Home » #Edchat

Archives for #Edchat

How a Whisper Becomes a Roar

Posted by  on Sunday, October 17th 2010     

Tom Whitby recently challenged education bloggers to post about positive education transformation in the midst of the teacher bashing occurring in the media. The teacher bashing has upset me, too, especially after hearing teachers at the recent televised Education Nation broadcast resoundingly shout, “Fire bad teachers.” Education transformation isn’t easy or else the education system would have improved immensely within the last 100 years. Maybe we have better facilities and more children receive an education, but we still have numerous problems to fix.

Current Education Roarers

Every field has employees who don’t perform according to certain expectations. Smart business folks will tell you that not only isn’t firing cost-effective, but usually it isn’t the employee who is the problem. If many employees are failing to meet their job expectations it is a training and management problem. My business background has taught me this, but apparently most of the general public worldwide doesn’t realize this when it comes to education or they wouldn’t cheer the mass firing of teachers or candidates and celebrities who support this. These unfortunately are the roars that are being heard worldwide in the sudden movement for education reform.

These aren’t the voices that the public should be listening to or hearing. Instead, I would love for us, our educator Passionate Learning Network (PLN), to be the voices that are heard.

How We Roar

During the Education Nation debate I commented, “If every educator in our PLN shared, shared, shared their best practices on social media we wouldn’t be a voice we’d be a roar.” Right now over 50,000 educators participate in Social Networks worldwide for professional development (Just check the membership of the various educator Nings, Facebook educator groups, and Educators on Twitter).

I believe our whispers are getting louder, but we can have more impact if we….

Have daily conversations with all stakeholders

Continuous conversations with all educational stakeholders (teachers, students, parents, administrators, community leaders, and support staff) are the way towards positive education transformation. We need to get all sides to listen to each other and collaborate.

The problem is that we aren’t being heard by the majority of society. Parents haven’t seen how we are educating students and preparing them to problem solve and collaborate with technology. Other educators we work side by side with don’t know we blog or read our blogs even if they do. Our progress with students isn’t being noticed by the media only our test scores. Our administrators aren’t seeing the potential of social networks. I’m talking about the majority of our situations. Let’s face it, most educational stakeholders don’t collaborate with us in our social networks. You’ll find them on Facebook, with Youtube accounts, and contributing to social networks for personal reasons but they just don’t collaborate with us.

But we’re growing…

I’ve been on Twitter for a little over a year and I can see a movement growing. We are adding educators worldwide to our online educator communities. I believe this is because so many of us are sharing with our school communities. We are providing online professional development, sharing through several social networks, and even getting noticed by different media sources such as Mashable, the Huffington Post, and TV news. I love when my PLN tweets they have been in the news. I tweet these resources because we should spread good press to combat the negative press. These sources are where the majority of society tunes into so we should spread the word and try to get ourselves in these various media outlets.

Share, Share, Share….

We need to have daily conversations with stakeholders and share what we do with our students. We have to be transparent and not be afraid of letting the public step into our classrooms. We need to have faith that what excites us about how our students are learning will excite their parents, our staff, and the public. If we invite stakeholders to see what we do then we get them to evaluate us based on more than test scores. Unfortunately, we will be evaluated by standardized test scores for a long time as we have been for decades. However, if our community knows about the work we do with students then we have other measures in place to show our students development.

Projects To Help Us Roar

Our ideas for positive education transformation need to be heard. As long as teachers continue to be scapegoats no real education transformation will take place and the millions of children who fail to receive a proper education and enter into poverty will continue to escalate.

So how do we collect the voices in our PLN so we can become a roar?

Several projects have begun that you can participate in to help us become a collective voice:

  • Participate in blogging calls such as this one by Tom Whitby, Ira Socol’s Blogging For Real Reform Challenge, and Scott Mcleod’s annual Leadership Day Blog Challenge
  • Join the Youtube Educator Stories project where we are aiming to get over 1000 videos of positive practices
  • Participate in the Reform Symposium and other free virtual conference for educators and invite your entire staff to them
  • Participate in educational chats like #Edchat and invite another educator to join. Here’s a list of all educational chats and times by @Cybraryman1
  • Join the 30 Goals Challenge and learn how to use social networks to spread your best practices! Invite teachers new to online educator communities to join this free community of mentors and read the free e-book.
  • Share all these free presentations with your community and invite teachers, students, administrators, and community leaders. It’s time we had conversations with all stakeholders.
  • Create news blurbs about your innovative practice and share with the local media. Often they are looking for stories and if they can film you and your students they will jump at the opportunity. Ask several till one says yes! Here are some tips for getting on the news!
  • Send out media waivers and publish your work in a wiki, blog, or free school website. Share this on your Facebook account or other place where the public has access and can see the great things you are doing!

