cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by Swami Stream
Do you know the child in the picture above? If he were in your classroom, would you do everything to help him? Even if he wasn’t in your classroom, wouldn’t you still do everything to help him?
I learn more every single day that every time you share something with other educators, you are helping not only them, but more importantly, you are helping their students. We all got into the profession to help kids, not kids in a specific class, in a specific school, for one year only.
Individually, the idea that “no one cares what I have to share” is an easy cop out. Not everyone cares because we all have different roles, but there is some teacher out there that can take what you have done, adapt it, modify it, and tailor it to exactly what their kids need.
“It’s not where you take things from, it’s where you take things to.” Jean-Luc Goddard
Organizationally, the idea that you need to hide your best ideas from your “competition” is not doing what is “best for kids”. In your vision statement, you will most likely have something along the lines that states, “Success for all children”, not, “Success for all children that live within our school boundaries”. When your organization shares your best ideas with your own community, the neighbouring community, and the world, you help push education locally and globally. When you share your ideas, that is seen and recognized and makes your school/division a place where people want to be. We always encourage our teachers to share with one another; our organizations need to model that on a large scale.
Every time you share, you help the kids like the kid in the picture above, your kids, and kids everywhere. We became educators to do what is best for (all) kids and I personally try to focus on that every day.
