Just getting started... about 6 months later

TeacherStudio came to be (officially) about 6 months ago and for a while now I have been wanting to write about the process we've been going through to get this product to market. This product came to life as a result of the pain-staking effort beginning teachers go through in their first few years in the classroom. I know that most careers have an element of "on the job" training... but in my opinion... teaching is a completely different ball game. You can be put in a classroom in front of a group, or groups, of students within days of taking a job (without any prior training in how to teach others). We are hoping to create a space where teachers can collaborate, learn, and really just find peer support at any time of day or night (that is our hope anyway). After our meeting today it seemed like a good time to follow through with this idea of cataloging my learnings or insights. We met with our group of alpha testers tonight ( a group of 12 alpha teachers who are dedicated and bright individuals). Long story short... which is why I wanted to write this down... so I could remind myself of this very basic rule I learned years ago... AUDIENCE IS KING. Having the chance to sit and really listen to them was extremely helpful and such a necessity. It was both validating and also got us thinking about how to make things better. If we can't answer a teacher's question or meet their need within seconds we have failed- bottom line. "What is the purpose?", is a question we were told we'd better be able to answer. This team was a huge help in grounding us in what we're doing and who we're doing it for. Our one big learning is that we should've sat down with these teachers face to face at the beginning and expressed our needs and expectations. It was relaying the information that didn't quite get through... because shockingly teachers are extremely busy and have a lot to do each day. :) If it's not on a calendar it won't get done. :)