Digital tools and social media are foundational in every aspect of my professional and union work, engaging members by connecting pedagogy, politics, policy, and publicity.
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Original content gets a lot of traffic
Posting questions increases engagement
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Memes and positive feedback rock!
The other side had stories. Slickly produced videos and well placed public posts on community pages...hot gossip and rampant rumors, thinly disguised as civic concern.
In their stories, we teachers were the bad guys. Greedy. Lazy. Bad Teachers. We were not to be rewarded with accolades, recompensed with undeserved funds... we were not to be trusted by students, parents, or the community. In the battle for control, the Bad Teacher Narrative threatened to go viral. On You Tube, in the local News, across the print media pages, throughout the community, and worst of all, on Facebook, we scanned their posts for our villainous faces.
The rise of social media gave a new tool for community organizers, even organizers who were decidedly anti-educator. This virtual arena provided a fertile battleground for our very public political struggle. After a brutal "exposé" type video blasting us as greedy goats and showing our "price tags", we had had quite enough of the Bad Teacher Narrative.
We fought back. And thus, my entry into the world of digital curation, brand cultivation, online organizing, and social media influencing began with the need to tell a story. Our story. The story of good teachers just trying to do right by their kids. The story of the Good Teacher Narrative. The story from This Side of the Chalkboard.
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Central Coast Equity serves as the official page for the Central Coast Service Center Equity Team. It also serves as the unofficial page for content curation and sharing among service center equity teams. Setting is public.
Alisal Teachers Association serves our local unit and is private for ATA/CTA members only, thus targeted organizing and union messaging is efficient. We also network and collect survey data via our page. Our members often get their main union communication via Facebook.
CTA Equity Teams originally was created as a networking space for REAC and Service Center Equity Teams. The site grew exponentially after the George Floyd and Breonna Taylor murders, indicating an interest across the state in anti-racist organizing at all levels. The page is private, and members are vetted.
PAAC page and sister page, California API Educators serve as a messaging and interest site for Pacific Asians American and allies. The setting is public to view, but posts must be approved by an appointed moderator.
The Chalkboard continues to expand in membership and content. We now have a team of moderators who keep the flow and tempo up, although member-generated posts and material now makes up the majority of the content. It has evolved from a purposeful curation of content into a functioning community of educators and advocates.