Hear Our Voices Rising…

As I finish this post, I am so happy to note that Tom Whitby’s challenge was met with great success. Over 100 educators have written about reform today. Check out their posts in the Wallwisher below :-) Become part of a movement. We need your voice! You have something to contribute!

Challenge:
Participate in one of these projects and have a conversation with someone you haven’t about what exciting thing you do with your students!

If you enjoyed this post, you may want to subscribe for FREE to receive regular updates!

What other projects do you know of that help educators gain a collective voice for positive education transformation?

category: #Edchat, Thought-provoking
tags: , , ,

Happy Birthday #Edchat PLN!

Posted by  on Tuesday, August 10th 2010     

#Edchat turns ONE this week!

THANK YOU!

It has been an incredible year of opening a conversation to over 2000 educators weekly! The conversation began a year ago with 3 educators (Tom Whitby (@TomWhitby), Steven Anderson (@Web20Classroom), and I (@ShellTerrell)) who desired education reform and saw the need for educational stakeholders to discuss, debate, explore, and reflect on various issues which impact education. This was how the hashtag, #Edchat, began but really it has been an amazing year because you contribute each week by:

  • suggesting topics on the poll
  • voting for topics
  • engaging in the discussion
  • transforming the conversation into action at your schools

In it’s first year, #Edchat has inspired, motivated, and transform educational stakeholders. We have a diverse group of student teachers, parents, students, administrators, and community leaders who participate weekly in order to collaborate on improving our education systems worldwide!

In the first year, Edchat has seen great moments, such as:

  • winning the Edublogs Award for Most Influential Tweet Discussion
  • involving guest speaker Alfie Kohn!
  • being a trending topic on Twitter!
  • inspiring several blog posts from educators worldwide
  • birthing collaborative projects, such as The Reform Symposium E-Conference

Please leave a message of how Edchat has impacted you on this Wallwisher by clicking anywhere on the wall!

Helpful Edchat Resources!

Edchat is transformational because of you! Here are helpful resources to become more involved or to help introduce educators to Edchat!

We’d like to thank the following for their weekly dedication to Edchat:

Challenge:

Get another educator involved in the Edchat conversations which take place every Tuesday at 12pm NYC EDT and 7pm NYC EDT! Participate by engaging a few and adding #Edchat to the end of your tweet.

If you enjoyed this post, you may want to subscribe for FREE to receive regular updates!

What would you like to see from Edchat this upcoming year?


category: #Edchat
tags: , , ,

The Importance of Voice #RSCON10 #Edchat

Posted by  on Friday, August 6th 2010     

One of my favorite movies is Jerry Maguire, because he suddenly wakes up one day and realizes that the way things are don’t have to continue to be that way. He realizes he has the ability to change his environment and he develops his manifesto.

Developing our manifestos for education reform…

I believe events like The Reform Symposium Conference and Edchat inspire educators to wake up and begin developing their manifestos whether it be for abolishing grades, getting rid of standardized tests, or helping students find their passions. I believe these events inspire passion and transform schools. However, not all believe they do and would try to convince you that what you believe and the transformation inside of you doesn’t matter. I would like to encourage you to ignore them and instead begin to lend your voice to the conversation. The education systems in your countries need your voices and your passion.

The sad reality I’ve seen…

I have worked in low-income schools, with at risk students, at alternative schools, with gang members, homeless children, etc. I have entered several school environments and have seen teachers who are worn down by the system. Educators often allow themselves to be fed with negativity and surround themselves with people who do not support them. Their administrators may complain about them, the parents may blame them, the media bashes them, education policy doesn’t support them, bureaucracy overburdens them, and the students disrespect them. I do not believe teachers are bad. I believe they are weighed down by the lack of support.

If several educators across the world feel this way this impacts the school culture and environment. Dispassionate teachers aren’t motivated to inspire passion in their students and they aren’t motivating their students. The problem is we need educators to motivate students. Too much of the world is living in poverty. Too much of the world is inadequately educated. Too many students grow up to repeat poverty and crime cycles. Too many students never achieve their dreams. Too many children stop dreaming in schools.

That is why we need you to be passionate! We need you to inspire other educators! We need your voice in the conversation about education reform! We need you to contribute and develop PLNs. When we begin to develop our Personal/Passionate Learning Networks we become inspired to write our manifestos and we do act!

Passionate people don’t sit still!

