In my Twitter stream the other day, I saw this appear:
Following the link led me to Tom Barrett’s post about how he is leaving the classroom to pursue work with Ewan McIntosh, in a consultant capacity. Here’s what Tom had to say about his decision:
For the last 5 years or so this blog and Twitter have been amazing at getting my ideas out to you – my fellow classroom practitioners and educators, but I want to work even more closely with you. And to do it full time without the myriad of pressures we face as teachers diluting my efforts.
I’ve long admired Tom and his capacity to share his practice and inspire others. I truly hope that he can do what he hopes to, but I’m saddened to think yet another classroom loses an inspiring teacher who is making a real difference. It seems to be happening more and more. As people gain traction and make inroads with new ways of delivering a classroom experience, we see them seconded to Government departments, snapped up by private industry, or pursuing their own consultancy careers. It’s a dilemma, and one that needs addressing. We just can’t afford to lose experienced people in classroom settings — people who model for both their students and other teachers what is possible.
Many of us battle the time demon
I understand why people like Tom make a decision like this. For many of us who write blogs, share practice and support others, we find ourselves battling with the demon that is time. This demon requires us to give due and proper attention to our full time jobs, but it robs us of time with our families, our downtime, our sleep, as we work a second job learning and supporting others. Without doubt, many of us are passionate about what we do, and that’s why we do it, but to ignore that the sacrifices we make affect important aspects of our lives is perilous.
That’s why I found the idea of a ‘Teacherpreneur’ so intriguing as I read lead author Barnett Berry’s recent publication, Teaching 2030. This is a very interesting book, co-authored by the TeacherSolutions 2030 team comprised of 12 teachers. In their eyes, teacherpreneurs are . . .
“teacher leaders of proven accomplishment who have a deep knowledge of how to teach, a clear understanding of what strategies must be in play to make schools highly successful, and the skills and commitment to spread their expertise to others – all while keeping at least one foot firmly in the classroom.” (Teaching 2030)
Heather Wolpert-Gawron, one of the teachers quoted in the book, extends on this idea and suggests we will see a teacherpreneur working in the following way:
“I and others who are excited by this concept imagine teacherpreneurs to be a subset of accomplished teachers who act as change agents within their own schools, finding creative solutions and mobilizing the resources to accomplish those solutions. We imagine teacherpreneurs to have the freedom and power to interact in the global education marketplace, developing – and selling – their talents and ideas. We imagine teacherpreneurs will become the go-to experts in our profession and no longer will we be beset by peddlers of canned professional development who troll the nation giving workshops and presentations that are too generic or out of touch with today’s classrooms – intentionally or unintentionally undermining efforts for teachers known to be successful with today’s kids to spread their expertise to one another.” (Teaching 2030 p.141-142)
There are plenty of people fulfilling a role like this right now. I’m one of them. What’s at odds with these descriptions is that currently most of us have two feet set firmly in our classrooms, and we’re desperately trying to find time to do what we see as our commitment to our schools and other educators — to provide modeling of learning experiences that transcend the walls of our classrooms. While the modeling happens in the school day, the transmission of our ideas invariably has to happen in the time we have away from school.
My conference experiences over the last year tell me that our profession is crying out for the ‘teacherprenuer’ to be talking to them. People I speak to tell me they are tired of listening to people who theorise about what is possible, they want to hear from the people who have concrete evidence of what works in classrooms.
This is happening now, as teacher bloggers share their practice and assist their peers to envision what is possible. What’s not happening is financial reward for their efforts. I don’t think we should shy away from discussion about monetary return for effort. Plenty of teachers who have immersed themselves in connected learning and share their practice would have devoted the 10,000 hours needed to become an expert in their field. So much of this professional development has been self-directed, at the expense of nurturing other facets of these teachers’ lives. Financial reward is justifiable, and necessary, if we are to keep these early adopter change agents who fit the teacherpreneur model connected to classrooms and the students who need them.
