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This holiday, I got a very special gift.  My grown up daughter (one of whose shining accomplishments is that she is the SUPER MOM of 4 loverly girls!) — gave me a gift that doubled as a reminder of just how full of grace my life really is.  She wrote an open letter to the family, simply titled “My Life” — and in it shared the blessings she sees all around her.

So instead of my missive here, I thought I’d simply provide a few quotations from my ‘bestest girl friend’ — my sweet daughter —

To wit. . .

‘I know it seems pretty cheesy to count your blessings this time of year, but I don’t care.  I’m going to do it anyway.  I truly feel like I am the person who has it all.  . . It’s simply a state of mind.  I feel like all of the pieces of my life are truly in order. . . . I had been raised to believe that my life was going to be incredible.  . . .and I am living the wonderful life I always know I would have.  I will start with my children.  I think that most people are thankful for their children and see them for the gift that they are.  . . . It’s not just the joy of their smiles — it’s the way they have made me a better person.. . .They give my life reason, ambition, and cause.  It is the light in their eyes that makes me believe that there is a God out there.  That is what makes me believe in miracles.  . . . There is (in my life) no scoreboard — just a true sense of peace, love, and happiness.’

So — thanks to my daughter for reminding me just how special life can be.  And THANKS to all the TEACHERS of the world.  I know you teach because students give you ‘reason, ambition, and cause.’  I would also add that YOU, teachers, give us all HOPE as well.

Peace, love, happiness to us, every one.

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With this in mind, we are always thinking of projects to support interesting ways to encourage teachers, add value to their work, and reward them.  We are pleased to announce a new partnership that is consistent with this objective. WAT is partnering with another company, UBoost, to support mutual goals.

 Uboost is a student rewards and recognition platform that inspires students to perform at their highest levels.  WeAreTeachers will be using this new platform as a way to promote and reward teacher activity and engagement across our community.  UBoost will serve as the rewards platform where WAT members can earn points, called WATTAGE, each time they engage in various activities on the site.  These activities include posting messages to comment boards, participating in forums, recommending products, or creating their own online marketplace. These WATTAGE points can be redeemed as cash within the Konwledge Marketplace, and used towards other purchases.  Our hope is that we will be able to put resources in the hands of our teacher -members that will enable them to redeem these points for tools they can use in their work.

So look to the WAT community toward the end of January to have this program fully up and running!  We want your feedback, so let us know how you like it.

Image by Student Writing Center via Flickr

What motivates great writing?  How can we get students to write MORE so that we can help them write BETTER?  And what tools for writing are most helpful in working with writers of all ages?

We hope these and a multitude of other questions will be answered with a new contest — Co-Sponsored by  The Writing Teacher , We Are Teachers, and LearningExpress.

Now through December 15, 2008, teachers who submit tips,  and garner at least ten votes will win a copy of any book in the LearningExpress English Language Arts series. The top eight finalists will win a full classroom set of any single title in the series and two winners who receive the most votes will each win a Flip Video camera.

We can’t wait to see what writing teachers from around the globe submit!  Of course, all those tips will be shared, as writing teachers come together to help one another do what they do best — Inspire young authors everywhere!

We know one of the most challenging aspects of teaching is isolation.  It’s an interesting phenomenon that a profession that requires lots of personal engagement is also one in which peer-to-peer discussions can be very limited.  I remember teaching high school mathematics years ago.  Even though I was in a large campus, with lots of other teachers, I had little time to really collaborate or engage with my peers.  Between teaching about 150 students daily, ‘hall duty,’ planning period, etc —- little time was left to ask my colleagues for help or advice.

Today, of course, all that has changed.  With the advent of online tools, teachers across the globe are finding ways to reach out to one another, engage in open discussion and collaboration, and seek the advice of peers.  Still, finding other teachers — teachers with similar backgrounds, interest, etc — can be a challenge, even with the help of online tools.

