Friday, December 14, 2018

Building a Brand




When I started as TOSA 5 months ago, I had no idea what I would be doing.  It was so ambiguous and open ended that it was simultaneously exciting and scary.  I'm proud to say that it's really grown organically and I'm creating something, with my partner TOSA Stephanie Rothstein and other colleagues, that I think is really powerful.


We're building a differentiated form of professional development focused on teacher innovation and professional growth, that comes in bite size chunks.  It's all about exposing teachers to new ideas and training to improve their practice; all while fitting within a framework of limited time to do so.  We'll leverage many digital tools (blogs, YouTube, infographics, Google Hangouts, etc.) to make this available any time anywhere, and pairing that with 1:1 sessions or small workshop type sessions.




Early on I was thinking about how we've all had those moments where we see a colleague do a really cool lesson, hear about a fantastic new tech tool, or we read about a topic and say "that's so cool! I have to try that." The idea goes on to be transformative for their practice.
I got to thinking, how can we get teachers to SHARE their cool things?  How can we create more opportunities for staff to have more transformative moments like that?

At first I just started sharing cool things I saw at our two campuses on Twitter with the hashtag #1CoolThing.  I was beginning to support teachers 1:1 and if it was a topic I thought others could benefit from, I'd record a screencast.  One of my first was one on Google hangouts.  With the encouragement of a colleague and thought partner, Traci Bonde, I realized this could be something bigger.

This led to me creating a YouTube Channel and the idea to create a model of professional development showcasing ALL the cool things from tech tools to SEL. From assessment to instruction.   I realized the best scenario would be to make this collaborative.

Organically, 1CoolThing was born. 


We want build a practice of all staff members sharing their cool things with each other, and the world. We want it to not just be LGSUHSD staff, but everyone.

Part of building this momentum, is through branding.  I designed these awesome stickers and now Steph and I can give these to teachers we work with that are trying new things, or teachers that start sharing their cool things on Twitter with the hashtag.
The hope is by people seeing the sticker, it will spark a conversation. First about why they have a sticker, but then morphing into the idea and practice of showing the good work that we do and the culture of collaboration and innovation we're trying to build.

Sporting a #1CoolThing Sticker means you have a growth mindset and want to simultaneously share AND learn ALL the cool things that could make you a better educator.
Put those stickers anywhere! Not just on your computer.


As you can see, the demand is already high:



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