Tips to Celebrate Connected Educator Month Throughout the Year
In honor of Connected Educator Month, Marshall Cavendish Education, a global provider of holistic educational curricula and co-developer of the Singapore Approach, provided six tips for teachers to stay connected all year long.
“Connected Educator Month is a great opportunity for teachers who have limited experience with online resources and digital learning products to immerse themselves in the tools available for their own professional development as well as best practices that can be applied to the classroom,” said Christopher Coyne, a senior education consultant at Marshall Cavendish Education and 20-year veteran teacher and principal. “Once October is over, teachers must incorporate the lessons learned and infrastructure created to maintain their status as a ‘Connected Educator.’”
Last year, the U.S. Department of Education launched October as Connected Educator Month to celebrate online communities of practice and networks in education. The celebration is designed to inspire educators across the country to engage and leverage social learning, collaborative experiences and online professional development opportunities to improve professional excellence and student learning.
Coyne offers the following recommendations to educators to stay connected throughout the entire year:
- “Flip” the classroom at least once a week: Leverage the global educational resources of the Internet and incorporate a flipped classroom component to one lesson a week.
- Participate in online webinars: Webinars are offered by a number of trusted sources and are often available at no cost to participants. Because they are offered online, many can be viewed at times that are convenient for busy teachers. Many also provide professional development and best-practice sharing with educational experts across the United States and around the world.
- Engage with content you like online. Educators can use social media to post articles on industry trends and best practices while remaining connected to the global education conversation. It’s as simple as hitting the “share” button to post on Facebook or commenting on an interesting article found online. Retweets are also a fast and easy way to share interesting content using Twitter.
- Join or host a Twitter chat. A Twitter chat is as easy as writing a hashtag (i.e., #mathhelp) and incorporating it in an ongoing conversation. It not only helps engage new networks, but also keeps a searchable record of the content. It’s also a way to connect with students and parents and quickly respond to
their messages. - Host online office hours or tutoring sessions. With the use of free teleconferencing sites, such as Skype, educators can meet virtually with parents or offer support to students working on assignments at home.
- Create a personal social media policy. Smart and connected educators should create a personal social media policy and post it on their social media profile and “about” pages. The policy should include how the educator will engage with students and parents on the sites and how he or she will handle inappropriate content.
Follow Marshall Cavendish Education U.S. on social media: Facebook.com/mceducation.us and Twitter.com/mceducationus.
Amanda Wurst
Tel: 614.224.8114
Email: awurst@paulwerth.com
About Marshall Cavendish Education
Marshall Cavendish Education is a global provider of holistic education curricula that help teachers become facilitators and students to be critical thinkers. The company’s products reach across the globe with materials in 11 languages being used by educators and students in more than 50 countries, including the United States. Marshall Cavendish Education is revolutionizing learning and teaching with the Singapore Approach, which teaches concepts using concrete, pictorial and abstract learning progression to anchor learning in real world, hands-on experience. For more information, visit mymathbuddies.com.