That’s why today we are thrilled to announce Teachers Finding Teachers. This online tool is a part of the WeAreTeachers Facebook application, I Am Teacher. (Posted press release)

New today, when members download “I Am Teacher,” on Facebook they are greeted with the new Teachers-Finding-Teachers tool that begins with a series of five simple questions to identify a teacher’s subject expertise, years teaching, teaching philosophy and location where they want to connect. Each response displays a visual animation that brings pictures of real teachers in the network closer to you based on your similarities.  The animation sequence ends with a results page that allows the member to connect to those teachers by adding them to their contacts, sending a message or adding them as a friend within Facebook. Members who have already downloaded “I Am Teacher” can access this new feature by clicking the “People” tab.

We hope this new tool will make a difference for teachers across the globe, as teachers seek their peers’ advice, collaboration, and friendship.  Let us know how this tool works for you!

A few salient points from this video —

• Despite the explosive growth of cable and internet news, US citizens are, on average, about as aware of major news events as they were 20 years ago. (PEW)

•Even with near constant coverage of the war in Iraq, 63% of 18-24 year olds cannot find Iraq on a map of the Middle East. (Roper public polls)

•We’ve never had so much information about our planet, yet our ability to live well on it continues to decline.    And on and on — (Watch the video).

SO — What’s this mean?  I certainly do not have all the answers, but it’s pretty clear to me that students STILL need TEACHERS.  But what KIND of teachers???   A few thoughts from this peanut gallery:

1.  Teachers should be GUIDES, not FOUNTS, of knowledge.  No teacher should deliver knowledge through lecture only.  But no student is likely to learn entirely from unguided discovery.

2. Curriculum itself must be changed.  We must reflect this information access phenomenon, and teach students how to find relevant, accurate data online, how to interpret it, analyze it, and draw conclusions.  (Any one for Blooms Higher Order Thinking skills here??)

3.  Learning occurs outside the institution.  DUH.  Yet, we still often run schools as if the sum of what kids learn occurs in a classroom.  We need to leverage all the ‘teachers’ a student has in his/her life — parents, siblings, TV, internet, etc.

4.  Expert teachers must be paid like the experts they are.  We rely on great teachers for the very economic scaffolding that supports our knowledge-based economy.  Yet we pay them like ‘public servants.’  As a result, we don’t always attract the best and brightest to this profession, and the very best teachers don’t stay.

Thoughts?

Image by Old Shoe Woman via Flickr

My colleague on this panel was Rafiq Kalam Id-Din ,  Founder of Teaching Firms of America, who is currently exploring the possibility of a school model based on the structure of law firms.  His notion (and my apologies for paraphrasing) is that schools should be run more like partners run a law firm — with teachers empowered to make executive and management decisions.

I was able to chat with the group about the importance of teachers as entreprenuers, and the work of empowering teachers by helping them create IP, and connect with one another, as well as with the content providers in the teaching and learning space.  . . the work of WeAreTeachers.

Of course, the real stars of this dialogue were the teaching practioners — the folks who just spent an entire day today in a classroom, yet still found time to engage with one another this evening — and to be learners as well as teachers.

We talked during this webinar about the huge number of political, social, and economic barriers to teachers’ being developed as leaders.  There was a very robust conversation about the role of teacher unions, and the failures of the current accountability systems in the US education environment.

Toward the end of this call, it occurred to me that there may be some ways to over come these barriers — and I enumerated 3 I’ll share here:

1. Teachers MUST be compensated differently.  No, I don’t mean ‘career ladder.’  What I do mean is that we must find a way to pay our best teachers more money. Until we do, we simply won’t change much, nor will we attract the kind of talent we need to make the shifts we must make. As Ann Richards used to say “Political power is meaningless without economic power.”

2.  We MUST embrace accountability, yet change the current system entirely.  A single student test at the end of the year is archaic and in-effective.  New accountability systems, driven by teacher leaders, and informed by high student expectations and evaluation of REAL student work must replace the current system.

