Branding in Education

I have completed 2 weeks in my new role and observed many cool things. The biggest observation I have made is that we have AWESOME teachers in our district. Now, our district is considered to be a large, urban district and has a high poverty level. This is a tough environment to teach in but we have AWESOME teachers. Why do we not hear about them? We hear the negative stuff and the stuff that makes the news but we never hear the positive things these teachers are doing for our students. How are we branding ourselves? How do we want to be known or remembered?

When reading about branding, one thing always mentioned is to become an expert. Are we experts in education? How do we show others we are experts? Are we experts on the process of learning/teaching or in specific content areas? So many questions...

Another area in branding seems to be networking. How do we network in education? Twitter has played a huge impact on educators creating a PLN and connecting with others. Conferences bring educators together and provide an area for collaboration and creativity to occur but is that enough?

When I think about branding in education, I always feel like I'm left with more questions than answers. It seems more complex than in business and industry, but is it?

Changes

Well...today is my last day as a classroom teacher. It's so very bittersweet. I LOVE being in the classroom. I love the energy and collaboration that can occur in a classroom. When I transitioned from working at a curriculum company to the classroom, I told myself I would only leave if it was to work in curriculum or IT. Well, I'm working for the IT side of things. As of next week I will be working with the Ed Tech Department. I could not be more excited. It is a cool opportunity to work with others using collaboration, creativity and critical thinking. I love the fact that I will get to work with more than 24 students everyday...I get to work with thousands! Let's get this party started!!!