I was fortunate to recently be invited by Terry Heick to join a session on Edudemic+. Terry is Contributing Editor for Edudemic.com as well as Director of Curriculum at TeachThought.com

Here’s a bit of what Edudemic is all about: 

Social media is making a big impact on education.  The threading of new technology with old standards has created new and exciting opportunities for teachers, school administrators, and students. What is the best way to improve education using social media? That’s the big question that Edudemic hopes to answer. You’ll find regular doses of helpful ideas, infographics, news, videos, and more when you visit Edudemic.

Terry has been following the New Teacher Academy Blog series on Edutopia.org and as we have never met, he was curious about my take on the Craft of Teaching. He was also interested about why I developed this blog series…particularly as it impacts new and pre-service teachers.

Here is a bit of the interview as it appears today, on Edudemic.com:

“Lisa: While many teachers start out wanting to be the best teacher they can be, it’s very easy to lose that passion for teaching as you get caught up in the details of getting through the day. The idea behind the brand “Teaching With Soul” is to make teachers stop and think, what part of my soul have I lost? Hopefully through the blog teachers can find something that inspires them, new teachers especially.

Terry: What is most important for new teachers to know about their craft, going into their first year?

Lisa: When I started managing the New Teachers group at Edutopia, we began looking at what teachers really need when they start out. In my years in education, especially as a principal, I observed both teachers who were successful and those who crashed and burned. I asked myself, those who crashed and burned – what didn’t they receive that they should have? Bottom line – mentoring. So what does that look like? Is it just connecting you with another teacher and boom, you go off and that’s it? No, but that’s often what happens. What teachers really need is wrap around support.

I want to harness the power of social media to support teachers, especially teachers who may not have a mentor teacher that their principal set them up with. So we began to develop ways we could do this, the first way was in a global sense. We did a new teacher boot camp – similar to what I had in my school when I was principal. Particularly in a lower socio-economic area, where I served for many years, you can have 10 new teachers a year.”

You can read the full transcript here: Edudemic+: Lisa Dabbs On The Craft Of Teaching.

My thanks to Terry Heick for this opportunity to share my passion for supporting and mentoring new teachers at Edudemic.

What are you currently doing to support your craft? How are you working to keep vibrant in your teaching and too continuously “teach with soul”?