Reflections on our 2 year Anniversary
November 30th marks the 2 year anniversary since our very first Educator Exchange event, held on a chilly evening with about 70 educators gathered in a downtown Boston loft space in 2017.
Kat and I were excited by the turnout, people who were, like us, taking a chance on an unproven concept. We had spent the prior 18 months meeting with teachers in coffee shops, classrooms, and homes to better understand:
Where do you go for support, advice, camaraderie?
What happens when you have an out of the box idea you want to try?
When and why do you change your practice?
Where do you find “your people?”
What we learned laid the foundation for the Teacher Collaborative: teachers wanted spaces to connect and collaborate across artificial boundaries and they wanted to be both recognized for and supported in the entrepreneurial side of their work--the creative and innovative parts of being a great teacher that aren’t talked about enough.
Part of my remarks at that opening event included:
What happens next is totally up to you.
And there is literally no other group of people I would feel more comfortable saying this to because you guys are the awesome, brilliant architects of what the future can be.
I’m perfectly happy being the foundation. My job is to listen to you, hear out your half baked ideas and big dreams, and try to make them real.
The next thing you should know and I hope you are feeling this in the energy of this room: you are already experts. You are already part of a truly amazing group of professionals. To borrow a great line from President Obama: you are the ones you have been waiting for.
I feel very proud that the Teacher Collaborative now boasts a community of over 1,000 educators hailing from 142 districts across Massachusetts. We’ve facilitated over 5,300 hours of cross-school collaboration including 16 Educator Exchange events and 13 Co-Labs for Innovation. Recently, we launched a first-of-its-kind podcast to share #storiesfromtheclassrom in teachers’ real voices and we were recognized by DESE to be able to offer PDPs.
As an organization, we’ve gone from not having an office to being able to offer up conference room space for teachers that includes wifi, printing, and great views. We’ve gone from carrying our belongings in reusable grocery bags to being able to offer stipends and sticky chart paper (the good kind) to teachers. We made a website, wrote down our organizational mission and beliefs, and grew our team.
I’d say the foundation is pretty solid.
But back to supporting your half-baked ideas and big dreams. What’s next?
We know we haven’t reached nearly enough educators yet. How do we grow our community to be truly inclusive, diverse, and thriving? What access points and onramps to people want and need?
We are constantly thinking about the skills and knowledge teachers need to innovate and problem solve. We are thinking about virtual-only modules this spring, as well as a larger “summit” or convening where teachers and other well-respected organizations could offer workshops to share learning and, importantly, convince more teachers that they don’t have to wait to be given leadership, it’s theirs for the taking. What workshops and modules would be most helpful?
We’re proud of the podcast as a new venue where educators’ voices speak for themselves. How else can we use this medium to elevate the stories that unite teachers no matter who or what or where they teach?
And, of course: What are the ideas we haven’t thought of yet?
If you have ideas, please (and I mean this) email me! We honestly get emails all the time from teachers who have ideas...and we love getting them. This is the job we’ve signed up for and feel honored to be able to do it.
It is the season to be thankful and we are so thankful for those of you who have taken a chance on us to see what this is about and who are continuing to contribute to what it will become.
Sincerely,
Maria (and team!)
maria@theteachercollaborative.org
P.S. If you haven’t seen it, take 5 minutes to check out this TED Talk about How to Start a Movement. It’s something that has inspired us and helped us go from a few lone nuts dancing on the side of a hill...to many.