Week #4 Prompt: Community of Teachers

This weeks assignment was to participate in a club's activity related to your field.  Since I am already a member of SMEA, I went to their professional development event on Wednesday.  SMEA stands for Students of the Michigan Education Association.  In this post I will talk about the community that was there, but in my free post I will elaborate more on the activity and what I learned as a teacher from this event.

A community of teachers is much different than a community of engineers.  I know this because I live on a floor full of engineers and am always witnessing them running around chasing robots or pulling their hair out trying to do math.  Teachers have a tendency to have a little more "fun".  I have noticed this especially in my education classes where conversation before and after class always seems to revolve around some sort of guy that someone met at a party the weekend before or their plans for Thursday night.  Obviously the club event I went to was much more professional than that, but I figured that might be something relevant to mention on a blog post about the teacher community.

The meeting was a group of females, each with their own unique hobby.  I know this because at the beginning of the event we had to say our names and do an action that would "say" something about us.  For example, since I am musically inclined I used my hands to play the piano and sang my name.  Others kicked a soccer ball and shouted their name or pretended like they were swimming.  I thought this was an interesting activity because it helped you learn names, but it also helped you get to know a complete stranger.

The ladies in the room did have some things in common though.  Obviously the overlying theme was teaching and education, but with that comes the ability to work well in groups, excellent participation skills, as well as listening skills.

This club uses Facebook as a primary source of communication.  There is a SMEA Facebook group where event information is posted.  In addition to the Facebook group, there is also a website to elaborate on more details and requirements for the club.  The club requires members to participate in community service, professional development, fundraising, and outreach to teach events.  There is a point system in place to ensure that everyone is participating.  The purpose of this club is to aid students studying to become teachers in the transition to the classroom.