Still Putting It All Together

Community (not the tv show) Pt. 1

In Tomesawayfromhome’s post about her “Dream Posts” she suggested that I write about community building (along with lhuddles, thinkbrit, heymissat).

I’m not sure whether she meant building community building on Tumblr, with colleagues at your school, or within your classroom.

So, I’ll begin with community building on Tumblr since it is the easiest for me to talk about.

Respect others educators on Tumblr

When I first start reading a new-to-me #education tumblr, I automatically respect them because I know our profession is not always easy, most teachers work their hardest and often give up much of their personal time towards their occupation, and the current atmosphere often leaves teachers as the bad guys.  I have the mentality of “let’s stick together.”

When you think you have a good idea, say something!

I love thinking of new ideas to get this community interacting and writing excellent posts worthy of being promoted (instead of post from editors being promoted that have nothing to do with education).   I thought of doing a collabrative tumblr that brought about Team Teachers, dare day, dream posts, summer book club, etc.  But, I probably won’t think of half the things that have been wondering around your mind.  If you have a good idea, post about it, ask people about it, etc.  Some of my ideas have completely fallen flat - some that I thought were the best ones.  That’s ok though, because if I didn’t test out ideas then none of the successful ones would have happened.  I can’t encourage you enough to share your ideas.  Sometimes my ideas are whispering into a certain tumblr’s ear “care to write a post about ____” because maybe it is something I’ve noticed them touching on and I’ve wanted to know more or maybe it is something that isn’t useful to me now, but would be if I moved up grade levels.   If you have an idea or a question, don’t wait for someone to tell you to run with it, just go!

Call it like you see it, and when you’re wrong admit it publicly. 

Rarely, there is an #education tumblr that presents suggestions or personal opinions towards certain groups that is something I can’t respect.   I will call them out.  I try to do it gently if I believe it is an innocent error, and I’m a little more blunt if it is not. Sometimes, I have my information wrong, and if I can call a person out publicly then I should be able to apologize publicly.  I feel like it is important to call the opinion/behavior out initially so that hopefully the person will look into the issue more, and also so that if it is putting someone’s job in jeopardy or targeting a group of people, then I’ve done my part as an educator and colleague to speak out about the issue.

How does this build community?  It makes #education a place that values best practices and allows everyone to feel welcome.  When you stand up for what you believe in and do not allowing racist/ablist/sexist/homophobic comments fly, then it creates a community that is more welcoming and accepting to all.

Don’t be afraid to ask for help, or offer ideas when someone else asks for help.

Signal boost posts that you think are important and that you think people who read your blog might be able to help out with.

Be open to learning from this community.

If everyone says you’re wearing orange, and you think you’re wearing green, take a second look at yourself.

Don’t be afraid to show your interests outside of teaching.

Send encouragement to teachers when you think they need it.  Only other teachers usually truly understand.

Gifs are awesome.

Remember editor or not, new-to-tumblr, or someone who has been around forever we all have things we can share and help the community with.  The number of followers does not determine the quality of your posts (but may gain you more followers) or what kind of teacher a person is.  I have a lot of followers, but I’m still learning a lot about Florida’s ways of doing things, Pre-K, and working with ELLs.  I make teacher blunders all the time.  I stress out about co-workers, and I get major Sunday night anxiety.  Being open about that among friends relieves pressure and gives people a chance to help and encourage you.  Also, I’m sure there are teachers on tumblr that only joined in the past year with a lot more years of experience and some great classroom wisdom to share.

Tell me if this post makes sense because I am about ready to cut my ear off.

#Education

I messaged Rich Tong via facebook recently, wishing him well, and mentioning how I missed him being on Tumblr staff.

Rich Tong is the person I was in contact with to get education as a promoted tag, who asked for names for spotlight, and was my go to person with all the ideas I had for the world of #education on Tumblr.

There were two other staff members that would contact me or one of the other editors from time to time, but Rich was the only one I could count on to get answers back.   Now, when I have ideas for #education or there’s confusion that I’d like clarification on, I am met with silence.

