What is my Classroom's Brand?

I recently found an article that immediately caught my attention. The title seemed so relevant to life in general as well as this thing that I'm trying to become: a teacher. The article is called The Importance of Branding Your Classroom by Terry Heick. It was intriguing to think about. Our society is filled with brands and people make a living out of helping companies create a brand. Of course, the best examples given in the article were Google and Apple. Everyone knows these companies and what they do. Their brand tells us what to expect out of their products and how to use those products to their fullest extent. So how do I do this for my classroom? How do I brand my classroom, help students to know what to expect out of my class, and help them to know how to use my class to its fullest extent?

I can't say that this article answered my questions completely, but it did remind me of a TEDtalk that I watched a couple of months ago by Simon Sinek called How Great Leaders Inspire Action. Sinek frames his talk around Apple's success in branding and this thing he calls a magic circle. You see, most brands advertise by telling people what they make/do and how they make/do it. Apple is different. They tell people why they do what they do. Then they show people how they do it. Finally, they let us in on what they do. That reversal of the order as well as adding WHY they do something pulls people in. It makes us feel like we understand Apple more.

So what does this have to do with my classroom? I want to help my students, parents, other teachers, and administration to understand why I structure my classroom the way I do. Then they can see how I structure my classroom that way. And finally, they will discover what I do.

And the article? Heick (maybe without knowing it) helps us to make a connection between this TEDtalk's branding and our classroom. He gives us four lessons to help us make the connection: 1. Brand matters. 2. Brand must be emotional. 3. Accessibility comes first. and finally 4. Brand is the product of an ecosystem. I strongly encourage you to check out this article for yourself to see what Heick has to say. I have to admit that I originally just thought that "branding" my classroom would simply include lots of time searching for cute classroom ideas on Pinterest and lots of trips to Hobby Lobby. Now I see that it's going to take much more than that.

We've also been discussing think alouds in our content literacy class recently. Here is an example of a think aloud in a math class. In any think aloud, a teacher demonstrates to the students how they work through a problem or section of text and use strategies to make sense of it. This allows students to see how teachers' minds work when going through a difficult text. I plan on using this in my classroom in the future and having students practice it as well.

"Content Literacy - the ability of someone to interact with and use strategies to interpret the content of some subject (in its own language) including being able to speak, listen to, read, and write in that language"

{Sassy}