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Many of us in higher education are often wondering about what our students actually learn in high school based on how underprepared they are when they get to our classes. Or, we wonder what their teachers are teaching them in high school. Often both.
Other than the Education faculties on campus, there is often little attempt to bridge the gap between university faculty and K-12 teachers. With initiative like the Common Core Standards, there is increasing pressure from without to create those links. More interesting to me (and, I think, more authentically and sustainable) are the connections that are being made through social media such as Twitter.
A quick glance at Cybraryman’s Twitter education chat lists shows just how many opportunities there are for us in higher education to reach out and connect with K12 teachers in our area. My own chat, #FYCchat, for those of us who teach Freshman Writing, has been working to reach out to those who participate in #engchat, to try and bridge the gap between college and high school writing and writers.
Today, Monday February 27, at 7 PM Eastern, follow #engchat on Twitter when we’ll be discussing how we can bridge the gap between high school and Freshman writing. The conversation will continue on Wednesday night at 9 PM Eastern, during #FYCchat. This co-chat has been two months in the making, and we’re really excited about this opportunity.
I don’t usually use this blog as a promotion platform, but I think that these kinds of opportunities need to be used by a broader base of educators. Those teachers that my students complained about when they described why high school sucks probably don’t participate in Twitter chats. And those of us who complain the loudest about our incoming students probably also don’t see the academic uses of Twitter.
Please consider coming to join our conversation on Monday or Wednesday night. Nothing will improve unless we work together to create change ourselves, rather than waiting for someone else to force it on us.
