Take a look at this beautiful visualization of educators communicating about #ObserveMe on Twitter.  Click on the image to open a larger version or download a PDF version where you can really zoom in.

The text represents the Twitter names of educators who tweeted about #ObserveMe.  The larger the font size, the more the educator tweeted about it.  Each line represents people who were connected in the tweets.  Groups of the same colors represent groups that were more closely communicating with one another.  It’s worth noting that this information was captured in February 2017, when #ObserveMe was about 6 months old.  It makes me wonder what it would look like now!

I share this as I begin to reflect on how the #ObserveMe movement has grown since it began a little over a year ago.

What is #ObserveMe?

#ObserveMe grew from a collective realization amongst educators that we can always improve and that there is so much we can learn from each other.  It simultaneously makes educators feel more empowered and more vulnerable.  It shows that we have a growth mindset and are willing to make sacrifices if they result in being a better educator for our students.

Inspired by Heather Kohn’s tweet, I wrote a blog post on August 15, 2016 asking educators to open their classrooms and put up a sign with #ObserveMe on it.  Three days later, Frank McGowan shared the first ever #ObserveMe sign.

To my great surprise it really resonated with educators and started growing.  Along the way, I learned many things I wished I knew at the beginning.

What I Wish I Initially Knew About #ObserveMe

Here are some of the things I hadn’t thought about enough when this began:

  • Feedback goals are harder to craft than I realized.  Consider the feedback you’d expect from each of these feedback goals and then read more here.
    • “Student engagement”
    • “Am I keeping students engaged?”
    • “How can I better ensure that students stay engaged?”
  • This is rarely like the movie Field of Dreams where “If you post it, teachers will come.” People have so much going on that you can’t just post your sign up and wait for the teachers to line up outside your door. Here are some suggestions.
  • People don’t have a lot of experience observing one another and sometimes it feels like you have to choose between being honest or offending them. Here’s an alternative.
  • Some teachers work at a school so small, there is no one for them to observe.  That can be overcome.  Here’s one story.
  • Some site administrators may not understand your intentions initially, so if you think this may be a problem before you post your sign, here’s what you can do.
#ObserveMe Facts

I began this with no expectations, but what happened blew my mind.  Here are some #ObserveMe facts:

Conclusion

We have come so far as a community of educators and I’m looking forward to where things can go from here.  Thank you to all the educators who have participated in #ObserveMe so far and all who will be joining the movement in the 2017-2018 school year.  I’d also like to give a big thank you to Teacher2Teacher which has been a huge supporter of #ObserveMe including brainstorming ways to make it more accessible, sharing it across all their social media channels, and providing me with data like the colorful image I initially shared.

If you have something to share about #ObserveMe, I’d love to read about it. Please let me know in the comments below.  Have a great year!

4 Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Post comment