Connected Educator = Connected Students

Did you know October is "Connected Educator" month?  The Department of Education and some educators have gotten together to promote a month about being connected.  I normally am not a person who is big on promoted and labeled events, but this month I have been thinking about connected educators, and I thought, so what?

What I have found is it MATTERS if it impacts the learning of students.  Do you as a connected educator bring something to the learning of students?  If the answer is yes, then it should be renamed Connected Student month, because educators should be using who and what they are connected to for students!

I have had two experiences as a connected educator this month that will impact my students.  Yesterday a teacher I follow on twitter, Beth @mssandersTHS, was tweeting from her classroom hashtag and a #whatif hashtag her students were using to ask questions.  I was really interested to see their ideas and hear what they imagined if things were different in our world.  I knew that my students would be on twitter for Twitter Tuesday and liked the #whatif prompt.  Beth quickly accepting my ask to join her students conversation and I couldn't wait to share the news with my students.  Beth and her students live in Birmingham, Alabama and are also high schoolers.  Imagine what that felt like for my fourth graders?  Not only tweeting with people in another state, but high schoolers?  Amazing.   To start, I took some of the tweets from the THS students and put them in a Storify for my students to read easily and were also topics and ideas they could relate and connect to, then we started our Today's Meet back channel.  Some of the ideas, #whatif, and thoughts were intriguing, interesting, and thought provoking.

Here are some of my personal favorites:

"What if people was 70 when they was a baby and when they look like baby they was 70"

"What if Martin Luther King jr. Never said nothing about our freedom rights"

"What if there were no rules"

"What if there was no Internet"

"What if it was just peaceful"


#Whatif I wasn't a "connected educator?"  I probably wouldn't have used this prompt, wouldn't have found some high schoolers willing to engage with my kids and these what ifs may have never happened.  My students knowing that high schoolers were interested to hear what they had to say and were responding was powerful.  Student voice needs an ear, beyond the ears in the physical room when possible.
Another exciting thing is happening due to Connected Educator month as well.  I tweeted a picture of Jennie Magiera teaching a math lesson in my room, and used the term Guest Teacher Wednesday.  Jennie just happened to be stopping in and I knew she would want to teach a bit.  But this prompted some tweeting with others, including Jason Markey, a principal at a nearby high school.   He replied back how cool it was to have a guest teacher, and I invited him to guest teach too.  And he wants too!  And he wants to bring some high schoolers who are interested in teaching as a career.  So how does this benefit my students?  In a few weeks, they will have some high schoolers come in, learn with them, teaching them some new things, have conversations and make their own CONNECTIONS.  
So that leaves me with my #whatif....What if all connected educators used their connections to impact students' learning?