The Value of a Great Teacher

What is a teacher?

A Teacher is generally defined as one who teaches.  But, I believe it is so much more than just a quick phrase.  I have had many students ask me over the years one simple question; “What is the job of a teacher?” 

I once had a mentor of mine tell me that a teacher had one job and one job only.  He would say; “A Teachers only job is to inspire.”

Recently, I had a great teacher inspire me.  I am writing this blog to publicly thank this great teacher for inspiring me to help inspire others.

Over the summer, a good friend of mine whom I had been podcasting with challenged me to create something that the educational world could be proud of.  I took on that challenge, and in July, I created TeacherCast.net.  

TeacherCast.net was going to be the “A place for Teachers to help other Teachers”.  I had a vision and a dream that involved creating an entire digital hub of resources spanning from audio podcasts, video screencasts, blogs, wikis, app reviews etc...  I created TeacherCast and with the help of teachers, principals and other twitter pals, I watched TeacherCast grow into a pretty amazing educational portal for the teaching community.  

Most people would rest and sit back to enjoy the work that it took to create something like TeacherCast.  I must admit that I was looking forward to “cruising” through the school year and seeing where TeacherCast took me.  I enjoy very much the new connections I am making in the teaching world. I am honored every time a teacher, principal, superintendent, or other outstanding educator comes on to my podcast and spends an hour of their time talking about their school districts and their iPads.  

I must also be honest and say that I was looking forward to creating wonderful content for TeacherCast.  To make a website such as TeacherCast is a long winded labor of love that takes a village to create and maintain.  With hours of work behind me, I started the school year with a great professional learning network behind me and headed to school.

I will stop here and say that I teach in a great school district in New Jersey.  I have some amazing teachers in the Fine Arts department and I am proud to say that every one of them is a professional at their craft. These six wonderful professionals choose to be teachers and to help young people achieve their dreams.  One of these amazingly gifted teachers, took time out of her day to look over TeacherCast and found something hidden inside of it that I could never have seen.

Sometimes, when we look at a student, or look at a computer screen long enough, we go blind.  We don’t see the forrest through the trees.  As teachers, and as creators, we shy away from asking for help because, in our professions, we are the ones who are supposed to be the “know it all” people in the room.  I was reluctant at first to go to this master teacher for help. It was only after she and I had a conversation in the parking lot one afternoon that a new spark began to burn.

At first, we talked about TeacherCast and we talked about my visions of the network.  She asked me questions about TeacherCast that I had never really thought about. We talked about my target audience, and the message that I was trying to promote with TeacherCast.

What I didn’t know then, was that this master teacher had an extensive background in photography, digital media, and print layout.  She was prepping me for what now has become the single most creative change in my digital world.

Over the next few days, this teacher and I spent hours on the phone redesigning TeacherCast.  We first made our front page more eye pleasing, and streamlined the text, making it more icon friendly.  After our first few nights collaborating together, the proof was in the numbers.  Our hit counters jumped tremendously and people were looking at the website longer.

After making what was then some pretty major changes to the website, I was confident that I had a great product on my hands and shouted to the world how proud I was of TeacherCast.

However, she wasn’t done.  She saw even more in TeacherCast.  She saw the potential that this website had and wanted to help me promote TeacherCast to the biggest audience available and make it a site that not only teachers would go to, but make it a site for everyone to visit daily.

On Sunday night, September 25, TeacherCast opened its doors to the world with a brand new site redesign.  With the help of this amazing teacher and creative mentor, I firmly believe that TeacherCast can now achieve its fullest potential.

If you haven't had an opportunity to check out our website. Please do.  I humbly say that it looks pretty amazing and it is all thanks to the fact that a good friend of mine sall something in the potential of TeacherCast that I didn’t.

I write this because I feel as teachers, we should all strive to find those hidden gems that lie inside of each of our students. Sometimes we don’t see the big picture and sometimes we need help recognizing that a bigger picture exists.

I will end this blog with a very warm Thank You to my good friend Val Grollman.  I hope that she knows someday the impact that she has had in my creativity with this project and in doing so, has opened up my dream to an even bigger audience of teachers, and by doing that.... has educated far more students than either of us will ever know.