Sharing - An Integral Part of Professional Learning

I was fortunate to attend two learning conferences this school year, the first being the 21st Century Learning Conference (21CLHK) and the second being the annual ACAMIS conference. Both events offered a variety of sessions that were led by teachers and administrators. What impressed me though was the amount of sharing that took place in these sessions.

For example, I attended a session titled “Fish Bowl PD: Professional Development That Works”. The session was led by Ben, Steve & Art, three guys passionate about technology and professional learning. During their presentation they shared a PD model that they had developed over a period of years. It covered topics such as rationale, resources, evaluation and marketing. It was very comprehensive and the best part was that they shared every aspect of their model; resources, templates, forms… everything! I was blown away by the fact that I had a wealth of information that I could take back to my school and incorporate into our professional learning model.

My experience impressed upon me the importance of sharing and how sharing can have a profound impact on the teaching profession. The notion of sharing is getting a lot of traction these days as noted in this video by Dean Shareski:

In this video Dean discusses the moral imperative of sharing and how we all have the ability to share. The key point though is that sharing has to be seen as something “necessary to do” rather than something “nice to do”. This recent blog post further supports the notion of sharing by teachers. In it the author states “(i)t is now an expectation…no, a responsibility that we all have to write, to blog, to post, to tweet, and to share our thoughts, our expertise, our successes and failures, and our collective knowledge about what is working for students and for schools”.

I consider myself a “sharer” and I’ve subscribed to the “pay it forward” mentality. Early in my career I benefited from teachers who shared their ideas, resources and experiences; without their help I don’t think I would have survived. Even now I depend on others for inspiration and ideas; these help me to grow and develop. When I present at conferences or in-house, I always share my resources. How about you? Do you share with others? Are you connected to teachers who readily share with others? I certainly hope so!

You Don't Have to be an Expert

I work with amazing teachers every day. They do incredible things in their classes that really make an impact on their students learning. When I see these things I often end up saying to myself  “I wish I had known about that” or “I really want to try that”.

Imagine if everyone shared their best tools, tips & tricks etc. with their peers?  I think you would end up with one amazing school. “Sharing” does occur in small pockets but teachers, in general, do not share with large groups of people. Why? I can think of two reasons. The first is time - teaching is an incredibly busy profession and teachers often have every minute of the day filled. The second is mindset. Many teachers feel that they need to be an “expert” on a certain topic before they would even consider sharing their knowledge with others.

The reality is that most of us don’t have the time and/or desire to become an expert. When I attend a conference session or PD activity, I want the presenter to be “knowledgeable” about their specific topic - nothing more. If I get one or two take-aways (tips, ideas, resources etc.) then I’m happy. I don’t mind if the presenter doesn’t know everything either, just so long as they are honest and upfront about it.

When I speak to groups of teachers, I begin my presentations by saying that they should learn at least one or two new things today and that I will do my best to answer everyone's questions. If I can’t, I say that I will search for an answer and get back to the person at a later date. Often someone else in the room can provide an answer or at least some insight into a possible solution. I have found that people attending my sessions appreciate my honesty when I can’t provide an answer.

After presentations people often ask how they can become a “presenter” and what qualifications they need to have. My response is simple: you don’t need any special qualifications - you just need to be knowledgeable about a topic. If you think other teachers could benefit from what you know, you are definitely qualified to share your knowledge with others. If you find the prospect of “sharing” daunting, I suggest the you start by sharing with a small group of your peers. Good luck!