My Commitment to Improvement as an Educator

I am not the first, nor will I be the last, person to believe that consistently striving to be a better teacher is a crucial attribute of any educator. If our goal as teachers is to impart the importance of learning and education, then it is imperative that we ourselves are not also learning and improving, but that we are communicating to our students that we are continuing to learn and improve. Fortunately, we are learning, living, and teaching in a time where we have easy access to like-minded educators all over the globe from whom we can learn. Below I’ve highlighted three different networks that I access frequently, and how they help me develop as an educator.

1. School Network

I am incredibly grateful for the school that I work in because it is filled with collaborative educators who are willing to share their successes and strategies, and who care for the wellbeing of their students, and their colleagues. In affiliation with my district’s policies, my school (and every other school) offers optional collaboration opportunities. Those who wish to participate sign up for a topic group and commit to working together on a topic of interest once a month for 2 hours after-school; this time is then exchanged for a day in-lieu in the spring. 

Last year the group I participated in focused on integrating technology into our classroom, while this year my group’s focus was on incorporating mental health education and mindfulness strategies into our students’ school lives. The beauty of the collab group is it brings together teachers of different grades, and different disciplines. The middle school level is a period of rapid changes for students, so groups have to work together to find and adapt strategies that will be useful and appropriate in grade 6, 7, and 8 classrooms – while on paper this may not seem like a big deal, middle school educators will know that there is a drastic difference in maturity levels between sixth-graders and eighth-graders so the work we do is very intentional. 

An additional strength of these collab groups is the background professional development that happens. The nature of these groups is that much of the time we spend together involves discussion of our respective classrooms, and anecdotes of lessons or strategies we’ve used. We rarely have the opportunity to visit colleagues’ classrooms while they are teaching, so having this opportunity to learn from our coworkers is appreciated by all involved.

2. District Network

I am beyond grateful for the opportunities my school district offers for professional development. In addition to our standard professional development days, it also offers both a middle school and a high school book club for educators. 

Every month (middle school) and every other month (high school), educators in these book clubs (which are free to join) get a copy of the next read, and the date for next meeting. Like a typical book club, we all read (or try to read) the book so that we can then discuss it at the following meeting. My first year was the year before Covid struck, and our meetings were in person. Since the pandemic our meetings have occurred over Microsoft Teams, and as a result the clubs have grown because they are more accessible. In addition to adding free books to our classroom libraries, the opportunity to discuss these reads and how each teacher has used them in their pedagogy is an excellent way for us to all learn. Teachers have used the books in various ways, such as class read-alouds (Bloom by Kenneth Oppel); starting off points for conversations about diversity, equity, and topics like racism and LGBTQ+ and disability rights (Anger Is a Gift by Mark Oshiro and This Book Is Anti-Racist: 20 Lessons on How to Wake Up, Take Action, and Do the Work by Tiffany Jewell, illustrated by Aurélia Durand); or excerpts of an anthology to use in various units (Look Both Ways by Jason Reynolds).

Each book is a relatively recent release, and many of them offer the opportunities to open our eyes to the realities of other people’s experiences, and to have challenging, but necessary conversations about how we can be more equitable teachers and how we can help our students become empathetic and educated citizens via reading.

3. Online Network

While social media is often criticized for its “evils,” it has tremendous value as a professional development resource. Many educators use Twitter to connect and expand their PLN; I used Twitter for the first couple years of my career when I was a high-school math teacher. When I began teaching middle school English though, I discovered that Instagram is a pure gold mine of educators connecting and sharing their practices. ‘Teachergram’ as it’s colloquially called, can have bad rap due to it being a picture-sharing platform. Some make the argument that it is a popularity contest, and that many use their online platform as a money-making opportunity through sponsorships with other companies. While I’m sure this does occur, my personal experience on Teachergram has been one of profound professional development and friendship. I have used more specific strategies and lesson ideas in my classroom that I gained from my PLN on Instagram than I have from any designated professional-development conference or workshop. I have no doubts in saying that I am 100% a better educator because of my colleagues on Instagram. Below I’ve highlighted four of my favourite accounts and how I’ve implemented strategies or lessons from them in my own teaching.