Anyways, he made a few suggestions, and they are good ones — just not things that I can wrap around incorporating into Tumblr right now.  But I thought I’d post the ideas in case any of you have some ideas on that front.

if anything, my one recommendation would be to start branching out with your community beyond tumblr. there are a ton of really terrific education startups, like skillshare, teachers pay teachers, demo lesson, coursera, etc, that could benefit immensely from the passion you all share. keep bringing fresh ideas and i have no doubt in my mind that they’d all love to work with you guys in some way.

So let me know what you come up with.

Do any of my followers run a tech theater club or class?

girlwithalessonplan:

I’m going to be team teaching a tech theater class this year.  We are unique in that we have a class that staffs an 800+ seat auditorium.  

My minor is in theater, but I only did the basic tech requirements.  I know my principal’s thought in the teaming would be my partner would be the tech part (since he knows how everything runs) and I would be the management.  

I am only going to assume the team-teacher is temporary until I learn how everything works and then I’m on my own.  Like many tech classes I’ve seen, it’s going to be about six weeks of learning things (a few tests, practicums, yadda yadda), and then they just work when there’s work (i.e., when a show is going on).

So, long story short:  does anyone have any resources?

Can any of you help my Gal Pal?

How does PPT determine what to promote?

Recently, World-shaker got a question on things that are promoted in the education tag.

I thought it would be a good idea to post again the things I said I look for when I promote.  However, I will add a few things first:

I only get 10 promotions per day.  In the beginning, I had unlimited.  I’m more picky now.

I will not promote your post if there is foul language in the post or in the title of your blog.   I don’t like foul language.  It isn’t appropriate in professional discussions (although I understand why it is used on Tumblr, but I feel like the education tag is a bit different than others).  Also, the guidelines say to keep it clean.

I will not promote your post if you copied an ENTIRE article from somewhere else and you do not provide any commentary or questions of your own in the post.  If you quote part of an article from somewhere else and use a click to continue reading, I’ll consider promoting it.  However, I’d promote something with the poster’s thoughts added over something without any commentary.

I am less likely than some of the other educators to promote the simpson gifs and education humor.  I like posts that will help people grow as teachers, promote discussion, share important education news, and build the community here.  However, sometimes there are things that are just too good to pass up.

Also, if you reblog something with commentary and we promote it — ONLY the original post sans your commentary will go to the featured section.

Hope this makes sense, and if you have any suggestions please don’t hesitate to hit up my ask box.

I am really hoping the education tag helps us all grow as teachers, and helps prompt discussions on tumblr.  People on twitter always refer to having PLN (personal learning networks), and I think tumblr is probably the best platform for that (IMHO).

I thought I would just share with you all how this tag thing works. 

There is a tab there that says everything — it shows all the posts tagged with education.

Another tab says popular — thats the posts that are in the education tag that have the most notes.

The On our radar is the tab you probably see when you first go there.  Those are posts one of the 5 editors have “promoted”.  We find these posts both from the tumblrs we follow, AND through the section that has everything.  So, even if none of us are following you, if you tag it with education at least one of us will see it, and if it is something we think is worth extra attention — we’ll promote it to the On our radar section.

Tumblr gives us these guidelines on selecting what to promote:

• Be diverse — show more than one viewpoint, tumblr, and topic
• Be rich — links are ok, but original content and thoughts that you’ll only find on tumblr are better.
• Give Credit — check to make sure the posts link back to the content they draw from.

The rest is up to each individual editor. 

The things I ask myself when looking at posts —

• Will this promote discussion?
• Does this show a different viewpoint?
• Will this help other teachers?
• Is it interesting?
• If they are asking for help/resources, do they share ideas they already have so that others may benefit?
• Is it original content, or if it is linked from somewhere else does the post author discuss it (I don’t always do this on my posts — which is fine, but I think the posts that evaluate resources or articles are part of what tumblr can offer)

So use that tag!  

