Who's Telling Your Story?

Ask your child what they did in school today.  What's the typical response?  "I don't know" or  "Nothin', really."  As a teacher, I beg to differ!

What's going on in your classroom this week? Who knows about it?  A majority of teachers that I ask that question answer with the following:

"My administrator, students and some of my parents."

Really?  That's it?  Shouldn't the whole world know what's taking place in your awesome learning environment?  Now, some might say that "nobody really cares" or "who would want to know anyway?"

I truly think that YOU need to be sharing the awesome events that are happening each and everyday in your classroom.  An activity or project that you might think is meaningless, could be magnificent in the eyes of another educator!

I was one of those teachers that didn't share much during my first eight years of teaching.

I went about my business. I did my thing.

Then one day, I joined Twitter.  To be honest with you, I was a little hesitant when I first joined.    I didn't see the value of me sharing and telling the story that was playing out each day in my classroom.  I lurked on Twitter.  Eventually, I started seeing what other social studies teachers were doing in their classrooms.  I started lurking and learning.  I started taking their ideas and modifying them to use with my students. My classroom was no longer a static learning space.  It felt like it was constantly evolving.  I was learning and it felt great!

Eventually I started to realize that by tuning in to other educators I was become a more well rounded educator.  

Eventually I started joining in conversations on Twitter.  I no longer lurked.  I started conversing.  I shared and produced.  I collaborated with other teachers from all over the world.

I quit being an Idea Hoarder.

How can you start telling your story?

One of the easiest ways is to start using Twitter as your broadcasting platform.  Creating a hashtag for your classroom is an easy start.  We have several teachers in my school district that are utilizing hashtags in their classrooms to tell their stories.   Check out #auroraspanish #ahsbio #hudsonkinders or #ahs109 to see how these teachers are harnessing the power of the hashtag.

Using a hashtag for your classroom creates a digital window so that others can tune in to see all of the great activities/events/learning that is taking place.

So, who's telling your story?