3.  We can no longer reform schools in a vacuum.  We MUST align school reform and teacher leadership with other forces that will surely drive our political and policy agenda in the coming years.  “It’s the economy, stupid” is not just a political slogan; it could also be a driver that delivers real reform.  Couple that with the enormous environmental challenges we are facing, and these pressures may give teachers the latitude they need to substitute ‘teaching to the test’ with ‘teaching to the economic need, and to the environmental challenges.’

Why can’t we take the Al Gore challenge to be energy independent within 10 years, the Tom Friedman challenge to create an entirely new ‘green economy,’ and in the end transform our economy, our environment, AND our schools????

It could happen.

Since we work with 3 groups in our WeAreTeachers community, I thought I’d share some of my thoughts regarding where the economic downturn and social media opportunities intersect for Teachers, Professional Associations, and Companies that do business in the education space.  I’ll follow Jeremiah’s lead and create my comments in the form of lists.

Teachers:
1.    Teachers’ Family Income.  Teachers in traditional education institutions are probably less likely to get ‘laid off’ than their counterparts in other industries.  While school district budgets will be challenged, they tend to lay off teachers as a last resort.  That said, teachers can forget about big salary increases for a while, and the overall family may be more dependent on that income than before, as spouses jobs may go away.
2.    Teachers Need to Augment income.  More teachers are likely to seek additional income to supplement their base salary.  Expect more private tutors, more teacher-created-content for sale, and teachers more available to participate in focus groups, dialogue, or other opportunities to enhance income. We support these opportunities for Teachers at WAT, and are working hard to be sure our tools help put money in teachers’ pockets as quickly as possible.
3.    Student family income.   Students may get their personal budgets cut.  Many families are cutting back on cable tv, music downloads, video game purchasing, etc.  In a tough economy, families focus on the basics, so students may  have more time for study, for learning, and for spending time online.

Associations:
1.    Member acquisition.  With challenged budgets, professional associations must be sure their value proposition is clear and improving for existing members.  Associations will need to reach out to non-traditional methods to get new members.  We think the WAT network, together with the I Am Teacher app in Facebook can help.
2.    Conference/Vendor revenue.  This one is BIG.  Most associations rely on their yearly conference for sustaining revenue.  Fewer teachers may travel to these, and, more important, fewer vendors will exhibit and pay the associated fees.  We think there will be a huge increase in online Un-Conferences,  NetCafes, and other vehicles to engage.  WAT has technology to support this approach.
Companies in Education:

1.    Cost of Support.  A huge cost of sales for most companies is the expense of training end-user teachers in their products.  There will be a big move toward online alternatives.  At WAT we will have an on-line delivery tool and scheduling system available for our Business Affiliates later this fall.  This will represent a huge cost savings for these companies.
2.    Renewals.  Everyone in this business understands it’s not just about the initial sale.  Real success occurs when end-users embrace solutions, and renewal business is secured.  Companies are seeking ways to make those connections, but are not always able to get teachers to come to their company-specific communities.  WAT provides a secure, inexpensive way to provide PROFESSIONAL engagement between teachers and the companies they do business with.
3.    Local connection.  While business is global, much of business is also local. Many of our business affiliates are putting up regional profiles in WAT in order to craft a local engagement with their customers.
4.    Options to Vendor/Booth Displays.  Participation in tradeshows has a big history in this industry.  But  ROI is hard to measure.  Many companies are looking at Un-Conferences online, NetCafes, and other online tools to connect to users.  This is going to be a high-growth arena.

The bottom line is this:  Like other things in life, an economic downturn can be a very scary thing.  OR (AND??) it can be an opportunity for us to re-think how we engage, live, interact, and do business.  And this inevitably brings out creative juices, new solutions, new opportunity.  We hope WeAreTeachers can be part of the fuel to that positive response, and look forward to YOUR good ideas to guide our work!

