Online Teacher Community
Here is my first post about a surreal experience I had in class. A moment where all my students were silent.
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Here is a link to my second post. I had to ask my fellow teachers how they handled assessing students differently.
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This link will connect you to the page where I asked about the benefits of in class demonstrations and some of the costs that can be weighed against.
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Reflection
I both liked and disliked this assignment. As with most experiences, there were some positives and negatives. In this case however there were a good deal more positives than negatives. The biggest drawback in this experience was simply that posting online is not really my style. Why would you go though the effort of finding a site online to talk to strangers when I could just talk to my fellow teachers? In this reflection I will go over the benefits, which there are quite a few of, but I will also introduce the reason why I will chose to ask my fellow teachers in person for the rest of my teacher experience.
The first thing I liked about the online community I chose was just how open it was. I was getting responses from teachers from all over the world, often from eople who were running into the same problems I was. I could tell that many of them used the site for the same reasons I did. Most of the responses I got were just teachers looking for answers about how they could better teach their students. The only snag I ran into while talking to these teachers from all over the world was that I really didn’t know who they were. Maybe they are terrible teachers. Maybe they just don’t know what they are talking about. There is also a good chance that some had never taught at all. I know a lot of these maybes are just feelings I have about talking to strangers on the Internet, but it is something that just stuck with me. Why would you go out of your way to ask these people from so far away when you can just as a fellow teacher at lunch or when you see them in the hall?
Another drawback I found with social media is that everything has an up vote. While seeing other posts skyrocket does not faze me I couldn’t help but notice that my posts were seldom up voted. This is the biggest problem with social media in my opinion. I looked around for a site that didn’t have this feature, but I was unable to find one. It felt a little like Facebook. I put a post out there but sometimes you just don’t get a reply. I am sure this is fine for most adults, but that continued feeling of having a little voice can stay with some people. I know people who feel like they have failed if they don’t get any responses. They felt something was wrong with them because the people who they wanted to see their messages didn’t notice them. I am a new teacher and I was happy that each of my posts had a few comments on them, and one even received nine up votes. I only posted a few and while I received only a few replies, other posts received none. That might be a problem with some teachers. Some nervous teacher who can’t write an eye-catching post might just get ignored and begin feeling a bit depressed. That in my opinion is the biggest downfall of social media. It’s the "like" and the up vote. These features can just leave too many people behind.
I hate being negative, however, so I will end with all the positives. Using these online resources can be very helpful if you have a question you don’t feel you can ask your fellow peers. The variety of individuals using the site will most likely help you come up with some answer. There aren’t just teachers using reddit/teacher. I had a few comments from parents as well who answered my questions very well. Social media is almost universal. Everyone has their own opinion and it is a great tool for sharing with one another. I don’t plan on using it continually throughout my carrier, but there is always the chance I may have questions in the future that my peers cannot answer. When that time comes I will be happy that I did not erase my old accounts. They will come in handy even for people like me, who like to talk face to face.
The first thing I liked about the online community I chose was just how open it was. I was getting responses from teachers from all over the world, often from eople who were running into the same problems I was. I could tell that many of them used the site for the same reasons I did. Most of the responses I got were just teachers looking for answers about how they could better teach their students. The only snag I ran into while talking to these teachers from all over the world was that I really didn’t know who they were. Maybe they are terrible teachers. Maybe they just don’t know what they are talking about. There is also a good chance that some had never taught at all. I know a lot of these maybes are just feelings I have about talking to strangers on the Internet, but it is something that just stuck with me. Why would you go out of your way to ask these people from so far away when you can just as a fellow teacher at lunch or when you see them in the hall?
Another drawback I found with social media is that everything has an up vote. While seeing other posts skyrocket does not faze me I couldn’t help but notice that my posts were seldom up voted. This is the biggest problem with social media in my opinion. I looked around for a site that didn’t have this feature, but I was unable to find one. It felt a little like Facebook. I put a post out there but sometimes you just don’t get a reply. I am sure this is fine for most adults, but that continued feeling of having a little voice can stay with some people. I know people who feel like they have failed if they don’t get any responses. They felt something was wrong with them because the people who they wanted to see their messages didn’t notice them. I am a new teacher and I was happy that each of my posts had a few comments on them, and one even received nine up votes. I only posted a few and while I received only a few replies, other posts received none. That might be a problem with some teachers. Some nervous teacher who can’t write an eye-catching post might just get ignored and begin feeling a bit depressed. That in my opinion is the biggest downfall of social media. It’s the "like" and the up vote. These features can just leave too many people behind.
I hate being negative, however, so I will end with all the positives. Using these online resources can be very helpful if you have a question you don’t feel you can ask your fellow peers. The variety of individuals using the site will most likely help you come up with some answer. There aren’t just teachers using reddit/teacher. I had a few comments from parents as well who answered my questions very well. Social media is almost universal. Everyone has their own opinion and it is a great tool for sharing with one another. I don’t plan on using it continually throughout my carrier, but there is always the chance I may have questions in the future that my peers cannot answer. When that time comes I will be happy that I did not erase my old accounts. They will come in handy even for people like me, who like to talk face to face.