Becoming a Connected Educator

In the fall George Couros shared the following quote with us when he spent the day with us on September 30, 2016:

We know that our students are “online” and “plugged in” more often than not.  We see intentional shifts in the way we teach, moving to Google Apps For Education and moving away from paper and pencil.  All teachers have a district provided device, and students in grades 4 – 8 do as well.

But are we teachers taking advantage of technology in the classroom to get “connected” too?

It is essential that we begin to consider ourselves as “connected educators.”  That we jump into the water with our students to become global citizens and collaborators as well.  Just imagine the impact we would make on teaching and learning in if each educator in Grand Forks shared something with others just once a week?

So, what is a Connected Teacher?

A connected teacher is an educator who has actively established associations with other professionals and resources from across the world.  These connections exist both inside and outside of the digital arena.  Connected teachers take time to connect to:

·      Others in your building. Smiling, asking questions and being reliable goes a long way in establishing professional relationships that help make you a better teacher. You don’t have to look far to find other teachers with similar challenges, fresh ideas, and equal passions.

·      Teachers in your region. You can connect with familiar faces at district level professional learning meetings, conferences, seminars, cross-district interactions, and even at competitions. It’s helpful to gain insight into what’s occurring at other buildings and what’s trending across your region.

·      Professionals and resources online. This is what we typically think “connected” means, because this is when you connect with like-minded individuals across the world who can link you to experiences, ideas, resources, or literally anything else you may need to get to that next level of instructional performance.

Getting connected plugs you into an active, passionate, customizable network of professionals ready to share with you and help you succeed as an educator.  But how do you actually go about doing this?

In addition to simply forging relationships with the people you work with or know regionally, here are the most powerful ways teachers have already discovered for connecting with each other:

Social Media: Twitter, Google+, Facebook, etc. I love Twitter because connections are fast and easy to make.  If you like what another educator has to say or the links they share, follow them. In a matter of moments you can create a personalized professional network of teachers you like to learn from, and at any given moment you can scroll through recent “tweets” and learn from them. You can even get engaged in educational conversations yourself by asking questions, using hashtags, and participating in twitter chats.  One of the local chats I follow weekly is #gfedchat.   Google+ and Facebook are similar by providing the fundamentals for allowing you to find and follow other professionals as well as a platform for sharing your own micro-blog commentaries, updates, resources and data.

Blogs. Do you have a blog of your own? Consider starting one at blogger, which is part of our GAFE applications (it’s in the waffle). Or, explore blogspot.com, weebly.com, tumblr.com, or the teacher-specific edublogs.com. Or if you’re not ready for sharing your own blog, then subscribe to others and participate with them!

Create a vlog on YouTube. Did you know that behind Google, Youtube is the second-largest search engine in the world? Post videos of your ideas and lessons for students and teachers to observe. Find videos of others and subscribe to your favorite contributors and share comments and connections.

When it comes to being a connected educator, there’s no right or wrong way to do it. Do what suits you … but do something.  If you can’t get to it today, make a point to do so in the next five days. The resources we have today allow for unprecedented opportunities for expanding your knowledge and mastery. There are millions of teachers waiting to get connected to you!  Please, consider telling your story!