There were many times in my first two years as a teacher that I felt completely isolated and overwhelmed. I realize this sounds slightly dramatic, but I’m sure most teachers can agree that adapting to all facets of the job are challenging. What more, while we spend the majority of our days in our classroom with students, we often have very little contact with other adults. Most days, I only saw other teachers standing at our doors during passing period and at lunch. Even these interactions were not always consistent. I was ultimately alone as a teacher in my classroom. Surrounded by students, yes, but alone in many of my attempts to navigate the challenges faced by a new teacher.
If only I’d known about online communities and Twitter chats in my first two years of teaching! Incredibly cheesy that I’m exclaiming this? Absolutely. But participating in the Twitter chat #engchat earlier this evening made me appreciate the ease with which I could connect, collaborate, and learn alongside other teachers, both from around the country and around the world.
This evening’s topic was “global collaborations in the literature classroom,” something that I did not even consider in my own teaching experience. While I mostly had questions for where to begin an endeavor like this one, teachers were able to discuss the challenges of connecting with other classrooms across the globe, share resources for technology available in assisting with this endeavor, and also provide lesson ideas for how classrooms in different parts of the globe could collaborate and work together to achieve a common goal. What’s more, my questions and comments were directly addressed. I felt extremely validated by simple retweets and direct responses to my questions, and I assume the same could be said for all other members of the chat as well. Every member of the chat was there to learn and share, all members were positive and supportive, and while the chat lasted an hour, it went by extremely quickly.
For the sake of not boring everyone, I will not share all the details of the Twitter chat, and simply highlight how AMAZING digital tools are in assisting with endeavors of collaboration (Simple sites like Google + and Twitter can help teachers connect to other classroom communities).
Archives of all of the #engchat conversations are available at this site for people who are interested in more details of this evening’s chat (and all others): http://engchat.org/
Also, Meenoo Rami (who I am currently working with at my fieldwork placement) recently published a book discussing benefits of connectedness for teachers (amongst other things). Everyone should check it out as well! http://www.amazon.com/Thrive-Ways-Invigorate-Your-Teaching/dp/032504919X
Now that I’ve had access to these resources, I want to share them with everyone. And long story short, after being slightly hesitant and critical of joining a Twitter chat, I found it to be pretty awesome.
The end.
