With students and teachers starting back to school in two days, I searched for a powerful quotation that I felt might motivate teachers. I was very pleased when I found the following William Arthur Ward’s description of the different qualities of teachers. Next I used Flickr’s Advanced Search to find Creative Commons licensed pictures of students and a teacher that I could “modify, adapt, or build upon”.
Imagine my delight when I found a picture of Kathy Cassidy, a dedicated Grade 1 teacher from Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. Not only does Kathy inspire her primary students, she “invites the world into her classroom” through the use of a classroom blog and other social media.
Teacher Feature #42 – William Arthur Ward – August 2014
As I began creating the above “Teacher Feature” poster, I started to revise my initial thoughts. I must admit that when I first positioned the above quotation beside the picture of Kathy and her student, I was thinking about how we, as teachers, can tell, explain, demonstrate, and inspire … students. However, when I started searching for links to Kathy’s personal and classroom blogs, her Flickr photostream, her personal and classroom Twitter streams and her “Technology in the Classroom” and K12 Online Conference contributions, I realized that not only does Kathy inspire students, she also inspires other teachers.
As the new school year gets underway, perhaps each one of us should think about how we might, not only inspire our students, but how we might also inspire other educators. I believe that by sharing, and connecting with others, the potential to inspire exists.
Have an exciting and fulfilling school year!
Take care & keep smiling 🙂
Larger Image: Brian Metcalfe’s Teacher Feature “photostream”