Tweetchers: What risk-taking looks like
Editor’s Note: Greg Turchetta is the executive director of communications & community engagement at Collier County Public Schools in Naples, Florida. This feature originally appeared in the August 2017 issue of the 1635 newsletter. SUBSCRIBE TO RECEIVE IT MONTHLY.
ˈriskˌtākiNG/
adjective
1.
willing to take risky action in the hope of a desired result.
By this definition, I admit encouraging 800 teachers to use social media in their classrooms is risk taking. My desired result was for our #tweetchers to use social media to open their classroom windows and document the innovative teaching and exclusive learning opportunities each and every day. The desired results were to demonstrate our success and give parents specific content for better dinner table conversations. We certainly mitigated that risk with extensive training, procedures, and policies.
But I would ask you, what is riskier? My #tweetcher program or not telling your own story classroom by classroom in an unprecedented era of school choice and budget cuts?
We are a district of 3,200 teachers and 47,000 students. Without any devices or stipends provided, we had 25% of our teachers join the purely voluntary #tweetcher effort last year. For the last three weeks, I have been making daily campaign visits at ALL in-service teacher trainings to recruit more.
This is where you find out what risk taking looks like. Stand in front of a group of veteran teachers and ask them to do one more thing each day and tell them it that involves technology. You better have thick skin. One hint…the “why it is important to do this” is crucial to being heard.
Last week I spent an entire morning speed dating with our brand new teachers- hundreds of them. 30 minutes with each of the six groups to explain the tweetcher idea, to get these brand new employees to take a risk and see the huge reward. I am thrilled to see these digital natives jumping right on board. No, they are not all right out of college. They are just new to us and from across the age and experience spectrums.
Four hours later I was debating with a 29-year teacher and a PTO board member on the merits of social media in a classroom. They could not see it. Many people cannot. That includes countless school PR peers I spoke to during my session at the NSPRA national conference. I get it. The fear is real and really powerful.
But then you meet a woman like Saraya! I had just finished talking to a full staff of middle school teachers when Saraya walked up to me. She said she was ready to jump in as a tweetcher! Saraya is a 40-year veteran teacher. She even showed her retirement badge. She had just come back to teach for the second time. I was blown away by this! I took the tweetcher bracelet off my wrist and gave it to her. I told her I would be back to train her. This made my week. To date, I have spoken in front of more than one hundred different groups of teachers and school leaders.
That is what it takes to bring organizational change from a district level. I have had many frustrating moments along the way with people who could not see the vision, did not want the added work, or just do not think technology belongs in the classroom.
I always agree to meet people where they are. It takes months of seeing a successful #tweetcher work before a hold-out teacher will come along with us. If they don’t, that is ok too.
I just got an email from Saraya. She is ready for me to come train her. If a sixty-something teacher can see the value of us telling our own story classroom by classroom, why can’t you?
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