Over the past few months I have been thinking of the added benefits of sharing and wondered if I was doing my fair share. I asked myself this simple question at the end of a very long day having dealt with 15o students through my various classes and came to the conclusion that sharing cannot be ignored in the teaching profession.

In today’s modern world, sharing is becoming more accessible, through the use of the internet and the added technology of communicating at faster levels than ever before. I’m not saying that sharing is new by any stretch but how was it achieved for teachers before email, SMS, twitter and more.

An idea has to start somewhere and my first thank has to go to Rob Marchetto, who sent a simple email to a  Geography teachers online group saying “join Twitter”. At first I was hesitant, thinking that spending an hour or so a day updating writing comments would be a waste of time. I look back now and think how much I learnt from to the continued interaction with other teaching professionals.

I believe sharing is one of the most important qualities of a teacher. Not one day goes past where you don’t share something. An interesting fact, a new piece of technology or an attempt to make funny Geography jokes are just some of the ways sharing is apart of my teaching day.

One year 9 student said to me recently, “Sir, sometimes sharing is bad because not everyone involved will contribute”, this was after a major project where she felt she had done majority of the work.  I felt her pain, thinking later about this I came to the conclusion that if everyone kept to themselves and did not share their experiences, their knowledge and occasional wisdom, how will we ever move forward.

As a young teacher the benefits of sharing, particularly from experience teachers, is paramount. With the growing trends of teachers signing to Twitter, this give young passionate teachers a borderless community to seek advice and direction. Depending on the present school a new teacher is placed, there may not be any sharing at all. I believe this may be another reason teachers of my generation are finding other career paths.

Favourite Sharing moment - Turks and ANZACS sharing at Gallipoli in the trenches.

I look forward to the ongoing share space of Twitter, Ning sites and Wikispaces in the near future(Facebook is for my non-teaching lifestyle). With the development of connected classrooms over the state I hope sharing becomes a major focus for communities and groups to share their experiences with others. I mean city schools have the chance now to venture into rural communities with greater access, and vice versa.

I’m glad to have shared these first thoughts with you.