Competition

Does anyone feel like we work in a constant state of competition?  I don't understand it.  Aren't we all working toward the same goal?  Our kids are different, our teaching styles are different, our lifestyles are different, so shouldn't we be okay with diversity in teaching methods?

I see teachers who do not want to share or who pick on others just to make themselves look better.  Can't we all work harder, find more ways to challenge our students, and have a little more passion?  When we beat each other up, it only tears down our passion and individualism.

I don't know one teacher who doesn't care about their students.  She/he may teach differently or learn at a different pace, but that doesn't mean we have to say negative things to hurt their credibility or teaching style.  A big thing right now is brain breaks.  I think they are great to use.  One current rift is what is a brain break.  If a teacher dances 3x a day for 5 minutes a time, that is 15 minutes a day.  If another teacher decides to show a movie for 15 minutes straight as her brain break, she is criticized. What makes a difference?  Is it educational?  Is it helpful to the students?  Do we need to meddle in our colleagues teaching style?

As educators, we need to build each other up and strive to find the best in each other.  Stakeholders do enough tearing down of the educational field. My goal for the future is for teachers to unite and build strong bridges with each other.

Curating Resources

Susie spent hours collecting and curating resources for her upcoming unit on cells. She is able to successfully use much of what she has found when implementing her plans.  The following year, when it is time to begin the unit on cells again, Susie forgets about the resources she curated. She essentially starts from scratch, performing the task of searching, saving, and sorting once again.

Create a plan or provide suggestions for ways to make your curated resources a regular part of your planning.

One way to fix Susie's problem is by creating Symbaloos for each topic unit.  She can put all her resources into one place and have tabs to differentiate the different unit.  This will help her to stay organized and focused on the task at hand - teaching.  Another benefit to using Symbaloo is she can add, modify, or delete things at anytime.
A second way to fix Susie's problem is using Google Docs.  She can make unit labels and store everything in one place. She can copy links and store them in this handy place.  In the future, she can find everything stored in one place.
A third possible solution for Susie is using Google Classroom.  This would be extremely helpful if she taught upper grades.  Students can access this site and see assignment due.  This would be a great way to help students and the teacher.
If she stores all units in one format such as Symbaloo and Google Docs, she won't forget her information because she will be accessing an array of documents with the different units she is teaching.