November 17, 2009
Mark’s Blog #3
INTRODUCTION
I have been searching for good teacher’s social sites now for a couple of weeks and now I believe I have got the hang of it. By Googling teachers’ message boards I have been able to find a virtual potpourri of sites that are extremely useful to me and other teachers.
WEB SITES I HAVE VISITED
After a few quick searches on Google I found a site called Proteacher Community. The site is broken down by grades K-4 and 5-8. The site visually is very busy that it is almost intimidating at first. What drew me in however was the section they had for student teachers as well as future teachers. They have blogs as well as message board and it appears they have hundreds of threads; at least that’s what it looks like.
ISSUES THAT WERE DISCUSSED
One interesting issue that was discussed was how to handle parents who do their child’s homework for them. The teacher that started the thread wrote that she knew what was going on and let the child’s mother know it was not right doing her son’s homework. The next week the boy turned in a flawless essay. The teacher’s posting asked what advice we could give her. The first three replies were not offering solutions but instead they were replying that they too were having the same problem. Finally someone posted and said it is the fear that their child will be held back a grade and if that fear is made to disappear, the parent may give in easily to the fact they should not be doing the child’s work for them. Another issue that was amusing was that someone wanted a template for naked ginger bread men so the kids could decorate them. Instead she wrote naked snowmen which got her responses like “aren’t all snowmen naked?” I know this does not sound like good educational banter, but it is nice to see something amusing when looking at so many of these sites. It is also good to know teachers make mistakes too.
QUESTIONS I POSED
Instead of posting a random question, I posed the same question I had posted to Teachers Corner.net about what NYC student teachers are doing now that there is a hiring freeze. I figured I would double my chances for a solution to a realistic and the most important question I have these days concerning education. I just posted the question so I am still waiting for a reply.
RESPOND TO OTHER’S QUESTIONS
Someone not from NYC asked where to look for jobs. A lot of people mentioned government web sites and district postings I the paper. There was also advice about mass mailings of resumes that should be done in March. I replied that the poster should look at the schools web sites and see if they have a human resource department which some do. After I posted though I remembered NYC is about the only place where principals do the hiring for their own schools. I am not looking forward to the responses asking me what the heck I am talking about. Up until now though, no responses.
USEFUL INFORMATION FOR MY TEACHING
There was a thread that talked about holiday projects. At first I thought it was irrelevant because most were art projects but after little thought, I figured I can adapt the art to English. They spoke about Christmas ornaments. I thought why not make an ornament about your favorite character or novel or even setting. I may try it out after Thanksgiving and see what happens.
MY ADVICE AND HOW IT COMPARED TO MY EXPECTATIONS
My advice for this web site is don’t let the busy homepage keep you from entering. Also, even though I signed in alright, it would not recognize my postings saying that I never registered which of course I did seeing how I signed in with the password they gave me. I don’t care for the busyness of the site but the content is golde
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Thanks, I was not familiar with Proteacher Community. I will add it to the list of resources for future classes of EDU 7666.
ReplyDelete1. Did anyone offer a suggestion of how to deal with the situation (parent doing student's work)? If so, what were some of them?
2. Do you think it is a good idea for principals to do their own hiring? Why or why not?
3. In reference to having students make Christmas ornaments, what would you do for children who do not celebrate Christmas?
If you are not in a religious school, you may need to get approval from the administration before doing a religion related activity.
Advice and how the experience compared to your expectations is only for the 4th/last posting.
It's funny because so many people posted on this thread about parents doing homework but they were all telling their stories. Not one offered advice. Wwell, I should not say that. They did offer talking to the parents but no one really got anywhere with this. There was one poster who posted that teachers should give class time for essays and other assignments teachers give out as homework. I posted back that this is what I do. One poster asked me how long my period was and I told them it was a double period and admitted I was a student teacher. In a kind of nasty way, 2 posters both told me there was not such a thing as double periods, I guess outside this city they don't exsist, and basically told me in reality, not nyc, there is not enough time to give in class work.
ReplyDeleteI am not sure yet if principles hiring is or is not a good idea. I have a feeling if I get hired quickly, after the freeze, I will say it's a good idea. If I don't get hired right away, I will say it's a bad idea. At least I am aware of my fickleness.
I never even thought about kids who are not Christians making ornaments. I think I will post that up and see what people say. I know Jewish students can make dradles, but what about Islamic and non-believers? Maybe I'll come up with a diorama for the students to make depicting a winter scene.
Hi Again:
ReplyDeleteFYI - Check spelling of principal. Confused with principle.
Winter scene - safe idea.
WEek 3 Journal Blog Grade: 100
Participation: 2/2
Organization/Content: 10/10
Grammar: 10/10
Response to Professor Questions: 10/10