Pssst teacher, can you tell us YOUR story?
Educators are by trade, humble. Not many stand out as boastful or “braggy” (as my teenage niece would say). But sometimes I wish every educator had to take a class or more than “a one time wonder” professional development on marketing. Sometimes I wish that every educator had to learn to tell their story of learning in their classroom.
A fairly veteran teacher asked me last week, “…honestly why do I have to tell my story, am I that disrespected?” I was so sad when she asked that question. Because she misunderstood my plea for her to share her awesomeness.
Somehow over the years this rockstar teacher who differentiates and changes lessons up every year to meet the needs of her students and ignite student interest, feels like being asked to tell her story is somehow being told that she sucks. But really telling our own story is today’s version of the hour-long parent-teacher conference of yesteryear (except now you could even SnapChat your way towards telling the learning story of your classroom). Telling our story shows intellect and bravery. Telling our story let’s us show threads of important themes over time. Threads that weave together a clear picture of who we are as educators, as professionals.
I accosted an educator’s Twitter feed from the last year. With some help from a little text analytics tool I learned a few things. First, I learned that she’s awesome, then I learned that there are actual themes that were clear and continuous in her posts.
Curious. Engaged. Empowered. Investigators. Makers. Creating. Collaborators. Fun. Interested. Learning. Loving. Questioning. Exploring. Community. Giving. Thinking. Solving. Doing. Building. Delivering. Developing.
Think about what the parents of the kids in her classroom learned from seeing those words continuously. Think about how an incoming parent or community member would think of her classroom when they read and saw the story of learning being actively shared. Think about the expectations of parents when they see those words as learning themes (especially when there is little evidence of words like math, reading, spelling, etc.). Telling your story is not being boastful (unless you’re being annoying about saying how great you are; then you are being boastful and tacky).

Picture this. A middle school has regular PLC time every Wednesday for 45 minutes. During the PLC they create their story of learning by continually contributing to and updating their team’s “word wall of learning.” Every week they stand out there and move words, add words, remove words, and laugh (and sometimes cry or growl in frustration). But having that physical representation of learning not only tells them what they are (and reminds them weekly what they want to be) it tells the story of learning to their kids and any person lucky enough to walk those halls. These educators are owning and sharing their story, their professionalism, their work.
In today’s educational climate we need front-line educators to contribute to changing the conversation about education.
Sick of hearing news and leaders and school board members talk about one score or one rating? Did you know that there are a lot of parents (especially mellinials that are expecting to really understand what schools are about) that don’t give a sh*t about test scores? (Note to self, get a millennial on your local school board) Did you know that you, teachers, can help change that conversation? Did you know that you, teachers, can share all the things that happen in your classroom that lead to engaged, inspired young people? Did you know that you, teachers, can ignite an expectation in your community so parents look first at how cool and meaningful and purposeful learning experiences are (then ask how test scores are… maybe)?
At the most recent count we have 3.6 million teachers in this country. Think about what would happen if 1.8 million shared stories of learning like this, “My students are awesome, they do amazing things every day, we do real work that means something, we engage, we learn deeply, we get excited, we learn together, all day, every day.” How would our conversations change?
That local conversation, that national conversation; that friends is a powerful collective voice and one that we need to hear. And before anyone says it’s one more thing to do; sorry folks it’s 2018 it’s part of being a professional.
Get it done teachers. Grateful and thankful communities are standing by ready to applaud you.