In case you missed it… Language Arts Edition

Here are some of my favorite posts and reblogs related to Language Arts:

Vocabulary Instruction Part 1: Introduction 

Vocabulary Instruction Part 2: Why is vocabulary instruction important?

Vocabulary Instruction Part 3: 6 Themes

Vocabulary Instruction Part 4: Activities and Tips

Vocabulary Instruction Part 5: Using Technology

Writing Fix

Twurdy

Word Stash

Dolch Sight Word Games

Rhyme Rodeo

The Language Lab

Six Traits of Writing

Personal Education Press

On Reciprocal Teaching

Reading comprehension for students with ADD

One Word

Book Adventure

Quote on vocabulary

Kerpoof

Teaching that makes sense - free literacy resources

Figurative Language

Pocket Thesaurus

Sight Word Legos

Resources for Word Clouds

Books Should Be Free

Fry’s Word List Activities

Storyline

Writer’s Workshop

National Geographic Fill-ins

Free Reader’s Theater Scripts

Selecting Nonfiction Texts

Make Your Own Graphic Novel

Writing Fun

Online Writing Resources

Story Bee

Sight Word String Ups

Sort Google Results by Reading Level

Strategies for Online Reading

Written Literacy Activities Online

Feel free to “like” and reblog them :-)

Attention - you may have missed these…

This tumblr has gained a number of followers in the past 6 months thanks to the Education tag, the spotlight, and the teacher roll call.  This tumblr and the education community that has developed on this site has made me a better teacher.  I’m grateful for all of you.

I’d like to take some time to link to some of my favorite posts that you may have missed before you followed me.  I put up some pretty awesome stuff when I only had 3 followers and I was pretending that I had hundreds.


The following posts are my favorite posts written on teaching and being a  teacher:
 
 
What I’ve learned about teaching

Public Schools

Teaching is…

10 things I wish a teacher had told me

Withitness

Dear Teacher

The Learner’s Creed

Dear Girlwithalessonplan

Why I teach

Bathrooms

Cribs - Teacher Style

Mr. B.

Husband apologizes to his wife

As the t-shirt says…

Best day ever

5 Myths of teaching

Goals as an educator

Teachers are artists

Advice for a future teacher

Why teachers are resistant to change

Here are a few things I know about teachers

Teachers are…

Teaching, the most important profession

Educators and Athletes

PencilBot’s comic of me

Classroom Survival Kit

Early Childhood Teacher

Mark Twain quote
Feel free to reblog and like them!

3 Things on Tumblr I’m TIRED of seeing

• Posts by teens saying they want to make out with / have a physical or romantic relationship with a teacher.  It concerns me.  I feel like there’s nothing I can do as an educator to make sure this kid is safe, and is only using a tumblr to discuss wishes — not actual actions.  It makes me really uncomfortable.  If you’re a teen and you’re reading this — we’ve all had crushes.  But trying to “make a move” on your teacher is inappropriate.  If you think your teacher is “flirting with you,” you are either misinterpreting your teacher caring or your teacher is very much in the wrong.
• Teens complaining about “the moment when…” “the teacher calls on you…”  ”the teacher catches you…”  ”the teacher interrupts my conversation because they are trying to teach.”  Grow up.  A good teacher does these things.  A good teacher pushes you to meet your greatest potential.  A good teacher holds you responsible for your part in YOUR education.
• That Taylor Mali video.  I do love the video, but lets find some newer material on the importance of teaching.  I seriously groan when I see that video as I search for things to promote for the education tag.

Just felt like sharing.

People I think are worth following:

I’m doing this on a whim. 

I’ll do this again, so if I leave you off — don’t have hurt feelings.

Pencilblots  for the very accurate comics

The Teachers desk for the ideas and Canadian perspective

Education policy   For the links to articles

Mtsullivan for the photographs

Inothernews for the news, sports, and comedic relief

Rich Tong for fashion, tumblr staff photos, and meals to wish you were eating

Autismsucks  to read about the daily life of an awesome family — and their ups and downs

Whatmystudentsaid for funny child snippets

Girlwithalessonplan because she is my Tumblr BFF.