Tom talks of “the myriad of pressures we face as teachers diluting my efforts” and his desire to do what he loves on a full time basis. My reply on his post expressed my own sense of division:
“Good luck with the move Tom. I totally understand why you feel the need to make this change. I constantly feel like I’m dividing my time between too many fronts, and know exactly where it is that I want my head space to reside in. If someone threw me an opportunity like yours, I’d do the same. You will continue to be as influential as ever.”
I think Tom will continue to be influential, but we shouldn’t be allowing great educators like this to walk away from the classroom. Lack of support and visionary thinking about our roles in schools is pushing people out of the very role that gives them the greatest credibility amongst other educators.
Who pays for teacherpreneurship?
Co-author and NYC middle school teacher Ariel Sacks talks in Teaching 2030 of the need to look at corporate structures as a means “to restructure schools and roles around the critical issue of time, so that the most accomplished teachers can spread their teaching expertise.” (p.163-164) The suggestion is,
“In order to break away from the hierarchical structures that keep us losing great teachers and moving at a snail’s pace, we’ll need to carve out significant time, like Google’s 20%, or even up to 50% for some, to expand teacher’s roles as leaders and innovators who are able to respond better and faster to the needs of students” (p.164)
Who pays for this? Surely not the individual school, or maybe this should be the case? Schools that currently have teacherpreneurs within them benefit at the school level, but also in a marketing sense. It is these schools that become recognized as innovative trailblazers, and often this hinges on the teacherpreneur(s) working within it. What happens when the teacherpreneur burns out, or is offered the private industry role or a Government position? The school loses out, and unless there is another teacherpreneur ready to step up, innovation may flounder.
Perhaps it’s our Federal Governments (or school districts in the US) who need to recognize the importance of the work of teacherpreneurs, and special funding can be provided to support the retention of these teachers. Here in Australia (recognizably a much smaller population base than the United States), our Federal Government, as part of the Digital Education Revolution initiative, has set aside $40 million for teacher professional development. Of the approved projects I’ve seen, none look at supporting teachers with the recognized skill set to keep one foot planted firmly in the classroom, while allowing time to support their colleagues both within their schools and further afield.
Let’s not forget the Philanthropists out there, particularly those who have made their fortunes from technological innovation. The Gates Foundation has recently provided Salman Khan with funding to support the growth of The Khan Academy. Why not support the teaching workforce and grow capacity within it? The modeling and support teacherpreneurs provide often extends beyond borders, and even continents. I’m an Australian, and the readership of my blog extends to countries far and wide. I seek support and guidance from educators worldwide through my Twitter network and give the same back in return. While our education systems may differ, our desire to create positive learning experiences for our students binds us. Educational philanthropists could be making a difference to education worldwide by investing in grassroots educators who are making a difference.
For those of us working like this now, we’ve reached a critical juncture point. We can’t be expected to continue running ourselves ragged trying to do it all, battling the demon that is time. If the status quo remains, expect to see more quality teachers exiting classrooms for other pursuits, and watch our profession continue to struggle with the challenge of adapting to the learning landscape of the age we are living in.
Click to see a four-minute video
about Teaching 2030
Jenny Luca
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Jenny,
As one of the teacher authors of the book I applaud your thinking. You are a teacherpreneur and hitting on the funding is a key point. Most US districts spend more on failed staff development than we can imagine. Redirecting just that funding to the idea of teacherpreneurs could pay dividends for decades. We have done a poor job as teachers in communicating the miriad of talents we bring to the table. It is a critical time to look into that talent pool and change the structure of teaching to allow those talents to help make the changes in education that we need. I teach online and consult full time now but had I been able to restructure my role within the school I taught…I would still be teaching some face to face classes. Losing people like Tom at a time when thier skills are at peak performance is a loss we can not afford for any of our kids.
Thanks for the post. You are a trailblazer.
Shannon Cde Baca
Hello Jenny,
Thank you for this timely post.
I am just such an educator.
