Over the years, as I have discussed collaboration in education with thousands of educators, there is one sentiment, or opinion of collaboration that has popped up among some of these educators that I just don’t get. Many of these educators have expressed to me the opinion that collaborative teachers who share personal sources such as lesson plans, personal websites, or even blog posts are not humble enough. They feel as if sharing on the Internet is like bragging about being better than other educators. They consider it to be gloating. Publicizing personal achievements to appear superior to other educators. That whole mindset seems counter to the idea of collaboration. It actually seems counter to a philosophy of teaching and learning. Maybe that’s why I don’t get it, especially coming from educators.
The whole idea behind being a connected educator is for educators to share sources that will benefit learners. It would be very limiting if the only sources educators shared were those developed by others, but at least they would appear to be humble. Would people really consider educators to be more humble, if they didn’t mention their own accomplishments? I often wonder why teachers are supposed to be humble anyway. What makes being humble so virtuous? Could this be one reason for the reluctance on the part of so many educators to connect and collaborate?
Arrogant, privileged, brazen braggart that I am, I would like to share a part of my accomplishments that I am quite proud of and that could benefit educators who take advantage of my sharing. The #Edchat Radio Show produced by the BAM Radio Network is a weekly show for educators. It is produced in the form of 10 to 12 minute podcasts, so that educators can play it on any device in a form and length that enables educators to take full advantage of time and place.
On a recent family road trip to college my daughter asked me to play an episode of the #Edchat Radio show so she could better understand what it is that I do these days. It was any easy request to fill. I had all of the shows on a podcast app on my phone. I connected the phone to the car radio and I became the voice on the radio for the road trip.
The purpose of the show is to share with the audience what transpired in that week’s #Edchat. The 7 PM chat is the one most often covered on the show, since it is the most popular and more heavily attended. However, when the noon chat produces an interesting and lively topic that is covered as well. Each show contains a guest. Sometimes the guest is just a chatter involved in that specific chat, or an author, or an education thought leader. The #Edchat moderator team guests as well: Steve Anderson, Shelly Terrell, Jerry Blumengarten, Kyle Pace, Jerry Swiatek, and Mary Beth Hertz. The constants on each show would be the hosts, myself, and Nancy Blair.
I love working with Nancy. She is an experienced educator, and now an education consultant with expertise in Professional Development. She is the detail person that I am not. She keeps us focused and on target. Nancy tends to smooth out my rough edges with a great depth of knowledge on any given topic.
I should make it clear that this entire project does not benefit us in any way other than a satisfaction that we are sharing the community’s ideas from each chat. There is no money to be had here. The idea has always been to share the #Edchat collaboration in as many ways as possible. We had the #Edchat live, and the #Edchat Archives, the #Edchat Facebook Page, and now we have the #Edchat Radio Show. The complete list of #Edchat Radio Show podcasts is available on iTunes. They are free and yours for the download.
As we drove the highways headed for college, I was listening to the shows with a fresh ear. It had been months since I listened to many of them and I was now listening as a consumer and not a producer. Each show was lively and very informative. What interested me most was how much each of the guests contributed. We had and hopefully will continue to have some of the most informed and collaborative educators who continually contribute the best portions of each of the radio show podcasts.
Of course the best outcome from this family adventure was that my daughter could understand what it is that I do in the world of connected educators. A vast majority of teachers that I taught with for years have no clue what that is. We need to share more of what we as educators do in any form that reaches an audience. If we need to do it humbly, that’s okay. If we can do it with confidence and pride, I think that may be better. I am proud of what I do and I love sharing it. But then again I am an arrogant, privileged, brazen braggart and proud of it.
Well said Tom and witty too! Have often wondered the same thing? Where is it written that being self-effacing is part of the educator’s job description.
Self Effacing?
It has seemed strange to me that teachers are not usually producers of student-directed material. That they are reluctant to share what they have produced certainly fits.
Teachers have spent immense amounts of time preparing for their jobs, not to mention the money which they have paid for college or advanced degrees. Teachers then enter a classroom day after day and engage students by sharing their expertise. Yet, most teachers also rely on somebody else’s textbooks, xeroxed worksheets, and more recently, apps and Internet links. As a rule, teachers do not produce their own teaching materials. Given the chance to “publish” a blog or web site, almost none of the staff of almost 200 in my school took the step, even though the learning opportunity was free.
A few of those teachers did make worksheets of their own, but not most.
Sharing daily with their students is a verbal exercise, lecturing, questioning, nudging students along. It isn’t done through personal writing very often and, perhaps because of that, does not translate into sharing with other adults.
How often do “faculty” meetings find a faculty member speaking? Aren’t the faculty most often returned to their student/listener roles while yet another level of educator lectures, questions and nudges?
I think a few things are at play here. There is the braggart that every teacher on staff likes to avoid like the plague. Really, we are tired of hearing how great you think you are. There is a way to share that isn’t bragging. And it comes from working together on a team, sharing equally, editing each other, tweaking, all that….but some just want to come to the table to share their expertise, they have no desire to gain anything from a conversation with you. They put off an air that they already have perfected their game.
Then there is that part of a teacher that doesn’t want to share because they are tired of giving it all away and not getting anything in return. I worked with a new teacher once who took everything. At one point he took this simulation I created, changed a few words here and there, and put it in a portfolio of things he “created” when applying for a new job. I think my colleagues know I will be happy to give you anything, but this guy just never contributed anything to the discussion. It was awful.
Sharing might not make us braggarts, but it could possibly make us better teachers. Our classroom is larger than just the kids we teach every day.
