Infographic: Unhappy in the Classroom
Just 44 percent of American teachers say they're satisfied with their jobs, the lowest number in two decades and an 18-point drop since 2008.
03.30.12
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The EdCamp model borrows from the "unconference" structure of BarCamp, participant-driven meetups of tech hackers that began happening around the world in the mid-2000s. In 2010, a group of Philadelphia teachers who had attended a BarCamp decided to create a similar space where their peers could hack the theory and practice of K-12 education.
Terrell and Dabbs—who founded two of the most popular education conversations on Twitter, #edchat and #ntchat (new teacher chat)—have long been advocates of the power of social media to connect educators and share best practices. They write posts on their websites about each goal and encourage participants to start their own blogs and do the same. Participants can also discuss the challenge on Twitter using the hashtag #30Goals, upload video reflections about each goal to YouTube, and post updates to the challenge's Facebook page. Although teachers are invited to join the challenge at any point, the formal kickoff will happen in early February.
As a classroom teacher I remember going across the hall to ask Mr. Sally for tips on getting kids to learn their times tables. His ideas were fine, but what if I'd been able to crowdsource my question to the global community of educators on Twitter? A teacher who engages with other educators on Twitter essentially has a 24/7 open door policy. Type the hashtag #edchat in the search box, and you'll see a real-time stream of discussion about an unlimited number of educational topics. It's pretty clear teachers are collaborating with each other by sharing solutions to their challenges—links to articles, resources and practical ideas: