What do you get when teachers from New Jersey, Brooklyn and the Bronx sit at the same table? If you are expecting a punchline, we are sorry to disappoint. This is exactly what we saw last year during Google Teachers’ Lounge – teachers from diverse settings coming together to solve classroom challenges and make new connections.
The Bronx teacher spoke about her challenges in supporting an English Language Learner who struggled to keep up during lessons. Before long, her colleagues from across town jumped in to help and hatched an innovative idea. In order to better support her student, the teacher could dictate her lessons directly into a Google Doc. In this way, the student could see the words come to life on the page, all the while continuing to participate in the lesson. “Amazing things happen when teachers have the opportunity to share ideas like this!” said the New Jersey teacher.
Last year, teachers from across the city gathered for Google Teachers’ Lounge to share how they effectively use technology in the classroom.
A space for teachers:
We created Google Teachers’ Lounge last year, in hopes that teachers would want to come out and collaborate after their busy school days. As it turned out, interest in all six of our events exceeded capacity. We were continuously amazed to see how energized teachers were, even after a long day of teaching. These events made us realize that teachers needed spaces like this to learn, connect, unwind and just have fun. We were also excited to give teachers in our client schools the opportunity to meet each other (and debate who was the best Educate coach). It was always a goal of ours to create a community of educators, and last year proved teachers need these spaces.
This year, we are excited to launch several new initiatives to continue to grow our community of innovative educators so that together we can maximize our impact on student success. This community will be called the Innovative Teaching Co-op and will provide teachers with the support they need to invigorate their instruction with new ideas and best serve their students.
Here’s how you can join the community:
- Join the Innovative Teaching Co-op Facebook Group – Join us on Facebook to discuss challenges and successes, or just talk about your day. Meet other teachers virtually, grow your network, and get invited to exclusive events.
- Subscribe to the Innovative Teaching Newsletter – Once a month, you will receive an email with recent Educate blogs on instructional best practices, tips for leveraging tech in your class, and upcoming professional development opportunities.
- The Innovative Teaching Co-op Monthly Meetup – Every month starting in November, we will be traveling to exciting spaces in NYC. We will honor what worked best in our previous events – a laid-back atmosphere, informal learning, food/drink, and always leaving with a next step for your classroom.
The members of Educate LLC team are rolling up our sleeves to bring this community to you because it is our greatest privilege to work with teachers in our schools, and as former teachers ourselves, we know how challenging this profession can be. Let’s not do it alone. Let’s work together, and be together, so that together we can bring the greatest success to our students.