I have taught many grades and many subject in many parts of Canada, please see http://www.coolclass.ca and I have had the honour and excitement of pursuing many opportunities and activities outside of my classroom, see http://is.gd/J8iSSa.
I have been invited to travel around the world, including meeting your own Prime Minister Julia Gillard in Melbourne at Australia’s National Conference on bullying last spring, see http://www.ncab.org.au/ConferenceInfo/
In recent years, I have begun educating teachers around the world on the topics of bullying and cyberbullying through my Websites http://www.bullyingcourse.com and http://www.bullying.org, yet in my own backyard there is little interest in, or support for my work.
I am quickly becoming one of the “Teacherpreneurs” that you write about.
I dearly love my students, but I am strongly considering a move such as the one made by Tom Barrett.
Thank you for your post as it has helped me realize that I am not alone in dealing with this
Most sincerely,
Bill Belsey
Jenny, thanks for unpacking this for us. I’ve been following the concept, too. Though I can’t fully get my head around the specifics of how to fund this, I can’t imagine a richer experience than remaining in the classroom and having opportunities to do big picture work as well.
I had never heard the team “teacherpreneur” before stumbling upon this article, yet that’s exactly what I am. I became a teacherpreneur by accident, following publication of a book on peer mediated interventions to support students with social and behavioral challenges. Since then, I receive numerous requests to serve as an educational consultant for school districts, community organization grant funded projects, to present at conferences, for parent groups, and teach some grad classes as well. Also, I’ve also got at least one more book in me waiting to be written. I love sharing with other educators! I so want to remain in my classroom–my day to day work with my students is why I have something to say. But, honestly, there are days I have to admit I’m exhausted trying to juggle both worlds. Thanks for giving a word to what I am, and what I want to continue to be. I only hope that this movement grows and our educational system finds a way to keep people like me in the classroom while allowing the world outside the four walls of my room to benefit from my experience.
Thankyou for taking the time to write such this post. You’ve introduced me to the term and the book. I agree with what you say but have little hope for any change in the support of educators who devote all their own time to sharing their expertise and keeping up with everything and everyone. If you do leave the classroom, it will be the students’ loss but the gain of educators who will appreciate real and relevant PD.
Fantastic post!
I wish I were a teacherpreneur. I’m out of the classroom full time coordinating a grant for my school. I’m glad I am doing this work – we would not be doing as well if we had to retrain an outsider this year, but I miss the classroom.
I wish I could invite my friend, who is struggling with her first year teaching and wants to observe me, back to my classroom. I wish I could explore this semester’s deep questions with students. I wish I could, but I can’t.
Great post!
This is an issue that somehow school divisions need to address. We do need our best teachers in the classroom, but also mentoring other teachers, whether it’s with technology or the shift that’s occurring in education. Job embedded PD shows the highest rate of changing classroom practices.
I love your idea of using Google’s 20% method. It might need to be adapted to work in education, but it’s a starting place.
To be honest, as an educator, I want to learn from those who know what it’s like daily to be in a classroom. And I find many of the teachers I talk to are the same way.
When I was at a small school in a small First Nation community in northern Ontario, the superintendent applied for, and got, funding from the Ministry for a pilot project titled “innovation teacher”. I was released half-time to work on projects within the local schools and to support at-risk students.It was a situation that suited me wonderfully – teaching a class each semester and having the time and flexibility to support, coach and work on projects. What a great post. Thanks for sharing your thinking.
GREAT post Jenny! Like you, I can totally relate to this situation. I was unaware that Tom had moved to a new situation, and while it’s unfortunate for the kids he teaches, it’s hardly surprising and a fabulous opportunity for Tom I’m sure.
