I sometimes struggle with the notion of publicly recognizing the work of teachers that publicly share their work on Twitter in our school district. Although I do it anyway, I have always worried about the perception that some teachers might gauge others as “favourites”.
After bringing this notion up with Brian Woodland, Director of Communication for Peel School Board, he talked about the idea that it is not the teacher that you are necessarily sharing, but the work of the teacher. As we went back and forth on this concept, we talked about the notion of making great learning viral and how this is really not much different than asking a teacher to share something at a staff meeting that has been done, it just has the potential to be spread to a much larger audience.
Chris Kennedy and I talked about this concept as well and his belief was that if someone was taking the time to share something great, one thing that he should try to do is acknowledge them on a wider basis. When I asked him about teachers that might become jealous, he had told me that if any of them mentioned that if they thought it was unfair, to show him some great stuff that there were doing and he would gladly share it to a larger audience.
So what’s the difference between acknowledging a person through an email or through a social network and allowing the world to see. Well if we focus that is not directly focusing on the teacher, but the impact that the teacher is making on the students that they work with, and that if it is shared to a larger audience, it will make a larger impact, then we are doing it for the right reasons.
When we get upset about this sharing, are we really focused on creating great learning opportunities for our students?
My suggestion if you are uneasy with this as an administrator? Have a conversation with your staff and tell them that you are wanting to share great examples of learning as you see them by your staff as it makes us all better, and you will do your best to share the work of all those willing to post into a shared public space (for example Twitter, Google Plus, etc.).
If we want to make these great learning opportunities viral, we are going to have to share them.