A New School Year and Another Milestone…
Numbers don’t always tell the full story, but numbers do count. We’ve had some great numbers lately:
574
Hours of video footage from what’s happening in your classrooms.
627
The number of teachers who’ve appeared in Teaching Channel videos.
929
Videos of classroom practice, strategies, teaching philosophies, and ideas to help make us all better.
1,449
Questions asked by teachers needing advice from their colleagues.
16,000
The number of teachers who participated in Sarah Brown Wessling’s First Observation Challenge to identify great teaching. Amazing.
36,129
The number of teachers who were working on Teaching Channel on LABOR DAY. (Last time I checked, that was a holiday!)
600,000
Teachers on Teaching Channel!!! Today, we hit this new milestone and we want to thank all of you for making Teaching Channel part of your intellectual community.
And when you thank US, our office floats up a few feet. Every now and then, we hear from you in person — in spontaneous and unplanned moments. Two weeks ago, I was at a friend’s husband’s funeral, and at the gravesite a teacher sidled up to me and said in a quiet voice, “I read your blog. I’m a teacher and we use Teaching Channel a lot.” Then, last week, I was headed to the gym — I looked bad, really bad — I was wearing my gym shorts, I didn’t have make-up on, my hair was standing at wrong angles, but I was also wearing my Tch t-shirt. Suddenly, I heard a, “Hey! Do you work at Teaching Channel?”
“I do,” I said.
“I love you,” she said, and added, “I’m a teacher.”
I said, “I love you too! But why do you love us?”
And she said, “You guys are making me a better teacher.”
As I jogged off, I awkwardly asked her to register as a member if she hadn’t already — so she wouldn’t see that I had tears in my eyes. Corny, I know. But in truth, you inspire us. We love the work you do, and we have so much fun looking for numbers that indicate that you’re paying attention to what we’re putting out there to help you help our kids.
From all of us here at Teaching Channel, thank you so much for being a part of our wonderful community of educators!