Building a Culture to Develop a Voice That Matters

This post began as a comment.  After reading Jabiz Raisdana's recent post titled "Building a Culture," I felt I had to say something.  It turns out what I had to say was more than a comment. . .


I too have recently found the same reservations among teachers.  In the past, have we taught teachers/individuals that their voice doesn't matter?  In teaching the COETAIL courses for Buffalo State, I have heard the same questions regarding sharing; yet as educators, what we do each and every day is share although it is rarely for an audience larger than our classroom walls.  Have we created a society in which we feel we don't matter?  Angela Maiers addresses this in her TED Talk titled "You Matter."  We matter.  Not just because we are teachers.  Not just because we are human beings.  We matter because everyone has a voice.  The power that one voice can have is incredible.

Yet, building a culture within our schools where educators and students feel like they matter will not happen overnight.

When teachers come to me with concerns about contributing to the noise, I tell them my motto is that I try to write/share/blog when I know that I have something that may save another human being time.  As a past English teacher, I posted many of my lessons online.  I didn't do this because I believed I was better than other English teachers.  I did this to give others the gift of time.  If I can save another teacher time and provide them with a lesson that allows them to spend more time with their family or explore a new passion, my act of sharing was well worth my time.

A huge part of our job as educators is to help our students find their voice.  It starts off rocky, as do most things when we learn a new skill.  But the more comfortable students and teachers become sharing their voices online, the clearer their voice will become.  I want my students and teachers blogging, and I know that some of it will just add to the "noise", but through the noise, they will develop a sense that they matter and their voice matters.

Although at the end of the day, I often find myself far too busy to write and reflect on what I am doing as an educator.  I know where and how to express my voice; yet, time continually plays a factor.  As a tech integrator, we have truly amazing things we are working on and accomplishing at my school.  Yet I haven't found the time to write about them because I am too busy implementing these changes and building this culture at our school.  I feel a huge obligation to empower my teachers with the tools and skills that I have learned over the past few years.  I want teachers to know that they matter and what they are doing in their classroom matters.  Not just to me, not just to the students in that room, but to the students who are not fortunate enough to be in that room.  That is why we must share.

So now comes the difficult task of practicing what we preach.  Building a culture takes understanding, time and a willingness to share.  What can you share today?