Sharing Your Best Work With Other Teachers
To all the educators out there, and especially the seasoned professionals, pay attention. Your students will benefit greatly from the many things you have to offer them. You probably also have a lot to offer the instructors at your school, and they could really benefit from it. What happens, though, if you happen to be one of those educators who also has a great deal of value to contribute to the field of education as a whole? Take, for instance:
A description of the most effective lessons you have taught
Copies of your lesson plans
Your musings on the classroom, the curriculum, and/or the evaluation process
Some examples of the work that your students have done
If you are one of those teachers and are willing to share freely, there are many different ways in which you can do so in this day and age thanks to the proliferation of digital technology. Why would any educator share their lesson plans for free? There are a great number of reasons, but the most compelling one is as follows: Because it encourages reflection and new knowledge acquisition, sharing makes you a better instructor.
1. CREATE A TED-ED LESSON
Creating a TED-Ed lesson is one of the most effective ways for educators to share a lesson with one another. The subjects covered in these animated videos that last between three and five minutes include everything from chemistry to Shakespeare to origami. Each animation is the product of a collaborative effort between a classroom teacher and a TED-Ed scriptwriter, a professional animator, and a voice-over actor.
In order to provide you with an idea of the variety of lessons that teachers have already developed, the following are some examples:
The Chemistry of Automobiles: A Look Beneath the Hood
What Characteristics Define a Poem as a Poem?
Explain the Difference Between Accuracy and Precision in Your Own Words.
How Are Individuals Chosen to Serve on the Supreme Court of the United States?
Applying to work with the folks at TED-Ed on the production of a video is something you can do here if you are a teacher and want to get involved.
2. POST A VIDEO TO THE TEACHING CHANNEL
Through the use of Teaching Channel, educators who are interested in sharing a high-quality video of themselves in the classroom setting with students have the opportunity to do so. This charitable organisation has been around since 2011, and its stated mission is to “revolutionise the profession by providing free lesson sharing.” Sarah Brown Wessling, a high school English teacher and one of the most well-known instructors on Teaching Channel, serves as a good illustration of the kinds of content that are available to you on this website.
Teachers need only send an email with a photo of their classroom, a few photos of their class, and a lesson idea or plan to info@teachingchannel.org to be considered for filming. “Effective, replicable, and inspiring teaching” is what the organisation is looking for in particular at the moment.
3. UPLOAD A LESSON PLAN TO THE INTERNET
Share My Lesson has been called the “Yelp of teacher lesson plans.” If you are a teacher with a great lesson plan and are willing to share it for free, you should think about uploading it to Share My Lesson. On this platform, educators can browse the lesson plans developed by their peers and provide feedback while doing so. Send an email to content@sharemylesson.com if you have any inquiries regarding the uploading of lesson plans or becoming a contributor.
4. START A BLOG—OR CONTRIBUTE TO SOMEONE ELSE’S
I’ve read a lot of teacher blogs over the years, and one of my favourites is written by an English teacher who works with middle school students. Laura Bradley. The blogs that were selected for inclusion in “The 2017 Honor Roll: EdTech’s Must-Read K–12 IT Blogs” are some of my favourites as well.
It is my recommendation that you read “Start Your Teaching Blog: Resources, Advice, and Examples” if you are thinking about beginning your very own blog.
If a teacher does not wish to create their own blog but does wish to share their lessons, reflections, and students’ work, they frequently have the opportunity to do so on the blogs of others. The ones that I typically blog for are Edutopia, KQED’s In the Classroom, and PBS’s Teachers’ Lounge. Please click this link if you are interested in blogging for Edutopia. Get in touch with the television stations that are sponsoring Teachers Lounge or In the Classroom if you want to blog for either of those sites.
5. HOST A PODCAST—OR CONTRIBUTE TO SOMEONE ELSE’S
The following is a list of some of the most popular podcasts produced by teachers:
Every Classroom Matters Classroom Question and Answer with the Bedley Brothers
Simply click on this link to get started with your very own podcast.
6. HOST A WEBINAR—OR CONTRIBUTE TO SOMEONE ELSE’S
Webinar is an abbreviation for “Web-based seminar,” which describes a presentation that can be accessed over the internet and is sometimes interactive. You can watch a non-interactive archived version of a webinar after it has concluded, and subscribers have the option to participate in it from the comfort of their own homes while still being able to ask questions and interact with the presenter.
Several illustrative cases include: “The Power of Project-Based Instruction,” “De-Grading Your Classroom and Creating Mastery Learning with Narrative Feedback,” “Breaking Down the Walls,” etc.
If you want to run your own webinar, you should read “10 Steps for Planning a Successful Webinar,” which outlines the process you should follow.
7. POST TO TWITTER
Twitter is a wonderful platform for educators to use as a place to both produce and consume content. Therefore, I recommend that you tweet if you are a teacher and have something that you would like to share with other educators. I think it’s especially important for educators to make use of Twitter to highlight the work of their students. According to the findings of a recent article I penned for KQED’s In the Classroom series, doing so will increase the level of student engagement.
8. SERVE REMOTELY ON A TEACHER ADVISORY COMMITTEE
It would appear that everyone in today’s society desires input from a teacher. Consider participating in a teacher advisory committee through virtual means if you are an educator who believes they have something of value to contribute to the field of education. Finding a committee on which you would like to serve and sending an email expressing your interest in serving to one or more members of the committee is typically all that is required to complete the process. In most circumstances, nothing more is required, though an official application might be necessary in certain circumstances.
I personally know dozens of educators who are active members of at least one of the following teacher advisory groups: the PBS Teacher Advisory Group, the iCivics Educator Network, California’s Better Together Teacher Advisory Committee, the Flipped Learning Teacher Advisory Committee, the Scholastic Teacher Advisory Committee, and the Teacher Advisory Group for the National Council on Teacher Quality. Each of these groups is dedicated to improving the quality of education in the United States.