Guest columnist: Facebook page offers way for teachers to share learning opportunities

The Scholarships, Grants, Summer Institutes and Opportunities for Teachers Facebook page, of which I am one of the administrators, is an excellent resource for educators. It provides a plethora of resources and professional developments that can revitalize your classroom and general learning.

I myself took advantage of an opportunity to travel to Selma, Alabama, to learn more about the Civil Rights Movement and it was a life-changing experience.

Kent Gompert, the founder of the Scholarships, Grants, Summer Institutes and Opportunities for Teachers page, started it around November 2012. He explains: "The idea had come to me, while attending a National Endowment for the Humanities Toledo seminar. I had two roommates, and I had mentioned to them how good it would be if teachers had a Facebook page that would notify them of upcoming seminars, conferences and travel grants. "

Foremost, Gompert said, the page is a place for teachers to share opportunities.

"When I was a new teacher, I taught for years before I learned of non-mandatory professional development (PD) training," Gompert said. "My first experience was a weeklong summer science seminar. From that experience, I met teachers who attended workshops for fun and their own personal growth, not because it was mandatory. At each PD I met more teachers who would share opportunities with me that, unless I was on a specific mailing list, I would not have heard about. Each opportunity I attended made me a better teacher in ways that is hard to describe. Not just content or methodology, but the value of a shared experience with other educators that share my passion.“

Anne Ruifrok Walker, the current head administrator of the Facebook page, said that when Gompert announced he was retiring and wanted to turn the page over to someone else, she felt she "had to step up."

"Where else could teachers have access to all this information?" Walker said.

"In my opinion, the job of the administrator of the page is just to vet new people joining, keeping the bots from infiltrating and keeping the peace the rare times discussions get heated. Otherwise, the page runs itself with teachers sharing the wonderful opportunities that are out there for all of us to take advantage of.”

I would greatly encourage any and all Ohio Education Association members to share information and take advantage of this Facebook page and the opportunities it presents. Just go to the page, answer the questions, and get access to educational opportunities guaranteed your learning and teaching.

Charles Steinbower, a former Newark resident who now resides in Columbus, is a teacher with the Educational Service Center of Ohio who works as a substitute teacher for Worthington City Schools.

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Facebook page a place for teachers to discover learning opportunities