Image by Scott Maxwell.
Do you remember your first day in the classroom? I remembered mine as I read a recent article about a new teacher, just out of college, who was struggling with the huge task of understanding her new job. Her experience sounded so familiar. Walk into the school. Get handed a key to the classroom. Find your mailbox. Get a stack of textbooks. Yikes! What next?
That was the dilemma of the teacher in the article: what next? After feeling totally overwhelmed, this teacher turned to the Internet and used a social networking tool to seek help. She posted the simple question, “I’m new, what do I do now?” In a matter of hours she received sixty responses to this plea for help. She even had experts come to her aid.
Talk about curriculum building! Teachers today seem more willing to assist and collaborate with their peers than ever before. Social networking sites seem to offer a non-threatening forum where teachers can share and exchange their ideas.
As I remember that exciting yet scary feeling as I walked into my classroom for the first time, I wonder why, if social networking tools are so easily accessible to us, we aren’t sharing more? Why do so many teachers still struggle alone with more and more paperwork? More and more papers to grade? More and more expectations? Couldn’t social networking sites provide the avenue for educators to share how they have solved problems? Organized the mountain of assignments to grade? Managed high expectations? Dealt with thorny questions on curriculum?
So I now ask you: “To share or not to share?” What’s your experience with social networking to assist you with your work?