No teacher is an island.

This week, a theme that continued to surface was the importance of collaboration, resource sharing, and professional learning in our overall growth as teachers. No teacher should be an island!

The artifact.

During EDUC 471, our class did a collaborative feedback activity. Each of us wrote our ideas for a lesson plan on large poster paper, outlining the opening, closing, filler activities, and 21st Century skills. To gain feedback from our fellow teacher candidates, we were each given post-it notes, and in the form of a gallery walk, we rotated around the room offering anonymous feedback for each of the lesson plans.

My lesson plan based based off the emergency lesson plan I’d created last week. When I received my feedback post-it notes, I was not only encouraged but also inspired to make necessary changes to my lesson plan. What an excellent professional development opportunity! I loved being able to learn from my fellow teacher candidates.

Throughout the week, our cohort also had many opportunities to collaboratively work through an eLearning course that was conducted completely online. In our own time, we individually did our readings, and then scheduled a “Learning Pod” time to discuss our main points of learning. I thoroughly enjoyed this time, because I got to learn alongside three other incredible future educators in my learning pod. I was struck by the meaningful connections and engaging discussions that were able to take place, even on an online platform.

Together, our learning pod discussed the potential pros and cons of using Twitter to engage with a professional learning network (PLN). Our PYP coordinate started a large Twitter thread, encouraging other educators on Twitter to share their must-follow-on-Twitter suggestions. Personally, I’ve been on Twitter since last year, and I enjoy how I am able to connect with and hear from such a broad range of different voices and expert ideas on one platform. Now that more teacher candidates in my learning cohort have Twitter, I am thrilled to become more engaged on Twitter, expand my PLN, and participate in live chats, such as general BC education talks (#bcedchat) and assessment (#atassessment).

Why it matters.

Throughout my undergraduate studies, I was often told that as teachers we need to be collaborators. The full of extent of that reality didn’t really sink in until this year. Now that I’m in the process of lesson planning for real students, and I’m faced with the reality that I don’t have the time to create brand-new lessons from scratch for all the units I will be teaching during PYP. The only real solution is to collaborate with other teachers by borrowing and sharing resources and engaging in conversations for ideas that are tried, tested, and true.

Collaboration is important for logistical reasons like time management and efficiency for the sake of students. Furthermore, collaboration is crucial to ensure teachers are repeatedly learning and growing.

This week, I retweeted this comment from a teacher on Twitter: “How can we expect students to be life long learners when the adults are displaying resistance to this mindset?” One way that teachers can model habits of life-long learning is by actively engaging in professional learning chats with other educators (such as on Twitter), taking opportunities to self-reflect (like we are doing in these learning logs), and being willing to share/critique/offer insight on various resources.

Many of the innovative ideas in education are also difficult to navigate alone. For instance, we cannot expect to “go gradeless,” implement inquiry into the Science classroom, or try new EdTech tools online on our own. We need a team of other educators to work with for encouragement, accountability, and discussion on what is and isn’t working well in our field. Change does come about in a series of small steps by individuals, but the individual needs a group to stand behind them, especially during the tougher times.

Next steps.

My goal for my professional year was to get more comfortable engaging with other educators on Twitter. For most of the past year, I’ve only really observed Twitter interactions from afar. My hope is that, with more of the PYP cohort present on Twitter, I will more comfortably connect with a broader PLN and engage in Twitter live chats like #ATAssessment and #bcedchat to share my own learning with other educators. Part of that confidence will come with realizing that I am learning valuable things that are worth sharing with other teachers. If I am really thankful for my learning, I should be happy to give back to the ed community by sharing my own resources, ideas, and stories.

My learning pod has also agreed to connect with each other regularly during the coming weeks to lesson plan and share coffee. My hope is that this time will be rich with mutual learning, sharing ideas, and connecting with future educators who are on the same journey as myself. I am thrilled that I don’t need to navigate this journey alone!

Professional Standard #7: Educators engage in professional learning.

Professional Standard #8: Educators contribute to the profession.