Keeping Learning Alive was an awesome experience for me. This weekend I attended a session hosted by Dr. Parker and Dr. Clark. The session was all about Building Your Teacher Brand. This session opened my eyes to the fact that as teachers we have our own brand and how we market it is completely up to us.
In the session, Clarker shared that no teachers are alike and we should identify what makes us different than other teachers. They also shared that their are two views when it comes to your classroom and how you are perceived as a teacher. Those views are an "Inside Out" view and an "Outside In" view. The inside out view is how you view your classroom and the outside in view is how other people (teachers, parents, students, administrators) view your classroom. It is ideal for these two views to be very similar but that is not always the case. Creating and maintaining a teacher brand is a good way to help shape the outside view of you as a teacher and your classroom.
"If you don't claim your brand and market it, others will market their own brand about you." To me, this was a very powerful quote and fueled me to research more about what a teacher brand looks like and steps that I can take now as a future teacher to create a brand for myself before I step foot in the door.
I found an article on EdSurge titled "How to Build Your Teacher Brand." I actually discovered that creating your own teacher brand is a way to reflect on your practice and to work hard to constantly improve your practices (NCTCS 5). EdSurge suggested starting with a blog or vlog and share what you are learning or doing in your classroom. Guys, we are already creating our brand (Thanks Dr. Parker!). We blog each week, sharing information that we have been learning and have researched in order to make us better future teachers. We create a sort or vlog when we find out Top Tweets of the Week and share how they impacted us. We also have a somewhat collaborative "blog" within the Google Community where we share and challenge each other to discover what differentiation is.
This is awesome stuff and I am so excited to continue branding and marketing myself this semester and on into my teaching career! My creating my brand now and continually reflecting on what I am doing right and what I need to reevaluate and modify, I am ensuring that my future students have the best learning environment that I can provide them and I am making myself known in the light that I want to be seen in, not in the light of others.
What will your #teacherbrand look like? What sets you apart from me and others as a future educator?
https://www.edsurge.com/news/2015-12-23-how-to-build-your-teacher-brand
Leslea,
ReplyDeleteI also really enjoyed the Keeping Learning Alive conference this weekend. I did not have the opportunity to attend the teacher brand breakout session, but I was able to familiarize myself with this idea when reading your blog. I like how this semester, we are already practicing branding our teaching style and individuality. Great blog!!
Leslea, Glad you enjoyed #kla2016! You need to be a presenter next year!
ReplyDeleteBeing a presenter is a great way to build your #teacherbrand.
Keep up the great work on your blog!
JP
Leslea, great post! I loved the conference too! I learned so much! I went to Clarkers breakout session to0 and like you, it impacted me as well, and that is what I wrote my blog on. Having a positive teacher brand is so important and I am excited to see how all our teacher brands turn out!
ReplyDeleteLeslea this is a great post!
ReplyDeleteI believe that teachers making their own brand is really important. I like the points you made about the views of your classroom being different in a teachers, parents, students, and administers eyes. As undergrad elementary majors I feel we are starting to make our brand now! Making your own brand influences what kind of teacher you are, and I feel this is something important that all teachers should take into consideration.