Comments for More than a maths teacher

Comment on Get in touch by SEDA

SEDA — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 22:04:48 +0000

HELLO.I’M FROM TURKEY.MY NAME İS SEDA.I’M A PRİMARY SCHOOL TEACHER.I’M STUDYING ON A PROJECT.IT’S ABOUT ACTIVE LEARNİNG ON MATHS .I LİKE YOUR BLOG.CONGRULATIONS.

Comment on #ReasonsWhyIHateSchool by Lois Lindemann

Lois Lindemann — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 22:57:48 +0000

You’re absolutely right Will, that feeling of being a member of a failing team is exactly the right description.

I’m very tempted to ask some of my students what they think. We’re in the midst of exam season, so it’s not the right moment, but maybe in a week or two I’ll give it a go.

Comment on #ReasonsWhyIHateSchool by will

will — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 19:08:25 +0000

After you Tweeted that you were having difficulty reading the number of Tweets because they were updating so quickly, I went to look. And, like you, I was stunned to see how fast it was moving. Stunned and depressed. Just watching them stream through, faster than I could read, was so upsetting. Upsetting because in some way, I felt a failure – or at least a member of a failing team.

But, you know, from a distance, it isn’t all as bad as it appeared last night (or maybe still is appearing today – I’m not going back). Everything, *everything* could have a trending hashtag on Twitter on #ReasonsWhyIHateFillInAnyRandomWord. Heck, I can find stuff to moan about Christmas/DisneyWorld/ChocolateCake. So yes, it looks terrible, but in the long run – we know why we teach “stuff they will never use”, because if they didn’t learn how to use *new* stuff, learn to progress from one point to another, they would stagnate. They wouldn’t have the ability to learn how to use a mobile phone, to Tweet, to use hashtags, to express rage/annoyance/boredom.

In the long run, we do as much as we can to make school as fun/exciting/interesting as possible. And we do as much as possible to prepare them for the world outside of school – because, let’s be honest, if you exchange the word “school” for “job” in all those Tweets, they still all make sense.

Comment on The first rule of the teaching profession is: you do not talk about the teaching profession by Just be careful | ttsjl

Just be careful | ttsjl — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 11:37:51 +0000

[...] article here dissects the specifics of the comments, but some common sense and careful thought should ensure [...]

Comment on The first rule of the teaching profession is: you do not talk about the teaching profession by Lois Lindemann

Lois Lindemann — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 22:18:12 +0000

Given the comments made on their behalf, I’m not surprised to learn that the SSTA are known for their social media phobia. Unfortunately, I think there are a lot of individuals and organisations who believe social media and the internet are dangerous.

Comment on The first rule of the teaching profession is: you do not talk about the teaching profession by Steven

Steven — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 21:08:00 +0000

Excellent post. The SSTA are sadly known for their social media phobia.

Comment on The first rule of the teaching profession is: you do not talk about the teaching profession by Lois Lindemann

Lois Lindemann — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 23:41:07 +0000

Thanks for all your comments.

I agree about the interesting activities Dan.

For various reasons I dropped out of the digital world for a lot of 2011. Two of my classes started complaining that we weren’t doing enough of their favourite types of activities – they like using tech and interactive resources. That was partly (or even largely) an issue of limited preparation time, but also down to the fact that I wasn’t dipping into the stream of good ideas that come from blog posts, Tweets and social bookmarking sites.

Comment on The first rule of the teaching profession is: you do not talk about the teaching profession by Dan Wood

Dan Wood — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 10:34:41 +0000

This morning I popped in to a colleague’s lesson, to find her delivering a starter activity that developed from an idea she spotted on……

….Twitter!

So, without her use of social media students could be missing out on interesting activities.

Comment on The first rule of the teaching profession is: you do not talk about the teaching profession by @damoward

@damoward — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 22:53:15 +0000

Yes, agree totally. It is a ridiculous statement by Mr Docherty to exclude modern communications methods that ‘some’ teachers find highly beneficial to their work. Symptomatic too of the paranoia that prevails in educational management and knee–jerking by those who don’t *get* social media.

Comment on The first rule of the teaching profession is: you do not talk about the teaching profession by Dan Wood

Dan Wood — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 22:36:05 +0000

Nice one, Lois!
Hits the nail on the head exactly.