Instead, passionate educators inspire their students, try to engage parents, and try to implement change. This is how transformation and reform are created, by those who speak up and fight for a better way. We witnessed this at The Reform Symposium free virtual conference! We were inspired by passionate educators who had transformed their students’ lives. We witnessed what many say is impossible in schools taking place. We began to think about the possibilities! I was so excited to see many new faces and connect with educators I had never had a conversation with before! Thank you!

There will always be people who disagree…

Here’s the thing about passion and movements, there will always be those who believe in the status quo, voice their criticisms, or who would rather close the conversation. Beth Still recently wrote a fantastic post, Are We Our Own Worst Enemy?, regarding this topic. I find opposing opinions refine our beliefs and passions. I believe opposing opinions help us to determine if we really are passionate about the movements we follow. However, I want to challenge those who would say our voices are not creating change to join the conversation. Only when we choose to quit the conversation do we guarantee we never transform the system.

What professional development should look like…

The Reform Symposium managed to do amazing things in its first year.

Reform Symposium Stats
Image Courtesy of Orlando Falvo via Twitter

I’ve been privileged to collaborate with one of the best teams I’ve ever worked with in my life! Chris Rogers, Kelly Tenkely, and Jason Bedell are amazing!

Important Reform Symposium Resources

Challenge:

Go spread the passion and transform your schools!

If you enjoyed this post, you may want to subscribe for FREE to receive regular updates!


category: #Edchat, Conference Highlights
tags: , , , , ,

Wear Your Badge #Edchat Members!

Posted by  on Saturday, December 19th 2009     

Edchat recently won the Edublogs Award for Most Influential Tweet Series 2009! 155 of you voted for the tweet series which has really filled Tom Whitby, Steven Anderson, and me with pride. You can read about the origins of Edchat here! When we first discussed the creation of the hashtag and collaborated how we would approach this we never expected any of this. PLN, you have blessed us this year.

Congratulations to you!

Really you earned this award. Therefore, we encourage each of you to wear the badge proudly on your blogs, wikis, or anywhere you would like. Just copy then paste the following html code in your sidebar:

<a href=”http://edublogawards.com/2009/most-influential-tweet-series-2009/”><img title=”Best Individual” src=”http://edublogawards.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/most_influential_tweets1.png” alt=”" width=”173″ height=”173″ /></a>

It will look like this:

Note: If this does not work, you may have to download the zip file and follow these directions by Sue Waters, http://edublogawards.com/winner-badges-are-now-available/.

Edchat is a Community

A project like Edchat runs on a community and that community is made up of your enormous contributions. Every Tuesday, you debate, share resources, ask difficult questions, and collaborate with others on how to improve the condition of education. Above and beyond this, you propose and vote for the questions we discuss, blog about the topics discussed, and participate in the Edchat group on the Educators PLN ning. If you haven’t yet, please join! In the group, you can find out more about Edchat projects like the wikipedia article, Edchat wiki page, and various interviews and articles that have come about!

If you haven’t had the chance to join an Edchat conversation, please watch this video which explains more and read this post to help you participate!

I look forward to continue working with Tom Whitby and Steven Anderson on this project! They are amazing. More accolades:

A special congratulations to all winners, runner-ups, and nominees. Just to be nominated by other educators with such amazing educators in the field is a reward!  Thank you readers for voting for this blog. Click here, to view all winners!

Challenge:

Wear your badge! You deserve it.

If you enjoyed this post, you may want to subscribe for free to receive regular updates!


category: #Edchat
tags: , , , , , ,

Are Teachers Leaders in Education? #Edchat Summary

Posted by  on Wednesday, December 16th 2009     

6pm CET/ 12pm EST Edchat Summary

In this week’s Edchat we tried tackling this difficult question, “Are teachers leaders in education? Should real change involve teachers or those that have “real power” such as Administrators?”

Although many agreed changed was needed in schools across the world, we came up with many different conclusions on where this change should begin.