I think you’re right about your suggestion of “20% time” for such teachers (heck for all teachers! Imagine what we could do if THAT were to happen) I know teachers in schools – great teachers – who have actually been able to amend their employment contract to allow for up to x days per year to follow their aspirations. I’ve even approached my own school with the same suggestion but so far, it’s not been taken up. The point is, teachers like you and I WILL continue to contribute to the global conversation about teaching, we WILL continue to learn and share, but there are limits to how much we can do that while we still need to turn up at school every day. Tom is a classic example, in that he shares, gives, teaches through his network, gets more and more opportunities to spread his expertise through external workshops, presentations, conferences, etc, but many of these involve taking time away from “the real job”. Unless a school can come to an agreement with people like this, there is a certain inevitablility that they will eventually move on.
Speaking for myself, I would love to do more work with teachers in a range of situations – training, workshopping, speaking, sharing, travelling. These are the same opportinities that many other professions provide. But if I were to take the leap and try to make a living like this, although I’m sure I could do it I would be back to being a guy who talks a lot about education without actually being in a school. And I think we need that daily contact with real students in real classrooms.
I love what I do, and I don’t want to lose that. But I enjoy the opportunities that are opening up in front of me at the moment. I need to find a balance between the two, and that’s tricky. I’ve been fortunate to work in a number of schools that have been fairly amenable to this kind of thing, but I’d far rather we had a real understanding that this need for the duality of being both an educator and an entreprenuer is a reality for some people. Too often it’s run on a very ad-hoc basis where permission to do other things needs to be constantly sought. If schools value these types of teachers then we need to figure out a way to recognise the legitimacy of their existence and build roles that cater for them.
Chris
I consider myself to be a teacherpreneur as well. I teach 2nd grade in Indiana and received an email about a website called Teachers Pay Teachers. When I first received this email, it grabbed my attention because it said that their top seller had made $40,000 . . . for that quarter! What?! That’s a lot of money…more than a lot of teachers make for an entire year of teaching! So, I decided I would check into it. I now have over 100 items on Teachers Pay Teachers and am beginning to do fairly well…not $40,000 yet, but still. . . (oh, and did I say the top seller for this past quarter made $188,000!?) and the cool thing is…she is still teaching! I will have to say that it is very challenging for me to teach all day, plan, straighten up for the next day, create fun stuff for my kids, and create stuff for others to use in their classrooms…but I am loving it! You should see the huge boom of teacher blogs that are out there…I can’t tell you how exciting it is for me to see what others are doing in their schools with their kiddos. It really gets my own creative juices flowing. Not only have teachers been making digital items to sell, they are also freely sharing many of their ideas and plans that they have created. You just have to check them out. It’s great that there is a way for teachers to get ahead…and it helps other teachers along the way!
Hilary Lewis
What a great article. I left my classroom this past year to venture out on my own. I had been doing some consulting for a publishing company on a program I used for 13 years and really believed in. After traveling the country 5 years in the summers training teachers- and LISTENING to them, I felt compelled to take my message on the road full time. Not the publishing company’s message of how great their product is (although, I do that ’cause it is:) ) But I take my message of joyous successful teaching in a test crazed world everywhere I go. The point is that I left my classroom. There was not a way for me to work with teachers while in my classroom- to the degree I feel called.
I miss the daily interaction with kiddos. I guess that’s why I love working in schools as much as I do. I do “teacher only” presentations/staff development, but I also do a lot of “in house” observations, team teaching, coaching… “in house” that’s where the kiddos are so I get my “fix” regularly!
Thanks for sharing this with us. So glad I saw it on FB!
A few years ago, I was granted an extra hour in my day to help facilitate a grant aimed at bottom-up school improvement, and to continue work on our own school improvement plan. Just having that extra hour in my day was so helpful, although I was out of my room way too much for training and conferences. It was a rewarding, yet frustrating year — we really did some great work and made significant positive changes in the school (although my individual classroom suffered from my absence). The next year, and in years following, I didn’t get the extra hour. Now I am feeling incredibly frustrated with the “lack of support and visionary thinking” you mention, and unfortunately will be leaving the profession after this school year. Your post is right on point, and I can only hope that the powers that be are listening (reading)!