For me, this feeling arrived during 2019, when I first took the leap to speaking at conferences, after attending many. Since then, I’ve spoken and written about education in many spaces, conferences and forums. Making that jump from teaching and tweeting to speaking and sharing was a monumental jump, requiring a big leap of faith that challenged my view of myself as a teacher. I’d previously felt like I had little to share with others, and this is something I think a lot of teachers struggle with.
The process meant spending hundreds of hours refining PowerPoint slides and memorising the things I was to say to the point where I could likely still perform those talks, even now, years later.
Opportunities after taking that step up
The experience of attending a conference as a speaker is dramatically different to attending as a delegate. It means joining a community of like-minded teachers also presenting. It enabled me to realise that what I know and do has great value, whether or not it has been researched or proven elsewhere.
Since taking this leap, I’ve had some very positive responses. The teaching videos I’ve shared to YouTube have had close to 700,000 views and my knowledge continues to develop as a result of putting my thoughts and ideas into the world. This is but one small illustration of what is possible if you take a leap and consider the things that you have to say may have value. The world needs to know what you know.
You can find Steven on social media via Facebook, Twitter and Instagram or through his website.
