New Teacher Collaborative
The New Teacher Collaborative is "rolling". Big time. Attached to this and accessible once you have registered and click on the New Teacher Collaborative icon (on the left), NTN has begun a reflective series about the school year and "new" teacher priorities, challenges and insights: what to expect, what to do, what to focus on.
As the school year winds up and then slowly plays itself out, we will be posting an "inside look" at the job of teaching--lesson ideas, frustrations, master strategies for survival. All of it available free to "new" teachers who register a name and an email address.
We say "inside" look because NTN believes that good teaching is a human endeavor--one that requires extensive facility with and awareness of what is going on inside the human being who is learning to teach. Reflection, discussion, inquiry, creativity, these are the internal processes that make teachers more effective, and over time, masterful. Yet, too often, these are the very aspects of teaching that go unexplored, uncharted and ignored.
In the rush of test scores, grades, units and lesson plans, the real work of teaching is left on the cutting room floor: What goes on inside the person that is teaching.
But, not here. The whole purpose of NTN is about believing in connection, sharing and collaborating around these internal aspects of teaching; that, like learning itself, combining inward exploration with focused dialogue and collaboration is how we achieve excellence and reach full human potential.
Plus, as a teacher myself, having acquired twenty years of knowledge and experience in working with kids--there is a need to put this stuff to some utility other than for the kids in my classroom. The heart never stops growing.
One other thing:
Got a group of teachers? A particular subject discipline, like science instruction? A unique location, like a school or a district? If so, you can create your own organic group and conduct dialogues, have private email connections, FAQs, polls, the works. All you need to do is to click on New Group in the header above. NTN can meet all of your needs in terms of networking a group. It truly is remarkable.
New Teacher Network is about using the extensive open-source tools of the Web to interact, connect, collaborate and ultimately, learn. We are all learners; we are all teachers. As such, NTN views this this not only as a network but as an entire reform strategy for public education. This site is as real, as useful and as effective as each of us makes it. Dig in!
Other veteran teachers--you are welcome to participate, post, blog, create content of all kinds around the very same issues and topics. This is truly about connection and collaboration, so where you see opportunities--dive in and share. We are all "new" teachers when we learn, dialogue and collaborate. It's about the process. NTN is looking for capable partners to blog, maintain the site, even teach online courses, so get in on the ground floor.
In addition, NTN will be turning the whole of this collaborative series into a three credit continuing education graduate level course so that new teachers can gain salary schedule leverage while participating in a highly practical, hands-on, real world seminar about teaching. Think about it this way: new teachers get the kind of insights, dialogue and language about teaching that will allow them to grow from the inside out. At the same time, they get academic recognition and graduate level credits so they can grow from the outside in. That's a win-win.
Please join the discussion--all you have to do is to register here at the site--and add your thoughts, ideas, concerns or valuable content with the ethos of helping other teachers become the best that they can be, inside and outside.