Global Teacher Networking

There are so many opportunities out there to connect with fellow educators online and collaborate all across the world. As a teacher, we are often surrounded by colleagues that are terrific team members and committed to supporting each other. But sometimes the answers we seek and the ideas we need don't come from within our school walls. Online social networking sites offer teachers a chance to make connections with like-minded professionals, in order to further teaching practice and share resources.

There are many platforms out there to link with other teachers, it is simply a matter of choosing one (or several) and investing the time to learn about that site's features and possibilities. I am currently a member of LinkedIn, Curriculum 21, Facebook, and Twitter as an educator and I have contacts and an online profile that allows other educators to connect with me.

For the online writing component that I am currently undertaking, there are countless ways to network with people and build your "brand." Improving your SEO (Search Engine Optimization) can be done with any number of strategies and tips including; keyword placement, subscribing blog directories, writing guest blogs and comments to the posts of others, and online discussion forums. As you can see from the badges down the sides of this blog site, I belong to a number of blog directories that have catalogued "Ignite. Incite. Inspire." as a blog that users can stumble across or have it suggested to them as 'like' another blog.

I am adding this "blogging" paragraph to this post, as I see huge potential in blogging with our students as class writing. Providing online feedback and increasing global readership from student-to-student is one of the current ways that we can hook reluctant writers and engage our classes in meaningful discussions with peers from around the globe. As soon as school districts are able to hammer down current, reflective and sound online privacy and digital citizenship policies, this forum for writing will explode on the scene as the next lined paper notes.

Overall, teachers are busy and time is always in demand. In order to facilitate discussions with global colleagues and seek out advice about pedagogy and teaching strategies, it will take time, and therefore, commitment. However, so far I have been able to connect with curriculum developers, private educational businesses, psychologists, former principals and superintendants, radio personalities, authors and of course, current teachers. This online networking experience has (and will continue to) allow me to seek out "cutting-edge" ideas and consider revolutionary practices that will help to further my own teaching or help to lead others in changing how we reach students and find that "carrot" that will drive their learning (a reference to one of my first blog posts "The Carrot."

More Cowbell

Teachers become mentors to the education process. We do not simply exude knowledge when we walk the halls or leave traces of learning on the desks for students to find as they enter - we mold and wield it to our interests. Incredible things are made possible in the classroom when there is a teacher with new eyes and a fresh perspective on how to approach teaching. We bring the curriculum along for the ride, knowing that it has a place on this trip. But we do not expect those formal expectations and words to carry the conversation in our classroom; that is our place. Our students merely need to mention it now and again, thereby making sure that it doesn't feel excluded.

Our lessons are shaped by our ideas and those influenced by the world around us. Anything can be a teaching moment and those things that seem the most trivial are usually the ones most in need of teaching. The hidden curriculum is what builds better global citizens and responsible students; manners, social cues, character education and common sense. These are the building blocks of a better world and they have been left without a place in the conventional curriculum.

We know when something in our midst is on the verge of breaking through and taking over the learning environment. We can sense the excitement in the room when a student is about to grasp a new concept or one that has alluded them until now. Those are the times when a teacher feels like an expert. If you haven't felt that way in a while there could be any number of reasons for it. But, ultimately, it needs more cowbell. And when it gets that cowbell - incredible things will happen for you and the students in your room. Focus on what the problem is that is preventing you from feeling like the expert and professional that you are. Whatever is holding you back has to be reconciled before those gold records find their way to your walls again.