So I gave another talk about being a connected educator, this time to a group of teachers in the Illinois Writing Project’s Summer Leadership Institute, a great summer workshop about promoting writing instruction.  (Many National Writing Project affiliates offer some kind of summer workshop, so I would encourage anyone out there who wants to know more to investigate.)

I put the notes together here, if you’d like to take a look – goo.gl/thBP2N 

I want to reiterate the basic premise that I believe – teachers should be connected to other teachers somehow, but it doesn’t matter how.

It’s not a tough sell anymore.  I think the level of commitment takes some selling, and not everyone has the time to get deeply involved in the larger community of connected teachers.  But I think that we should all be able to reach out, or be able to share good ideas.

I was also pleased at the way the audience embraced both the premise of the need to be connected and the variety of tools available.  Several teachers chimed in about their own experience with different tools, and it was rewarding to see how they were enriching the dialogue about these tools.  We all know that being connected doesn’t magically transform everyone into a super-teacher overnight – there is still considerable work involved, and many of us (including myself) struggle to apply other people’s good ideas sometimes.  That is the hardest work, in my opinion, of being connected.

What I continue to find useful, though, is sharing and inviting feedback.  I think that’s the most valuable part, for me, of being connected.  I learn a lot from listening to other people and hearing new strategies, but I think that it helps the most to hear specific comments and criticisms about what I do.  So – note to self – do more of that.

I wrote out a bunch of goals for next school year, and perhaps the most resonant one (at the moment) is “Be more open and share more.”  I already share more than many teachers, but it’s not enough.  I’d like to share more directly with parents of students, and find ways to get more feedback from them.  I’d also like to connect more with our immediate community.  That was one of the big lessons from Fermilab (where I was all of last week): get the community involved, share everything and anything, and make yourself indispensable, integrated, and open.  I really felt that the people there started from the premise, “We provide a service to the people of this community, and it is our professional responsibility to make that service useful and meaningful.”

I think I need to post about that place next.  For now, let’s say that I want to make that attitude my own – and more immediately evident in what I do.