Join “Encouraging Teachers” on Facebook!

UPDATE OCTOBER 9th: Our fall enrollment period is now over. The group will re-open to new members for another two weeks in the spring. Want to be notified when the next enrollment period begins? Subscribe to the blog via RSS or email, or subscribe for occasional site updates and newsletters.

Just over a year ago, I created the Encouraging Teachers Facebook group. I wanted a place for educators to inspire and encourage one another throughout the school year. My hope was that teachers would join me in creating an online space to talk about the good things that are happening in education and support one another, a space where you can pop in, browse a few inspiring stories/images/links, and leave feeling energized.

In only a few months, our numbers jumped to several thousand teachers. At the 9,000 mark, I closed the group to new members to keep us from growing too quickly and losing our community feel. I was also concerned about spammers joining and people who didn’t really understand the group’s mission but were just there to push their own agendas or to vent about their problems. However, I know there are lots of new teachers entering the field and people just discovering the group who would love to join in.

I thought a lot about a sustainable way to allow new members to join, and decided to implement a twice yearly “open enrollment” period. For 2 weeks each autumn and 2 weeks each spring, new members can fill out a form agreeing to our guidelines and requesting to join the group.

If you already follow The Cornerstone For Teachers Facebook page, there are two main ways the group is different. Firstly, only I can post stuff on the page, but with the Encouraging Teachers group, everyone can post and read one another’s statuses easily. There’s more of a community feel because everyone’s status updates are weighted equally in the group, and it’s not just me posting things and you all commenting on them. (Bonus: since it’s a “secret” group, no one from outside the group can read what’s posted, and there aren’t any snarky teacher-bashing comments from outsiders.) Secondly, on the Facebook page, I share a lot more than just inspirational stuff: there are also things related to education reform/the anti-testing movement, teacher’s rights, and a quite a few sarcastic eCards and jokes. The Encouraging Teachers group doesn’t include any of that, and is solely a place for sharing positivity.

We have over 9,000 members who value the supportive tone of the group very highly, so the group is HIGHLY MODERATED and all guidelines are strictly enforced. The guidelines are a lot to read through, but I want to make sure you are comfortable with adhering to the guidelines before asking to join. You can email me at angelawatson@live.com with any questions or concerns.

Click here to read our group guidelines and submit your request to join. THIS FORM WILL CLOSE ON WED. OCT. 8th, 2014. On that day, I will add all of our new members. You will get an email notification from Facebook once you’ve been added to the group.

Managing such a large group takes a tremendous amount of time, so if you’d like to show your support for the group, you can purchase The Encouraging Teachers 2015 Calendar and Poster Set for $5. The set includes 15 posters with motivating and encouraging quotes for teachers. You can print them to display on your classroom walls, in a picture frame on your desk, or inside your teacher binder. There are also calendar pages which coordinate with the inspirational teacher quotes. Pages for October-December 2014 are provided so you don’t have to wait until 2015 to use it! Additionally, there are 15 JPEG digital images of the motivational quotes for teachers. You can set them as your computer desktop “wallpaper” (background image).

I hope you’ll join us on Facebook! Encouraging Teachers is a terrific place to visit when you want to be inspired, hear good things about our profession, and connect with other positive-minded educators. You can tell us about things that are working well in your classroom, ask for helpful advice about the things that aren’t working well, and share any teaching-related thoughts, photos, articles, etc. that you think would be encouraging to other educators. See you in the group!

UPDATE OCTOBER 9th: Our fall enrollment period is now over. The group will re-open to new members for another two weeks in the spring. Want to be notified when the next enrollment period begins? Subscribe to the blog via RSS or email, or subscribe for occasional site updates and newsletters.

If you filled out the form and have not yet gotten your invite, please give me another day or two to get everyone added. We had 1,500 teachers ask to join and Facebook requires me to copy and paste each individual email address one at a time to add, so I’m getting through them as fast as I can. Thanks for your patience!