I’m going to get philosophical for a minute. What IS a teacher? What is the PURPOSE, the ROLE of a teacher?
To TEACH! Duh…Obviously I can take a stab at a more precise answer:
“A teacher is a person who shares information with others in such a way that the receptive party assimilates that information.”
Robotic, yes. But that doesn’t matter. The key word here is sharing.
Sharing is at the very core of our jobs as teachers. We share experiences, knowledge, stories, and (we would hope) wisdom.The role of a teacher is to share PROFUSELY. We must commit to giving our students the best of our knowledge and highest quality attention in the classroom every single day to help them learn and grow. This is accomplished by giving them our time and physical presence. We are so accustomed to going through the Internet to connect with others, and it’s important to remember that building connections to our students with no screen in between is still incredibly important.
So then if this face-to-face aspect of teaching is so essential, as I believe it is, what role should online sharing play in our lives? And further, how and under what circumstances can sharing on social media be useful to teachers?
This could be considered an extreme example, but one way teachers share online is to upload their content to YouTube. They essentially turn their channel into an online classroom which students can stumble upon and sit in as they please. I always go back to YouTube when I think about the possibilities of teachers using social media, because it’s such a great way to open the walls of your classroom to people all over the world. Channels are created by amateurs, professionals, college professors, and school teachers alike. Anyone can upload videos. A wonderful thing about YouTube is that people who seek out an educational channel are generally forgiving of a video having low production value or fancy editing if the content of the information provided is high quality.
Stan Prokopenko, (Art)
Jordan B. Peterson, (Psychology)
Rick Beato, (Music)
Style Sew Me (Sewing)
Atlanta Habitat for Humanity (Plumbing)
Steven Fink (Human anatomy)
There are also teachers online who don’t necessarily use social media as an alternative classroom, but use it sort of as an alternative teachers’ lounge (minus the coffee machine and photocopier). We as teachers can use sites such as Twitter and Facebook to share articles, lectures, blog posts, etc. with one another to help us expand our practices and keep alert to changes that could be going on in our given field. We can ask our wider PLN for feedback and critique on a project we are thinking about or an approach we are thinking about. As a new teacher, there are veteran teachers right at my fingertips who are not only willing but WANT to share their expertise and experiences.
Speaking of blog posts…creating a classroom blog is a social media application for teachers which I’m very intrigued by. I’ve perused the webs a bit for interesting blogs made by art teachers, and I’m overwhelmed! Teacher blogs are places of reflection, for discussing the learning process, and for documenting students’ best work. Students can share what they learned and explain what they found challenging. I don’t know when I’m going to find the time to explore all the blogs made by individual teachers. I’m awestruck by the golden information new teachers can mine from resources generously handed to the Internet by those who have come before. Blogging is also a wonderful way to be transparent with parents. They can follow your blog and see what goes on in your classroom.
How should teachers share their work on YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, and blogs? In any and as many ways as they feel comfortable. A savvy teacher could upload short videos to a class YouTube channel to serve as a study guide. Another may instead decide to share weekly updates of her students’ terrarium projects on a blog.
There are some general guidelines to sharing online. When it comes to microblogging platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, timing is very important. It's bad form to upload a million pictures at once. Keep it to two or three posts a day at most (or one or two strings of posts with Twitter). You want your posts to have relevant and interesting content about the goings-on in your classroom without revealing too much. You should also keep the names of your students anonymous unless you are given expressed permission from their parents. Use sound judgement and common sense. Formality shouldn't be our primary concern when we share (this is something I admittedly have a problem with). We should strive to present ourselves authentically as possible and still remain professional. We should be thoughtful, honest, and articulate when conveying our thoughts and ideas online. Most of all though, we should be enthusiastic.
It takes a huge amount of confidence and faith to share “everything.” It takes selflessness, generosity, and vulnerability to put yourself out there completely. Not just in the classroom and not just on social media, but in life. For those like me who for so long would ask "what's the point of sharing?"...
I would tell them to go to 4:33
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