Why Teachers (and all of us) Need More Virality In Our Lives

About two years ago a team of us at the Gates Foundation went to New York to the Oppi Learning Festival. Oppi is a quirky conference run by a UK based company that brings in some big names and some interesting teachers. The Foundation has supported the conference in the past and two years ago we had this idea to engage teachers with three simple words: Why I Teach. We had a goofy little photo booth and teachers basically wrote why they teach on a speech bubble, we took their pictures and sent it out to their network via #whyiteach on Twitter.

We were surprised how those three words have caught fire and inspired teachers across the country. Elizabeth Maine, a teacher from Washington state, created a #whyiteach DIY kit so that any teacher could launch their own Why I Teach effort. As of today, her kit has had over 3000 downloads from teachers who have used it prior to professional development days to open up teacher mindsets about the hard work to come, and teachers have engaged kids in Why I Learn spin-offs. One of my favorite responses was by Adam Richter, a teacher who wrote all the names of his students on the bubble.

Why did #whyiteach go viral? I was reading an interview with Brad Montague who created Kid President with his nephew. He said when talking about why Kid President videos have gone viral:

“I’ll never fully be able to comprehend how far it’s spread, or why — but I have an idea. I think it’s because we crave things that are full of hope, that remind us why we’re here, and do it in a fun way… This was just a video made out of love, inviting people to remember why we’re here. It taught me that a lot of things are contagious, but hope and joy and pep and dancing — those are the best kinds of contagious.”

In an earlier article on EdSurge (where I found the interview with Brad Montague) Teacher Laura Randazzo reveals another insight about virality as she talks about her professional learning network. She says, “Being plugged in to a community of dynamic educators, I’ve been open to new ideas and experimenting with new practices.” “In this profession,” she adds, “we sometimes feel disconnected, like islands in our own classrooms. But these interactions have been invaluable.”

I think sometimes in our rush to put out the next app or make sure the standards are implemented with fidelity, we often forget two things about teachers — they crave hope and they feel isolated. If we truly wanted to make good teaching contagious we’d do well to remember these two other ingredients besides good feedback systems, high quality standards, principal leadership…and all the other important efforts that we fund at the Gates Foundation.

-C.