Share Your Successes for Better Ed Reform

photo © 2004 dbking | more info (via: Wylio)
Earlier George Couros wrote a great blog post urging educators to celebrate their successes and not just learn from their failures (the first link in the related articles below).

I could not agree more. In fact, several things that George wrote are applicable to a bigger picture than just the classroom. There is the very strong feeling in the USA that our education system is broken. It is not broken (not working perfectly either, lots to work on). There is much written these days about how to fix the problems, but most of what our government (Barak Obama, Arne Duncan, Bill Gates, Oprah Winfrey) thinks is good reform ignores the voices of actual educators (notice how many teachers I included in the last parenthetical list). It is time to listen to the educators.

Only one problem, most educators are not sharing what works often enough or loudly enough. George writes well about the great education that is not being shared:

The way I see it, there are a TON of great things happening in our classrooms right now, that have never failed.  They were awesome from the start.

Those good ideas that you have already implemented in your classroom will only steamroll and help build momentum to effective change for our students.  Share those successes with others to inspire them as well.

Sharing this success may feel like bragging, but if you share it, it will probably work for someone else as well.

Dean Shareski also urges us to share what we do well. Check out his video keynote about the Moral Imperative to Share from the K12 Online Conference. At EdCamps KC & NYC, I led discussions about getting involved. Please see my resources from those events.

If we want to influence the education debate, we have to share.

We have to share what works well in Public Education. We have to share it now. We have to share it loud.

I just said during #edchat:

DO not wait until you KNOW how to make change. Start now. Fail and try again. Do not wait.

Related articles

• Learning From Success Works Too (georgecouros.ca)
• More Than Something to Share(ski): Make a Mark (cogdogblog.com)
• EdCamp NYC, Fliegs' Index* (principalspov.blogspot.com)
• Bill Gates Listens to the Wrong People (blogs.edweek.org)