Jeffrey Austin is the director of the Skyline Writing Center. He currently serves as SSWCA’s Midwest Regional Representative and IWCA’s Secondary Representative.
Over the last forty years, there’s been no shortage of ink spilled discussing the negative effects of isolation on teacher well-being and performance. Dan Lortie, author of the 1975 classic Schoolteacher, described patterns of human distribution in schools that might be mistaken for those in correctional institutions, and researchers like David Flinders (1988) and Seymour Sarason (1982) have been able to show that a teacher’s lack of connectedness often leads to stunted professional growth as there are no outlets to share practical knowledge, share best practices, or garner collegial feedback. This stunting isolation is often amplified for secondary school directors: their administrators and colleagues may not fully understand or value their work, the next SSWC might be hundreds of miles away, and they may not have the resources necessary to attend conferences regularly to do the kinds of in-person networking that can be valuable when building professional learning connections.
In the six years since founding the Skyline Writing Center, I’ve frequently struggled with isolation, which as led to feelings of frustration and burnout. Finding a reliable, consistent professional network has helped me mitigate these feelings and find colleagues who are interested in sharing ideas and providing opportunities for reflection and growth. Twitter, specifically the bi-weekly #wcchat spearheaded by Kyle Boswell (@boskm), has made the task of locating, developing, and maintaining the professional relationships required for improvement much easier. Indeed, part of my connection to SSWCA emanated from my participation in #wcchat.
Rodesiler and Pace (2015) performed a qualitative study in which teachers actively sought out spaces where they can try out ideas, ask questions, and engage in problem solving without feeling like they were being formally evaluated or ranked by their colleagues. The idea that we’re being judged often prevents teachers actively engaging in their own professional development despite the strong desire for self-improvement. One of the most compelling reasons for my continued participation in #wcchat is the ability to have my thinking pushed, challenged, shaped, and reshaped in a judgment-free space. I know that the other directors, tutors, and practitioners I’m dialoging with are not interested in evaluation or competition, but, instead, they are engaged in self-improvement and the overall improvement of the field by supporting and developing others. It’s all about the team, the team, the team, which is refreshingly inclusive. Without the support of the #wcchat community, finding the kind of specialized, ongoing professional development that I need would be virtually impossible.
Even for all of the positives of #wcchat, being leery of putting your ideas, thoughts, and concerns into a public forum on a potentially intimidating medium is completely understandable, especially if sharing vulnerability with colleagues has left you scarred in the past. If this is the case, I’d encourage you to observe a chat or two to get the tone, tenor, and pace of the chat before jumping in. When you’re ready to join in, all it takes is typing your awesome responses with the hashtag #wcchat. The questions are even released early, so you could prewrite your responses, allowing you the freedom to more easily follow along and respond to others’ ideas.
Rogers and Babinski (2002) clearly document the need for practitioners to discuss their experiences with other engaged practitioners in similar contexts to combat isolation. Indeed, the ability to sound ourselves out, to share our triumphs and tribulations, to engage in reflective talk, to learn from and with each other about our important work will connect, edify, strengthen, and expand our SSWC team.