Step 21: Teacher Networks

I am continually impressed by the number of teacher networks organized in Philadelphia. It is truly inspiring to see how a large community of teachers comes together for funding opportunities, professional development, and even just emotional support. Within the past month, I attended two events, hosted by different groups, but not at all in competition with each other. The first was the PhilaSoup Winter Brunch, where three local teachers presented on projects that they hoped to do with their students, and based on the votes of the attendees, the organizers distributed grant money to enable them! At the event, we also learned about other grant opportunities available to teachers, chatted with teachers from other schools, ate great food, and even got to take home a ream of paper (invaluable to teachers)!

Just this past week I had the cathartic experience of attending a meeting of the Action Research Group. This group, which meets at Penn but is not affiliated with any particular school, serves as a "third space" for teachers to come together to discuss research they are pursuing within their own classrooms. I was drawn to their meeting particularly after a presentation some members did at the Ethnography Forum a few weeks ago that really helped me to understand what teacher research can look like, and how valuable it can be to a classroom (more on this is an upcoming post). The meeting, however, really satisfied not only the researcher side of me, but perhaps even more so the overwhelmed grad student and prospective teacher side because it helped me focus on the "light at the end of the tunnel" so to speak. Many of the current members of the group are TEP graduates from recent years, and seeing them now as teachers, employed, and (despite daily challenges) really loving their jobs, was reinvigorating. They reminded me that each assignment I am doing this term is in service of becoming a better teacher, and that I should focus on doing these things to benefit me, not for the grade etc. This came at an important time, as I turn my attention to my final portfolio assignment. I hope to be able to use this assignment not only to sum up my work from the year for external audiences, but to give myself an opportunity to reflect on all that I have done this year!