twitter is much more than a 140 character platform for anyone with a keyboard. Many of the names mentioned in the previous paragraph kept popping up on my Twitter page. Instead of just being able to read their book or a random article, I could now be connected to a multitude of their ideas, and the thoughts and ideas of people they respect.
With these networks, I keep tabs on the profession as a whole and investigate educational policy in our country and, as much as possible, abroad.
As an aside . . . . While I vote and write my legislators regarding educational policy, I am not overly active in the political realm. I do believe, however, that the least teachers can do is be informed about what is going on in the Department of Education and with legislation around the country and the world. The leadership of the profession of education has been taken over by politicians in our country. Since they have no idea what to do and refuse to ask teachers, social workers, and other experts on creating a nurturing social system, they have delegated private industry, including the test production industry, and others with little to no experience in education, or social issues, as the stewards of the public education system in the United States. As a professional educator with a deep interest in the success of public education and the intellectual growth of the next generation of humans, I am appalled at what is happening. I want to know as much as possible about these developments. I want to see if more knowledgeable friends of education, and good policy, know what I know and see what I see. I also want to know what they are doing about it. For that reason, I follow Diane Ravitch https://twitter.com/DianeRavitch , Andy Hargreaves https://twitter.com/HargreavesBC , and Pasi Sahlberg https://twitter.com/pasi_sahlberg . All are excellent sources on what Pasi Sahlberg calls GERM, which stands for the Global Education Reform Movement. He explains in a Washington Post article from 2012, “It is like an epidemic that spreads and infects education systems through a virus. It travels with pundits, media and politicians. Education systems borrow policies from others and get infected. As a consequence, schools get ill, teachers don’t feel well, and kids learn less.”
I would love to hear about the teacher networks you’ve discovered.