Live at ISTE
At the end of this month I will stand in front of my ISTE tribe and share a story of selflessness and community. You can join me on Monday for the Ignite (round 2) session to hear the whole story or you can watch it live or recorded.
This is a story of a community and school coming together for more than just to help with small items in the class, but to support each other with customized, highly specialized edtech. Over the past five years I've been in several roles in education leadership and found that the most important resource to sustain any program is right-on-time, customized support for the front line - the teacher.
Every district is different, and every program has various financial allowances to support it, but however comprehensive any program's professional development plan, there are never sufficient resources and individual time interventions to truly support a teacher's learning path. To alleviate the lack of individualized physical resources, the solution is to involve the community in more than just small parental involvement activities, but to invite the parents and businesses to supply warm bodies who can connect on a personal level with the teachers and become their personal guides.
Retirees and newly graduates responded to this call for edtech specialized help in an instant, connecting with teachers and learning the newly adopted tools to be able to troubleshoot, support, model and advise the teachers with fully customized information. Humbled by their immediate response and generosity to share their time, learn new things, and be there for any questions the teachers may have I had to share it with the world. Even more surprising, the effect of the news was more support, from people in my extended network.
Inspired, I created a map to help more educators connect. Help me add more connection and build a more comprehensive list - share with me businesses and non-profits that support edtech adult learning. Let's build a better support system in our tribe!