What Connected Educators Do Differently: Chapter One

Invest in a Personal and Professional Learning Network

"The best minute I spend is the one I invest in people" Kenneth Blanchard, quoted on page 1.

"[Teachers] spend 90% of their day every day with students, deprived of any significant adult interaction.  Over time, this lack of  connectivity with other professionals like themselves leads to low efficacy, less risk-taking, low performance, burnout, and high turnover.  Sadly, we begin to question whether we can even make a difference" (1-2). 

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I like how they use the word invest in this chapter.  I invest a good deal of time and energy in the things that are important to me.  Being a great teacher is very important to me and is something I often feel overwhelmed about.  No matter how much I do, I feel like there is always more I could be doing.  I think when I start feeling this way, I just turn up the speed on the treadmill.  I'm working harder and going faster, but still not feeling like I'm getting anywhere.  Maybe I need to step down and spend time connecting.  It's so hard to do this, though.  It feels like a waste of time because there isn't necessarily any tangible forward momentum. 

I'm re-reading Chapter 1 with my new honesty lens (referred to in a previous post) and I can't believe that I don't recall reading the section titled Making, Not Marking Time.  "From a professional standpoint, our days and evenings can be spent on lesson preparation, searching online resources, collecting materials, responding to emails, interacting with students, providing feedback on homework assignments, or completing the multitude of other daily tasks our work requires us to do...the notion of expanding our networks...can be an overwhelming process...after all, we can barely manage the work we have now; we certainly do not have time to keep up with the constant changes in technology and the information overflow that comes with tools such as Twitter..." (8-9).  I could have authored all of those sentences.  I was anticipating a cushion...something about how being a connected educator relieves a little of this busy-ness.  There is no cushion, though; rather, a springboard.  "If we want to prepare our students for the rest of this century and beyond, then we must quit living in the last half century and recognize the value of becoming not only a connected educator, but also a connected, lifelong learner" (11). 

Haha page 12...a treadmill analogy.  Maybe I subconsciously plagiarized. 

"'Some days it feels like I am all alone running on a treadmill and I don't feel like I am going anywhere.'  This person is not alone in feeling this way, she must realize that perhaps it is time to change the equation.  Rather than run alone on the treadmill, this individual could benefit from joining a Sunday morning running group.  If you have ever joined a running group then you know what it feels like to join a group of passionate individuals with similar interests who share a common goal, right?  Simply put it jacks you up!" (12).

I was feeling worried after my paragraph above about my struggle on the treadmill because I didn't see a way out of the madness, but this bit from page 12 allows me to take a deep breath and visualize for myself what being a connected educator could look like.  It doesn't feel stressful when I see it this way...it feels like the relief I've needed all along.  I grew up in a small town and I remember in the mornings some older people would get together at Hardees or the local donut shop for coffee.  I suppose they would talk about the weather, how the crops are doing, what was in the newspaper that morning...That's how I'm starting to see connecting.  Something relaxing...not harried as I saw it before.