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a. What you would tell others when joining a teacher listserv, discussion board or Blog?
In my experience this semester, Teacher Blogs have become a very helpful advantage within the teaching world. It’s nice to speak to other teachers, whether new or experienced, to gain their opinions and advice. I had asked a lot about classroom management and I cannot explain the responses I had gotten. It seems like every teacher out there is willing to help you in some way to become a better teacher. They offer you advice on what to do, but instead of leaving it be and saying “Good luck!” they ask how the new implementations are working. I got a real sense of community from these teachers, and it was a comfort to know that advice can be found anywhere.
I would tell new users that it is worth it just to take a look at what these sites have to offer. Just browse around and look at the different threads and comments made by different educators, and see if any of the subject matter relates to what you feel or something that you might need. A lot of the teachers that you will be in contact with are willing to help, and they offer great advice. Even if you don’t actually join a teacher blog, or a board, you can still get good ideas that might help you in the future. Teaching is always a learning experience.
b. How the experience compared to your expectations?
To be honest I wasn’t excited to join teacher boards at all. I am a part of a writing board now, and I had my expectations that it would not be the same. I thought that teachers would simply post what they were doing or some worksheets that they had used for their classrooms and that would be all.
I never expected it to be what I saw. What I had joined was not an internet board where people posted ideas, advice and chatter, but I had become a part of a community of people that shared a common love of teaching. I learned many things from the threads that I joined and it was defiantly a lot more interesting… and fun… than I thought it would be.
2 comments:
Hi Jennifer:
You wrote that your expereince for the semester found teacher blogs helpful. Did you also find discussion boards and mailings lists helpful too?
You also wrote that you cannot explain the responses you received. Could you please provide a summary comment about them?
Glad to read that the experience surpassed your expectations. You refer to threads that provided you with learning experiences. What were some of the highlights of these experiences?
So nice to read that the teachers shared a common love of teaching. Too often we read about teachers' becoming discouraged.
Dr. S
I have to say that I found the blogs much more helpful than my mailing lists. Don't get me wrong, I use my mailing lists as often as I can, but with the blogs I seemed to get answers quickly to questions and concerns that I had.
Most of the teachers told me to hang in there, and that the first year of teaching is usually the hardest. This is my second year teaching, but my first year in a different school, and some responses I had gotten is that some classroom management techniques don't work in certain classrooms. They gave me a lot of advice on classroom management, and I keep in touch with some of them to let them know how I am.
The highlights were the fellow teachers I met. As I said before, it was a good thing I met them because they have really helped me out a lot in my first four months in school.
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