Two years ago I first viewed Dean Shareski‘s work Sharing: The Moral Imperative, and it made perfect sense to me. My first year of teaching I was the only sixth grade teacher in a very small elementary school. There was no “team.” I had a mentor, but frankly, she didn’t like me very much. I was an energetic young lass, bursting with the thrill of having my own classroom and eager to engage my students in adventurous new learning opportunities! I basically threatened the status quo, and she was unamused. A few years later, our district transitioned from a junior high school to a middle school, and all sixth grade teachers and classes made the move as well. I then had the chance to work with a team of teachers every day. We met and planned together, discussed students, shared ideas, and comraderie quickly formed. I so prefered that environment to one of isolation. Who wouldn’t?
As I tuned into the archive of Dean’s #etmooc webinar, he again made it clear for me why sharing is caring when it comes to the field of education and learning. A few of Dean’s quotes and those he shared resonated with me, this being one of them:
“Sharing, and sharing online specifically, is not in addition to the work of being an educator. It is the work.” –Ewan Mcintosh
Questions Dean raised that we should ask ourselves: What, if any, are your obligations to share beyond your students? What could/should you share? With whom should you share? What are the dangers of sharing? The benefits?
There are teachers with whom I’ve worked who share freely and openly with colleagues. There are others who prefer to exist behind closed doors. How does that benefit their students? Their professional growth? I was appalled last year when one of my teachers told me a story about an experience she had during a curriculum writing session. All of her grade level’s teachers were together writing a new curriculum. A teacher from another building showed the group a resource he had designed for a unit. It was an excellent resource, so, naturally, my teacher asked for a copy so she could use it in her classroom. He refused, saying he spent too much time on it to just give it away. I seriously could not believe an educator would blantantly refuse to help a colleague in that manner.
Clearly, he did not exist in a culture of trust. As Dean stated,
“If we create cultures of trust and sharing, accountability is built in, not contrived or imposed, it just is.”
(There was next a conversation about PLCs and what true collaboration is, and I’m going to save that for a separate post because I have numerous thoughts on that issue.)
So all of this talk about sharing as my obligation causes a lot of questions/thoughts to wrestle in my brain. I don’t know why, but sites like Teachers Pay Teachers rub me the wrong way. I know why they exist – teachers don’t get paid enough, and many have to work side jobs to make ends meet, so selling their creative efforts seems like a logical idea. But there are probably thousands of educators who freely share their work because it’s the right thing to do. And because they do, I benefit. Maybe I am a hypocrite, because I’ve received compensation for presentations I’ve given to groups of educators. Shouldn’t I just volunteer my time and efforts for free in the spirit of sharing? Of course, even though I’m being compensated, I am sharing. Bill Ferriter tackled this issue in his post Should teachers be ashamed when they promote their work?
Here’s what I do know is not okay: taking the work of someone else who shared it freely and selling it for your own profit! I was sad to hear this happened to the talented Krissy Venosdale who creates gorgeous, inspirational images to share with us all. I’ve had entire blog posts copied/pasted elsewhere and published under someone else’s name, as have many other educators I know. Seriously? There are teachers/admin who think that’s an acceptable practice? What does that teach kids?
One of the other great points made in Dean’s presentation was a comment Stephen Downes made in regards to people “oversharing.” Often we are cautioned not to share “too much.” Stephen says
Exactly! I can’t expect all of the information that comes my way to be “prefiltered” for my convenience! I have to use my brain and discern what’s meaningful to me and what isn’t. We need our kids to be able to do the same.
To conclude this somewhat rambling post, I will continue to promote sharing among educators because I do believe it’s in the best interest of us all.
“None of us is as smart as all of us.”
Link to top image in my Flickr gallery