By Dr. Brandon Beck
Twitter Chats were something that I knew very little about before the pandemic. If I am being honest, I never participated in one because I had no idea they existed. As I started to see posts with “Q1…A1…” followed by various hashtags I figured it out. Once I learned about the twitter chats, I realized that I had literally been living under a rock, because in front of my face this entire time was an opportunity to learn from experienced educators instantly, and most importantly, IT IS FOR FREE!
As a Code Breaker Author, I recently hosted a #TwitterChat for Code Breaker Inc.
My book, “Unlocking Unlimited Potential: Understanding the Knowledge and Infinite Power Within to Guide Any Student Toward Success” was picked up by Brian Aspinall and the CodeBreaker publishing company. It is planned to be released in Fall 2020. Needless, to say, but I am ecstatic to share my book with you all.
If you don’t know who I am, my name is Dr. Brandon Beck. I am currently a National Board Certified 5th grade monolingual, dual language teacher in Westchester County, NY. I have been a teacher for the past 20 years, college professor, and am a professional soccer coach. My newest title of “Author” being added to my biography has directly been a result of embracing the moment during this pandemic.
I selected 4 questions that came from the content in the beginning of my book. Direct Quotes were also provided. Each question provided much insight from educators ranging from New Jersey to New York to Washington DC to Ontario to Indiana to Georgia to Australia and beyond.
After reviewing the comments, I ran them through a bit of a Qualitative coding process to help me reflect on this learning experience. I always utilize this process when reviewing data and feedback. I came up with the following takeaways for each question.
A1: When people were asked to describe their inspiration for becoming an educator, they talked about important relationships, teachers that let them use creativity and innovation, and educators with high expectations for them. Oddly enough, there was a majority who described a science teacher as inspirational. That says a lot about this subject and its capacity for developing innovative students.
A2: When educators were asked to define their purpose in one statement, they used such profound statements. I hope that the educators who wrote down their “purpose statement” will post them somewhere in their school, on their desk, or above their classroom/office door. Wherever you put it, make sure that it is somewhere you can see every single day, because if you are rooted in your purpose then success will follow. I discuss a process for developing and fine tuning your “purpose statement” in my book as well.
Below are a few of the purpose statements that stood out from the chat.
“Leadership is not about showing how successful you are, it is about showing how successful the people you serve are.”
“Every child deserves a champion.”
“Inspire and guide people to have faith in themselves and believe in their inner genius.”
“Foster compassionate life long learners who have the knowledge and skills needed to face the challenges of life.”
“Fine tune the quality of my life and lives of others through passion, commitment, and hard work while having fun.”
A3: This word cloud represents what educators described as “silver linings” discovered during the pandemic. Ultimately, there was a strong sense of positivity describing new opportunities that resulted due to this unfortunate time in our history. COVID-19 has definitely challenged schools to grow and adapt, and accepting what we can control and cannot control allows us to focus on the present and prepare positively for the future.
A4: One thing that I discuss often in my book is developing goals. It is important for educators and students to have goals so that all can experience success. Living a life without goals is like driving your car on a dark road in the middle of the night without your headlights on.
There was cohesion among all responses supporting a focus on mental health and social emotional learning. After so much time away from our students, there is going to be a lot of dialogue and instruction designed around the importance of building relationships. Relationships are the key to developing more opportunities to learn from students about their well being and lives, so we can help them have a positive experience in school.
Participating in a TwitterChat is a fast paced and exciting opportunity to be able to connect with innovative educators from across the world. As a #CodeBreaker author, I always enjoy the opportunity to hear different perspectives and constantly look for ways to learn from others.
The more that you are willing to learn, the more you will grow. The more that you grow, the happier you will be. The happier that you will be, the more excited your students will be to learn. It’s really a simple cycle, but it starts with you.
So, don’t forget to get out there and continue learning. Join CodeBreaker Twitter Chats Tuesday nights at 8pm.
#UnlockingUnlimitedPotential