We are taught at a very young age that sharing is the proper thing to do. Yet years later many of us have forgotten this simple rule. As teachers we ask students to share their thoughts, ideas and work for us to critique, praise and assess. As teachers we don't do a good enough job sharing our work in the classroom. I will be the first to admit that I don't have all of the best lesson plans and tricks figured out yet. Some of this can be solved through trial and error, but why would I want to spend hours and hours doing this?? The alternative is to learn from others who have traveled this road before.
I have heard the term "Don't reinvent the wheel" many times before in my early teaching career. Usually I hear this when a teacher is offering me their loads and loads of teaching resources to photocopy. This is a great way to learn from experienced teachers, but we can do better than this. The best way to teach someone is one on one interaction, but not everyone has the time for this. So what can we do? SHARE ONLINE!!! This is the best way to get ideas to others. Whether they are teacher candidates, beginners or season veterans of the profession, there will always be new ideas that can be used in the classroom.
Dean Shareski developed a video titled "Sharing: The Moral Imperative" which can be found at
http://k12onlineconference.org/?p=610. Dean does a good job sharing some examples of how social bookmarking, blogging and personal learning communities can spread the word. In the process, the bar is being raised on the quality of education being offered to our students and it is also saving us some long hours locked in your classroom brainstorming ideas to engage students in learning. This just makes sense to me.Don't reinvent the wheel, build it bigger and better.
I really liked the ideas that you talked about in this blog. I, too, have had many co-operating teachers give me their binders for photocopying. I always thought that they were being generous and that I was incredibly lucky to have such awesome co-operating teachers who would help me through my struggles in trying to find resources. I never really thought about the idea of sharing information online instead of photocopying resources from old binders and textbooks. It would be great it all of those resources were available with just a few clicks of a mouse! I really like your ideas!
ReplyDeleteThanks Pam
ReplyDeleteI like the term you used “don’t reinvent the wheel”. Sharing online is a best and fast way to contribute to resources that can be useful for teachers. There are number of teachers who share their resources with others. Those resources not only save time of others but also promote deep understanding of topics.
ReplyDelete