It’s About Community

Start by seeing what your PLN looks like. Find out where the gaps are, then start sharing what you know to help out others. So many new teachers will be entering the classroom with very limited time to learn more your experience and expertise might help out others and increase your connections. I tend to use Twitter to connect with others and share ideas. Mastodon is also a good option but be sure to checkout what others are saying before you hop in to a new social media stream. Adobe Edu Exchange is another great place to learn. But where these come together is in the video space on YouTube. So don’t be afraid to share and create what you have learned.

Lift Up Others

When you start on your journey be sure to reach out and connect. There are lots of creators and influencers that got you to the point where you want to share about your journey and ideas. Talk to them online. Make connections and praise their work as an influence in your process. If you didn’t create something but share it with your students be honest and teach students to respect the work of others. There are so many that got me here and now I’m just happy to keep sharing. Also, keep that in mind down the road. When others reach out, give them advice on what you have learned.

Pick your Audience

I have started posting short Adobe Express tech tips as part of the Adobe Creative Educators group. I may record some of my videos as well as some new ones. They will be part of my YouTube feed and the Adobe Express playlist.

One of the things I want to work on is an idea that Ben Forta showed, just focus on one applicable skill inside of Adobe Express. So, for my first one I focused on showing how to make an image transparent as an overlay. The idea of the ACE videos was a 2min tip, somethung quick that bridges the viewing style of a complete walkthrou and a TikTok style how-to. And I spent time over the summer working on overlays and screens and building my video assets to make workflows easier.

Share What You Know

My second ACE video came from a blog post this summer where I showed how to add background graphics to a Google Doc. I had made a recording of building the graphic and adding it to the GDoc but it was always 7-10 long and just seemed really busy, so I never posted the video over the summer. So I thought maybe I should just go ahead and record making a resume with a border inside of Adobe Express. I really had trouble because I wanted to keep going into details about all the other things in a resume template and how to build a resume in Adobe Express.

Then I thought what would be a great simple activity for students to make and learn layers and borders and needed to be explained in roughly 1min45sec. It needed to be concise; so I started from a clean project and recorded my tip.

That’s what made it work. Making the simple idea of just a border graphic and the overlay block of white space could be taught to someone in less than 2 minutes and could be replicated by a kid or a student in a class from first to 12th grade.

It’s More Than Branding

When I started making the intro slide, I struggled to find a good photo of me teaching. Luckily, Wezi Thindwa took a great shot of me at a conference. But that got me thinking about what part of my personality is part of my brand. If you want to be online and be in the video how-to space take time to get professional photos. You never know when you might need them .

I’m Not Done Yet

The idea of having a blog, podcast, or YouTube is to find your voice. If anything, I just want to keep creating and always learning something new for me and my students. Now, I just need to keep at it.