PROFESSIONALIZING OUR PROFESSION!

In 2018, I had the privilege of attending the last Student Achievement Partners National Core Advocates Convening, an event filled with fantastic sessions. Recently, I stumbled upon notes from a session led by Melody Arabo. I had forgotten how valuable her insights were for educators. As teachers, we often downplay our accomplishments, a habit I've outgrown but revisiting these notes proved beneficial.

Melody highlighted ten points, and here are three of them with my personal takeaways.

1. BE COMFORTABLE WITH YOUR ACCOMPLISHMENTS:

- Personal Takeaway: Educators tend to be modest about their exceptional work in the classroom. We do it for the children, making us hesitant to discuss our achievements. It's time to change this; in other professions, people proudly highlight their accomplishments without reservation.

2. IDENTIFY YOUR EXPERTISE AND MAKE YOURSELF AN AUTHORITY IN THAT SPACE (Let go of the saying, "I'm just a teacher."):

- Personal Takeaway: We are not just teachers; we are experts witnessing firsthand how different things work in the classroom. While we may not know everything, we shouldn't undermine our knowledge. We understand a lot about education, teaching, and our students. It's crucial to feel comfortable establishing ourselves as authorities in our classrooms.

3. DEFINE YOUR PLATFORM THROUGH YOUR PASSION (Think about what your platform is built on):

- Personal Takeaway: Education has numerous subareas, perspectives, experiences, and areas of expertise. While being passionate about education overall is commendable, recognizing specific passions within education is essential. I've identified my passion and actively advocate for it, making it my platform even though I find many aspects of education intriguing.

Melody also suggested various actions to build your professional presence:

- Design professional business cards to represent who you are and who you want to be.

- Create a professional website to showcase your leadership.

- Start a blog to share your voice.

- Develop a presence on social media.

- Engage with education organizations through webinars, Twitter talks, etc.

- Advocate for roles that don't yet exist. Develop your dream role and pitch it.

These brief tips are powerful. For more details, you can visit Melody's website. Again, I ran across my notes from attending this years ago. Considering the fact that I can barely remember what I did yesterday, I don't think it's best that I try to quote her any further than what I had written at the time.