At the bottom of this page are my highlights from an excellent post by Karl Fisch. He writes about how being on Twitter can give you a distorted view of reality; you either feel ‘like crap’ because all those people seem to be doing better and more amazing things than you are; or you feel inspired, ahead of the game and able to reach for the stars.
That made me reflect on teachers’ self image and insecurities in general. A colleague of mine who I see as very experienced, calm, confident and secure recently shared with me his anxieties about student results and whether he was still cut out for teaching. Similarly, I confided my own insecurities about teaching Year 12 IB to someone who then told me that they were surprised that someone ‘like me’ felt worried. So there you go, we are all human, we are all trying the best we can for our students, it’s just that some people are more vocal and more extroverted about it than others. Is that what binds the excellent Teacher Twitter community? Are we all extroverted over-sharers? I would argue that as teacher, you have to be a reasonably out-going and sociable person, because in my view, teaching is about relationships, collaboration and yes, sharing. I spend a lot of time in the ‘Twitter Distortion Field’ and feel almost always inspired and invigorated by what I read.
So here are some extracts from Karl‘s post.
My annotated link here: http://diigo.com/0walz, link to original post: http://thefischbowl.blogspot.com.au/2013/02/the-twitter-distortion-field.html
The Twitter Distortion Field People used to say that Steve Jobs was able to create a Reality Distortion Field when he spoke. He had the ability to convince those around him to believe in just about anything, which was both good (they were motivated to achieve things they thought they couldn’t) and bad (Jobs would sometimes recall events differently than others did – some might call that lying).
I’ve come to think that I’m present (and participating) in another distortion field: the Twitter Distortion Field (TDF). Like Jobs’ RDF, the TDF can be both good and bad. Here’s how it works. You get on Twitter and instantly have access to a wide range of ideas and opinions; it constantly provides you new ideas to try in your school/classroom, as well as continually challenging your thinking about whether what you are doing in your school/classroom is worthwhile. In many ways, this is a wonderful thing. We should be learning from others, constantly questioning our practices, and trying to improve the teaching and learning going on in our schools. But I was reminded this week of the negative side of this: the TDF can also make you feel like crap. Every time you get on Twitter the TDF reinforces the notion that you aren’t doing a very good job, that everyone out there is doing wonderful, innovative, transformational things in their schools and with their students, and what you’re doing is only slightly better than child abuse.
That’s not to say that we can’t improve, or that there aren’t some major shifts that I think need to happen, but I think the TDF can sometimes give a warped sense of reality. People typically share the best things that they are doing and you often don’t have a good sense of how well it actually worked with students.
And that brings me back to the Twitter Distortion Field. I think that for many of us on Twitter, we see the disconnect between what some people are doing (or say they are doing) on Twitter, and the reality of our own schools, and we begin to feel hopeless (okay, maybe that should be “I” begin to feel hopeless). But I think we need to keep in mind that Twitter may not be an accurate reflection of reality, and that while the TDF can inspire and impel us toward some of those transformational changes many of us are hoping for, we shouldn’t simultaneously denigrate some of the very good things we are doing day-to-day with our students right now, even if they are within the constraints of a flawed system.
So next time you’re on Twitter and see a wonderful lesson idea from another classroom, or hear about a school that’s doing things you can barely dream of, don’t feel like what you’re doing is crap. Learn from that classroom and that school, try to incorporate those ideas and improve your own practice, but always remember that the TDF most likely doesn’t completely reflect reality, and don’t let it distort the reality of the very good things that are likely already happening in your own classroom.