Nobody Knows Teaching Like Teachers July 13, 2016 Wendy Sauer Senior Program Officer Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Your personal learning network

The connected educator

Teacher2Teacher is a community grounded in teacher needs

Nobody knows teaching like teachers

Listening 30,000 teachers in 10 discrete quantitative studies Over 10 focus groups and qualitative research including 1:1 interviews Three deep studies focused on content, PD and data tools/supports about what is working, what’s not and what teachers need Study over 3 months to capture the “online” conversation among teachers that looked at over 24K tweets, 12K blogs and 16K Edchats

Teachers articulate what they need 1 Reduce isolation Teachers have a deep desire to collaborate with peers. Reduce the hunt Overwhelming landscape makes it hard to find the right materials. Lack of time for teachers amplifies this issue. 2 3 Elevate and celebrate the profession Teachers want and deserve professional respect. 4 Recognize teachers as leaders Teachers want new roles that allow them to grow professionally while staying in the classroom. Trust the teachers When it comes to practice, teachers trust each other more than anyone else, but they feel disempowered. 5

There is a silver bullet in education. It’s the teachers. Molly Robbins, High School English Teacher, Colorado The sustainability of my career is dependent on the community of educators and networks that I am a part of. Crystal Morey, Teaching Channel Laureate

Our hypothesis

Teacher leader and network initiatives Build and Strengthen Educator Networks Engage Audience Via Multiple Channels Support Authentic Face-to-Face Opportunities Provide and Support Leadership Opportunities

Working with national partners: learn, connect, lead

Working in states with local partners

What we’re learning from partnerships Teachers connected to practice networks are engaged in the complex process of interpreting new state standards into practices. Networks are helping them adapt their lessons, collaborate with their peers, and find useful resources. Networks that develop teacher leaders and create authentic opportunities for these leaders to support their peers are seeing practice improvements and student outcome growth. Teachers resonate with network experiences that allow them to learn from and with their peers. Transformative teacher engagement with practice networks requires a growth mindset – a desire to continuously refine one’s teaching.

Teacher2Teacher: a network that flips the model > community first Our Theory of Change to Ultimately Drive Student Outcomes Strong, Dynamic Connections digital and face-face Teachers Harmonized Critical Mass Strong curation Teacher first mindset Empirical proof Supply Builds foundation of trust Reinforces intrinsic motivations Models innovation + risk taking Provides curated, relevant resources informed, motivated, engaged, networked Demand Existing Scale Platforms

Content focused on trust building, motivation, modeling, and practice

What we’re from learning from Teacher2Teacher Vibrant online communities can elevate a single teacher leader. Twitter can allow teachers to problem solve collaboratively in real time. 3. Face-to-face experiences (like this one) have the power to equip teachers to make real change in their classrooms and schools. 4. Thoughtful digital engagement opportunities can create a common bond. 2015 2016 # of tweets using #whyiteach hashtag during Teacher Appreciation Week 1,415 26,500

Your turn … Ask five teachers at this conference what practice networks have made the biggest impact on their instruction. Join the online conversations that teachers in these networks are having. Think about National Board certification – or recertification. Attend an Edcamp (events in 21 states between now and end of August), the California Better Together Summit (June 29), or a regional ECET2 conference. Join conversations on Twitter. Start by sharing a lightbulb moment from this conference at #LightbulbMoment (and visit the T2T booth to share with others here). Join the Teacher2Teacher Facebook community. Learn from others and share what’s made you the teacher you are. Bring #whyiteach to your school. Embrace opportunities to be an instructional leader beyond your classroom and school. You’ve got a lot to share. Get to it!

Cheering you on wendy.sauer@gatesfoundation.org @WendyHSauer High school social studies teacher Library of Congress fellow Social studies department chair James Madison Memorial Foundation fellow New teacher mentor District social studies lead wendy.sauer@gatesfoundation.org @WendyHSauer