Today marks the first day we run one of the features that will be a regular appearance on this blog. In the feature, which will run from now until March 2009, we ask an industry professional who is speaking at the Education Industry Investment Forum 2009 five questions about his or her career and industry views. Then, we sit back and enjoy.

We are pleased to announce that some of our first speakers are coming on board.

Sandy Fivecoat, Founder and Ceo of WeAreTeachers, a web-based “knowledge marketplace” for teachers, joins us to explain her company, its vision and what she sees as factors that will shape the industry momentum in the next five years.

EIIF: What does your company do?

WeAreTeachers is the first teacher-driven knowledge marketplace that provides its users and affiliates with web-based tools and a community platform to support teachers of all types as they endeavor to transfer skills and knowledge to others.

WeAreTeachers is an aggregator of stakeholders in the Knowledge Marketplace – providing an online environment for knowledge-oriented companies, associations, and practitioners, and supporting innovation and positive outcomes for each.

EIIF: Where do you imagine your company will be situated in the industry in the next five years?

I think the more relevant question is: ‘Where will the Knowledge Industry’ be in 5 years?

As the global economy becomes dependent on knowledge transfer for survival and growth, we are just at the edge of a big change in what we have traditionally called ‘learning.’

As the growth of online and alternative schooling indicates, traditional Carnegie-unit driven curriculum is only one way to organize schooling. And given failures of traditional schools in meeting the needs of larger and larger segments of the population (especially in high schools), we must explore options.

Second, the students in today’s world are seeking access to information and learning when they need it, versus when a scope and sequence demands it. This is leading to smaller units of learning, versus big lofty curriculum products. Finally, ‘mere mortals’ –even TEACHERS – can now create learning content and are finding ways to distribute or even sell their expertise online.

EIIF: What has been the impact of your particular mission critical work on the industry, either as a whole, or in areas where you have focused?

We are really getting traction with those companies in the knowledge and education space, as they seek to partner with us to begin to realize the promise of social media marketing and direct connection to teachers. It’s been very satisfying and humbling to aggregate so many companies, place them in a rich community of teachers, and help them engage in peer to peer dialogue with these end users.

EIIF: What has been the most powerful influence on your choice to work in education?

As a former teacher and education administrator, I have spent my entire adult career either working directly in education, or working in the private sector helping education systems improve. At this point in my life, I am committed to focusing on TEACHERS – banking on a grass roots, viral, on-line empowerment effort as our best promise for real reform. I am also motivated by the huge number of non-traditional teachers who add value to our culture.

As our population ages, it is clear that lifelong learning in areas like music, yoga, fitness, the arts – are at least as important areas of study as traditional academics.

Finally, I’m motivated by the number and vision of very small entrepreneurial companies who want to make a difference, and need our help to get the good word out!

EIIF: Who in the education industry do you most admire and why do you admire them?

Two answers:

In the education software industry, John Kernan (Lightspan, Jostens, among lots of other things) clearly taught me the most about this industry.

My 8 children and 11 grandchildren, who inspire me daily to keep my focus on education, teachers, and learning!

Image by Erik Charlton via Flickr

This year, writer Dave Eggers was awarded a TED award.  The video of his acceptance speech is TRULY worth watching.

The Once Upon a School (OUAS) initiative is a project that grew out of Dave’s 2008 TED Prize—awarded by the TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) conference—and his subsequent “wish” to collect 1,000 stories of people doing their part to involve themselves in helping public education.

WHAT a wonderful idea!  1000 great ideas of ways adults can step up to give kids AND teachers the attention they deserve and need.  If we all gave just a few hours a month, a great tide of hope could raise the public school ’ship’ and provide the love and help to ensure the future of us all.

At WeAreTeachers, we are constantly trying to put TEACHERS first.  This is a great project sharing idea, and we hope the world watches!

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Enjoy!