It’s just a fact recognized by connected educators – give more, get more! The more I share, the more my PLN grows and gives back to me. I agree with William, our classroom is larger, and the satisfaction of helping others is intrinsically real. If that comes across as bragging, so be it. I am reborn as a learner through my PLN connections. Finally, if people were as courteous and cooperative face-to-face as they are on Twitter, then this discussion may not have the same meaning. Stand tall and don’t change a thing Tom!
I’ve also heard from teachers that they don’t want people to “steal” their stuff. I understand the paranoia, but I try to mitigate it.
A book I read over the summer that I think would be useful for this conversation is “Give and Take” by Adam Grant. It’s all about how to give your time, resources, money, etc. in a productive way and how to recognize those that are “takers”. It’s really an interesting read. I want to share it with my own faculty.
I am one who has oftentimes felt uncomfortable about sharing ideas that I consider to be good ones for fear that people will think I am bragging. A colleague has helped me to come a long way in this regard and one thing that has been very helpful for me is to talk about my own experience rather than making general statements about what works and what doesn’t. A more personal statement like “I have found that my students are very receptive to video lectures” rather than the more general “video lectures are better for students than in-class lectures” has made it much easier for me to share ideas.
I think that it also need to be said that it takes a certain amount of self-confidence to be a connected educator who shares. As someone who is admittedly insecure, I worry about being perceived as bragging if I share but I also worry about being judged, mainly because someone might want to take a look at what I’ve done and tear it down when all I am doing is sharing an idea or a thought (which … well, this is the Internet, so … yeah).
Plus, there’s also the “I realize I just bombed the test” feeling I get from time to time when going on Twitter. You know what I mean–you leave the test feeling confident, that you really got something and then you start talking to your friends and they start mentioning questions they knew the answers to and you start thinking, “Wait, I didn’t choose that answer” or “I didn’t do that on my essay” and are then starting to panic. Get in a room of teachers who love to share and who are superstars in some way or another and those inadequacies start to really get to you and can even psych you out to the point where you don’t even want to engage.
Then again, this might be me and my own personal b.s. and baggage and as you know, what I have to say should be taken with a grain of salt.
[…] Sharing Is Not Bragging | My Island View […]
Many interesting reply’s to your article Tom. One thing I continued thinking while reading your post was how different a traditional classroom teacher’s work experience can be from a peer’s in a field outside of working with children.
Those different experiences become part of the fabric that weaves together who we are as individuals, how we think, behave, and in the observation you pose, how we interact with one another.
Without being completely inattentive to the details of each show off. I propose we remain conscious of mirroring our students negative behaviors. Being petty is never cute regardless of how it’s dressed up. Nor should we forget to celebrate each other successes.
How about a daily praise, it only takes a minute.
A simple public gesture of honoring the small accomplishments of our colleagues should reflect the way we recognize our students progress – shouldn’t it?
For me, sharing is difficult because I don’t have an original idea. I love to make lessons on my Smartboard but I get my materials from other places like Scholastic books, textbooks, etc. If I share my creative approach to the lessons, I am afraid of running the risk of copyright infringement. I am not sure where the line is in this area, so I just keep my creations to myself, and know I do a dang good job!
[…] been reading an interesting post from Tom Whitby about sharing often being seen as bragging in the education sector. People sharing their ideas and […]
[…] Over the years, as I have discussed collaboration in education with thousands of educators, there is one sentiment, or opinion of collaboration that has popped up among some of these educators that has popped up among some of these educators that I just don’t get. Many of these educators have expressed to me the opinion that collaborative teachers who share personal sources such as lesson plans, personal websites, or even blog posts are not humble enough. They feel as if sharing on the Internet is like bragging about being better than other educators. They consider it to be gloating. Publicizing personal achievements to appear superior to other educators. That whole mindset seems counter to the idea of collaboration. It actually seems counter to a philosophy of teaching and learning. Maybe that’s why I don’t get it, especially coming from educators. The whole idea behind being a connected educator is for educators to share sources that will benefit learners. It would be very limiting if the only sources educators shared were those developed by others, but at least they would appear to be humble. Would people really consider educators to be more humble, if they didn’t mention their own accomplishments? I often wonder why teachers are supposed to be humble anyway. What makes being humble so virtuous? Could this be one reason for the reluctance on the part of so many educators to connect and collaborate? […]
Tom, I think it’s all about the “tone.” There’s an air of superiority that surrounds some sharers’ posts, and I think that’s part of the issue.
I used to worry about what my peers think of me. Now I do whatever benefits the kids most. If that means sharing my lesson plan, or tech expertise, then I do it. Sometimes it means listening to others. Other times it means reading everything I can about a certain topic. It always means pushing myself to be the best educator I can be. If I am perceived to be arrogant by some, I consider it to be ‘not my problem’. I’m more interested in growing as an educator than being popular.
Thank you! That just described how I currently feel at my school. My admin has successfully silenced me and I’ve chosen to be “humbly silent” for a while. I needed this. Maybe I’ll print it and post it all over my door.
[…] Sharing Is Not Bragging. The whole condemnation of self-promotion is a little ridiculous since to a degree everyone on social media self-promotes in order to get their message out to a larger audience. Using your voice to a limited audience seems counter productive. There are some who do it too often, but it is a public platform. We can’t regulate what others tweet. Of course the irony of many bloggers writing about, or condemning self-promotion is that they often self-promote within their own blogs or tweets to drive traffic to their posts. It is the best way to share ideas with a larger audience. Yes, there are “Rock Star” educators on Twitter, but that more often comes from sharing great ideas. If I might indulge in some self-promotion here; I direct you to A Rock Star, not by choice. […]