TeachMeet: Five Years Old Today

May 24th, 2006, John Johnston, David Muir, Andrew Brown, Bob Hill and a visiting Will Richardson were amongst a small but merry band who got together for the first time to talk about the potential we saw for learning as a relatively new set of democratising platforms and attitudes came together in a perfect storm. Between May 24th and the Scottish Learning Festival that year, I'd coined the phrase "TeachMeet" to describe this meeting of minds.

Five years on, the movement of professional development for teachers, by teachers has never been more vibrant, never been seen as so important by those holding ever tighter purse strings and looking for alternative models.

To celebrate five years of work by thousands, and to shine a light on the movement for those who've maybe still not come across it and its cousins around the world, I've brought together some voices to show the spread of ideas, and to suggest their own tips on organising the perfect 'unconference' professional development:

• From one year ago: Open Professional Development: How to Motivate Your Staff to Create Their Own Learning Experiences
• From me, this week: A Reader Challenge: Five Years On, Is Do-It-Yourself Professional Development Alive and Kicking?
• Jeff Utecht: Creating an Unconference Culture
• Con Morris: LeadMeet: an unconference for professional development
• More posts coming this week from Tom Barrett, Iain Hallahan and from TeachMeet Newcastle, this Wednesday night.

If you want to contribute your own post, tag it #teachmeet - I'll do my best to pick up on them and bring together a summary of your favourite moments and learnings from the past five years.

Pic from Ian Usher

Comments

[Ian Stuart]

I am not sure whether TeachMeet has captured a zeitgeist or helped create one but it has certain been highly influencial on my professional thinking and development.
You should be very proud of the movement. I know I am I wasn't even at the first one.