At National Geographic Education, community is at the forefront of everything we do. With this in mind, we wanted to update you on some changes in progress aimed at improving your overall experience in connecting seamlessly as a community. 

We’ve heard from countless educators that this closed space has at times been helpful, but does not fully meet your needs and can often be cumbersome to access and track ongoing conversations. Given this feedback, we have made the decision to migrate all community conversations to social media. As of January 1, 2021, our key channels for updates, resources, and connecting as a community will be our @NatGeoEducation pages on both Facebook and Twitter. We invite you to join us in those spaces to build connections and deepen your learning.

Here are a few hashtags you can follow and engage in for more focused support and conversations! Think of these as live, ongoing message boards:

• #ThatsGeography - Inspired by the wonders of our world and the people that inhabit it, this conversation is for anyone who wants to gain (or contribute to!) a deeper and more nuanced understanding of all that geography encompasses. We’re also sharing learning resources for you and your students.

• #NatGeoCertified - If you have, or are eager to gain your National Geographic Educator Certification, this conversation is for you! 

• #StorytellingForImpact - Follow this conversation if you are enrolled in or interested in our new, self-paced courses being offered for free in partnership with Adobe. We hope to see your stories in this space!

• #TeacherStrong - Started by our 2020 Education Fellow and 4th grade teacher, Dwayne Reed, this conversation is all about supporting one another through the tough days and sharing ideas about how to navigate this moment as a community.

• #ExplorerMindset - How are you cultivating an Explorer’s Mindset in yourself and your students? Let’s chat about it! We’re eager to learn more about your projects, ideas, and lesson plans. Share away and we’ll be sure to do the same.

You can also sign up to receive monthly updates in your email inbox via our Education Newsletter and subscribe to our education blog so you never miss a story from your fellow educators and our team. We also encourage you to keep an eye on our YouTube channel, which will continue to evolve over the coming months!

Finally, we know that this space has served as an important place for many of you to have focused conversations and collaborate with one another in deeper ways. Rest assured, we have some ideas in the works that will be introduced in early 2021 to support more of this! In fact, we are already piloting one such effort via a private Facebook group for aspiring COVID Fund grantees. We encourage you to log into that space to take a look around.

What questions can I answer? Feel free to comment here or reach out to me at  jresendez_c@ngs.org. As always, thanks for all you do for your students, communities, and fellow educators!