What some #edchat participants had to say…

j_allen I think change has to involve teachers…they need to buy in for it to be legit
WPrettyman First time: Don’t teachers have “real power” with students?
dlourcey For real change, to change a culture, it has to happen at the model in chief level. Admin must lead and learn.
johnmclear A good leader will inspire teachers to lead their own dept decision making processes
ShellTerrell Are teachers leaders in education? I would say definitely but they need support of parents, admin, students
Tamaslorincz Good evening from Dubai. I think admin know how to run an institution but know little about education, they need teachers.
cybraryman1 Unfortunately many admin & upper level decision makers are too far removed from the classroom.
fernandocassola Leadership should be shared by both, because som things need to be worked by admin and others by teachers and dont forget students..
nashworld In our district, admin directly supports “middle level leaders” in a leadership symposium of teachers who naturally lead by actions
olafelch @WPrettyman The smart answer would be, “yes, if the students let you!” ;o)
dlourcey Absolutely agree. Teacher leaders are the movers and the shakers. The early adopters will help influence the naysayers
MatthiasHeil Admins are good admins if they stand in bad teachers’ way…
MissCheska Teachers as leaders in Edu? Yes, they are the ones in the classrooms; they know what works/what doesn’t
foes4sports Ideally, real change involves both, but if your admin. isn’t techy, you don’t have any choice but to push for change personally.
olafelch @aeringuy Then why is change / modernisation in teaching so slow?
WPrettyman @olafelch Granted! Good Admins will teach through their own ways of interacting with students and faculty.
elanaleoni I’ve seen change happen from the bottom up, starting with parents and also from the top down w/ admins. (Depends on the culture)
MissCheska Who says there must only be one body of leaders in Edu? Structure of edu relies on collab b/w all parties involved
raffelsol Teachers that lead the change are those that USE technology OUTSIDE of school and see the impact on their lives.
esolcourses IMO, impossible to implement real change without admin involved. IME, getting them on board isn’t always easy
dlourcey Teachers who are less comfortable need to get in the sandbox, play, get dirt, mess it up, and relearn.
elanaleoni Yes, if you get a groundswell of movement around it, anything’s possible.
olafelch @esolcourses I agree. But progressive admins also have problems getting teachers on board. It cuts both ways.
cybraryman1 You cannot leave out student and parent input into these changes.
esolcourses getting admin to shift their viewpoint can be a problem. Esp. with subjects traditionally taught without using tech
MissCheska Good admins give their teachers room to grow and lead, but give the support they need to be successful in all they do
ToughLoveforX Are teachers leaders in education? || Yes in discovering what works. But for sustainable change, it must be admins.
daylynn Teacher leader has ability to guide admin to approp tools/methods & show how successful & relevant.
tomwhitby system makes too simple for Admins & Teachers to develop an “us & them” mentality that hampers cooperation/ collaboration.
MrR0g3rs all r impt, but if u don’t get the admin, u might as well bang wall w/head
Mattguthrie Teachers have to innovate & admin sometimes necessary to make it policy on schook level to drag along resistors/late adopters
rliberni @tomwhitby here schools expect new teachers to have a view at least on tech
infodivabronx Do the research, start w/ a small pilot project, gather data, and get admin to buy in. No small task

Some questions & points that arose:

ShellTerrell If admin’s vision is different than the teacher’s vision, is real change realistic?
elanaleoni Q: How many of you can say that you have a close relationship with your admins?
olafelch Then why is change / modernisation in teaching so slow?
tomwhitby Do educators defeat themselves by trying to involve everyone in decision making?
MissCheska @dlourcey What kind of incentives would admins enforce to get less comf teachers on board??
reportertanya Does real change have to mean technology, though?
fernandocassola Don’t you think that the community needs to be involved in the school planning / admin? It makes sense or not?
olafelch the question I hear most often from Admin is, how are you going to get the staff to use it?
foes4sports Perhaps we need to consider this: Is it STUDENTS that lead the change?!
dlourcey How does this change take place if teachers have the attitude, “just leave me alone and let me teach?”

Links that were shared:

nashworld Teacher leaders can effectively tap on admin shoulders by the use of open media. Example: http://twurl.nl/g7zwus
nashworld Again… skip down to “administrative support” on this post for my opinions on this: http://twurl.nl/ybv26j
fernandocassola I thnk the model of leadership proposed by the school2.0 is the most fantastic method of teaching. see this http://bit.ly/4Qmccd

Note: Read the entire transcript by clicking on @jswiatek’s archive

New to Edchat?

If you have never participated in an #Edchat discussion, these take place twice a day every Tuesday on Twitter. Over 400 educators participate in this discussion by just adding #edchat to their tweets. For tips on participating in the discussion, please check out these posts!

More Edchat

Challenge:

If you’re new to hashtag discussions, then just show up on Twitter on any Tuesday and add just a few tweets on the topic with the hashtag #edchat.

If you enjoy this series, you may want to subscribe for free to receive regular updates!

Do you have a great project/event that is creating change at your school? Leave a comment!


category: #Edchat, Edchat Summary
tags: , , ,
Page 2 of 4:« 1 2 3 4 »
box_cat_left

Thank you for visiting!

Don't forget these other resources!

box_cat_center

Looking forward to connecting with you!

Feel free to share these resources.

box_cat_right

Thank you for leaving your digital footprint!

Check out other worldwide digital footprints.

  • I Love My Visitors!

  • Thank you!