Molly, @thatawkwardteacher

Molly is a high-school English teacher from Illinois who I’ve been connected with since Fall 2019. She generously shares resources she creates through a Google Drive, and shares innovative and easily applicable lesson ideas through her page. My favourite strategy that I learned from her is her “March Madness” style poetry bracket that she does every year. She selects 16 poems, most of them spoken word, and has them “face off” against each other. Students watch or read these poems, and then vote for their favourite. Each year a “champion” is crowned. I implemented this into my practice last year for the first time, and I have now used it two years in a row as a cornerstone of my poetry unit with phenomenal results. Normally students despise poetry for being boring, difficult, and irrelevant, but by showing relevant and engaging spoken word poetry I have been able to engage even my most apathetic eighth-grade students. The last two years I’ve had students make comments to the tune of “wow, you actually made poetry fun this year.” Success! Thank you, Molly!

Allyssa, @teachingintheflx

Allyssa is a fellow middle-school ELA teacher who does phenomenal work in literacy with her students. While I have not tried this with my students, every year in November she has her students participate in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). Through incredible scaffolding, her students spend the month of November actually writing their own novels – how phenomenal is that?                                                                                                                                     A strategy that I have used from Allyssa is her incorporation of reading sprints into her students’ daily reading. A reading sprint is where you set a specific amount of time, say 10 minutes, to devote to focused reading, with the goal of reading as many pages as you can while still comprehending the material. Now, Allyssa did not invent reading sprints, and she’s not the only Teachergram educator I know to use them in her teaching, but she is the person who inspired me to incorporate them into my own classes. I used them with great success last year when I had my students do three reading sprints in one lesson. At the end of each sprint, I would have my students record their page count, emphasizing that this was not a competition amongst each other, but rather a way to reflect on their reading and to measure progress.  They really enjoyed it, and it was a great way to spend a class!

Sandy, @elaeveryday

Sandy is another middle-school teacher, and an absolute speed reader. I’ve never known anyone who reads as much as she does. Sandy has an incredible classroom library, and is a true advocate for students having access to diverse literature. Sandy has many teaching strategies that she shares that are connected to her emphasis on reading in her classroom. From her book talks of new releases to her posts on various themed “must have books for your classroom,” Sandy’s account is an excellent one to follow for any educator (or person really) passionate about the power of reading.

Meg, @blooming_readers

Meg teaches in a middle-school in Florida, and she absolutely hits it out of the park with her lessons, and resources. She creates excellent graphic organizers for her students that just make sense. Every resource she creates is so thoughtfully scaffolded to make the learning process accessible and manageable. I’ve adapted several of her lessons and strategies, but my favourite is her mini unit on book awards to introduce the beauty of reading at the start of the year. Meg educates her students on the many different book awards that exist, like the William C. Morris Debut Award for excellent Young Adult debuts, and the Stonewall Award for exceptional work in LGBTQ+ literature. I took this strategy last year and had my students go through a gallery-walk to learn about the various types of awards, followed by a book-tasting where each table held a selection of books that had won a specific award (e.g. A table for Newbery Medal winners, and a table for Coretta Scott King Book honorees). To culminate students created their own book award, specifying the criteria a book would need to meet to qualify for the award, and a list of previous “winners.” It was a great way to drum up excitement about reading at the start of the year.

A Commitment to Lifelong Learning

I am grateful for my passion for reading and improving as an educator because it has allowed me to create the connections and PLN that I have. Knowing that I have established these accessible professional development resources so early on in my career and seeing the growth that has resulted from these resources leaves me feeling incredibly excited for my future as an educator. I already feel confident in my success and skills as an ELA educator, and knowing that I still have so long to go means I have so many opportunities to improve. My online network has particularly helped me grow, and I’ve been able to pass on many of the strategies that I’ve learned there to my colleagues in my own school and district. I am incredibly thankful for the willingness of others to share their ideas, and I hope that in my future I will continue to grow as an educator where I too can share my own ideas and help influence the pedagogy of others.