One of the greatest joys in my career has been the opportunity to learn from my colleagues. Teaching is collaborative by heart, and I have relied upon to learn and grow as a teacher.

 

Domain 4d of the Danielson Framework for Teaching calls upon teachers to participate in a professional community. I define my professional community as a network of colleagues, peers, and other professionals in that I rely upon for support in developing pedagogical practices, as well as sharing teaching resources. Beyond that, I engage with my professional community to foster closer relationships so that I can grow to be a better teacher and person. On a local level, teachers can benefit from a professional community within one’s school district. I have benefited from my local professional community in several ways. During both of my internship placements, I have been able to seek support from my mentor teacher, administrators, and academic facilitators. Moreover, I have been able to rely upon my professors’ and my peers for guidance, particularly in terms of academic and emotional support. At a national level, teachers can benefit from a professional community to learn about professional organizations such as NCTE, resources like books (Penny Kittle and Kelly Gallagher are among my favorites) and academic journals/magazines. Teachers can turn to these resources for instructional support and pedagogical theory. Participating in a professional community is essential for educators. In growing lifelong learners in our communities, we too must be engaged in the continual process of learning. Teaching is about adapting and growing over time, and utilizing the resources of your network spurs professional growth.

 

Growing a national professional community can be difficult, especially for beginning teachers. I have had the opportunity to expand my network by participating in Twitter chats for educators. A Twitter chat is typically hosted by a professional organization or a group of educators. These facilitators pick a hashtag, such as #BMoreEdChat or #NCTEChat and designate a specific time to discuss a designated topic. Chat facilitators will pose questions, starting with “Q1”, and users answer the question by responding with “A1” (and so forth) as well as the chat’s hashtag. Questions raised by moderators are guided by a predetermined topic, and these topics can range from theory to specific instructional practices. When users follow the hashtag, they are able to watch and respond to new tweets that are posted. Users engage with the chat to not only answer questions posed, but many people respond to others ideas, which can create a web of multiple conversations taking place within the central discussion.

 

Twitter chats are a viable form of professional development because educators from around the world are able to engage in meaningful conversations. These conversations are typically focused upon students’ needs and rely heavily upon users’ personal experiences within the classroom. The shared resources and instructional strategies can be adapted based upon the needs of your classroom and community. As a beginning teacher, I have hesitated to share my voice, but this form of professional development was where I felt as though my voice was heard and my opinions were valued. I learned from educators across the world, outside of a school setting. I engaged with impassioned, enthusiastic educators who motivated me to try new things. Twitter chats are another avenue of professional development and they represent a space that is accessible for all.

 

Alongside my English methods class, I helped plan and lead a Twitter chat on the topic of student advocacy. We worked under the hashtag #BeMoreEdChat, which was started by Justin Holbrook, a 4th grade teacher and Baltimore City Schools’ Teacher of the Year. The lack of a Twitter chat for Baltimore prompted Justin to fill the need, and since then, he has connected with educators across the country. It was through this chat that he met our methods professor, and he graciously allowed us to organize the chat for the evening.

 

Our professor first asked us for potential topics, and I submitted the idea of supporting student advocacy. Specifically, I was interested in learning more about how to hold space for student voice within the classroom, and helping foster students to be advocates for themselves and their communities. After agreeing upon this topic, we crafted questions we could ask in our chat. In our previous experience in participating in an #NCTEChat, we found that questions were scaffolding to transition from a broad focus to a more narrow focus. Typically, a chat begins with questions that seek to establish a definition of a topic, after which they become more specific as the chat goes on. Most chats have six questions and span for an hour. After brainstorming and coming up with potential questions in groups, we decided upon six of them as a class:

1. How do you define student advocacy?

2. In what ways have you seen students advocate for themselves, their school, and/or their communities?

3. How can teachers support student voice and advocacy without pushing their own agenda?

4. Advocacy often has political connotations, especially in the wake of current social movements (e.g., #MarchForOurLives, #BlackLivesMatter). How do you navigate discussions in which students have conflicting viewpoints on complex sociopolitical issues?

5. What are strategies and/or resources you’ve implemented (or can envision yourself implementing) in your curriculum to support student advocacy?

6. After tonight’s discussion, what will you do to support student advocacy? How will you continue to hold space for their voices?

 

Twitter chats can often be dizzying; a flurry of tweets every few seconds is overwhelming, but such an influx of information can also be invaluable. My biggest understanding developed through the #BeMoreEdChat was what my role is as an educator in terms of student advocacy. I learned about ways I can hold space for students, and one particular instructional activity I learned about and I am excited to try was recommended to me by another user. Patrick Harris is an educator in Washington D.C., and in order to support student voice and advocacy in his classroom he implemented community meetings in his classroom. Students are elected to specific roles in the classroom and are allowed to call community meetings when they feel as though an issue needs to be addressed in the classroom. He has provided the students with rules and a template for calling and holding community meetings. Patrick explained that this activity works well in his classroom, and that students feel as though they have a voice. I would also like to implement something similar in my own classroom. I feel like many discussions that occur in class are intended to gauge student understanding, and I would like for students to be able to develop their voices. I want students to be able to engage with one another in a civilized, respectful manner, and I believe providing frequent opportunities for students to practice this would be helpful. My role as an advocate for my students is to provide frequent opportunities for students to utilize their voice, and I believe Patrick’s activity of community meetings could provide those opportunities for my students to express their wants and needs.