Making our Teaching Public!

We have been talking about a lot of different topics this week, but at the essence we are trying to share how complex teaching and learning really is.  We are trying to get at the unique experience that being a teacher day in and day out, it is a job not easily defined.

What I am hearing in all our conversations is that it is these unique human experiences that are being left out of the overall mass discussion on both sides of the debate.

We need to change the conversation, and we have started to here on the Cooperative with  Chad, and Kevin’s idea and also the great minds at Viva Project, which have started a proactive action oriented cooperative to get teachers’ voices and ideas heard and put into action.

Lets continue  having classroom discussions, personal examples of the work we are doing, and the student who are doing the learning. We actively change the conversation by actively engaging in the stories of our work.

Lets be humble about our struggles, lets celebrate our successes, lets make our voices’ public and be an alternative to all the demonizing of teachers and schools. Let share a story a day like Kevin and Chad suggest, but not only on the Cooperative, but with friends and family members, as editorials, as teacher research, via blogs and twitter, facebook and text message.

The more human we make the conversation the less we can be defined as numbers or with simple terms like “Bad” or “Good” !  We know teaching is complex and can not be defined with a test score or a one size fits all method. Teaching is truly a holistic art and we can share that here and to the world. We might not change the world tomorrow, but what we can do is start to shift the paradigm our way! Lets keep the conversations about how complex and multidimensional the work is, be it  good or bad. We need to talk and listen, and share and discuss and not just fight.

So I encourage everyone this week to look for stories to share, to invite a colleague or a student  to tell their stories below or as guest bloggers. Lets fill the internet with the real stories of real people doing the complex work that is teaching and learning. Let’s Make our Stories Public!

Here are a few posts to start the conversations, if you know of more post below, or add them via the New tab above Teachers Stories.

“How can we identify “good” teaching? by Emily Hanford via Good

What (Really) Works? By Mary Beth

Incidental Learning By Paula White

The Anatomy of Mark Making by Marla McLean

Flexible Learning Spaces By whatedsaid