Category Archives: 2 Prof. Knowledge & Understanding

Social media.

Social media can be a touchy subject when it comes to the profession of teaching. Everyone undoubtedly these days is on some form of social media whether it be Facebook, twitter, Instagram etc. it has had a very positive impact on the world, and the lives that we live today. There are many great things that we can do with social media and the internet, and now most of us can’t imagine our lives without them. However when it comes to teaching and social media, there can be a dark side to it.

Most children these days also have access to social media and usually are up to date with the latest technology. Personally from experience with my younger siblings, it fascinates me how much more children as young as 7 know about technology compared to me at 17. Children can often end up in a section on social media they are not supposed to be on. For example, they may be watching a video on YouTube and click on one of the suggested videos, which may be completely inappropriate for a child to be watching. This can also come in to effect, especially when a child reaches upper school ages, that they have a tendency to ‘google’ if you like, their teachers. We are all guilty of it. I can recall from being in high school, a group of us searching for some of our teachers on social media although I cannot think if a valid reason as to why we were doing so. Therefore it is our duties as teachers to be very careful with our social media sites and what we are posting on the online world.

The first steps that I feel are crucial when it comes to the profession of teaching and social media, is that we ensure all our profiles are private and only accessible to our friends only. Although it may seem very restrictive, if teaching is truly what we want to do with our lives, then it should be something we should be willing to sacrifice. We need to think twice before posting online, especially if we are teaching within our own community in which we may be friends with any pupils’ parents. A major thing that we need to be careful with is photographs of ourselves that are posted online. Our professionalism also exists the classroom with us when we leave. We need to make sure that no one is uploading or we ourselves are not uploading any type of photo that may get us in any kind of trouble or put our job at risk. With social media, it can have a huge impact on our careers, and it can have multiple consequences if we are not careful, thus we need to be very critical with ourselves and how we portray ourselves on the online world.

This being said I also do think that social media is a great asset to the teaching community. As teachers we can set up separate accounts to engage with our students online, in a fun and engaging way. Social media is something that is constantly developing in the word, and something that is not going to go away, thus we should be engaging with it within a classroom. It is most common that negative connotations spring to mind when speaking about the subject of social media and the teaching profession. Although this is something we need to explore in to and steer more towards the positives and begin to realize the many benefits social media possess to us as teachers.

After doing a bit of research in to social media and the classroom, I came across this video, and I found it really interesting in demonstrating the positives of using social media within a classroom and the benefits children get from using it in their learning.

online unit 1C

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Active learning

There are many benefits that can be taken away from the practice of active learning within a classroom. Things like taking students outside to learn or having them participate in various activities within a classroom can help them to remember things more than from just sitting listening to a teacher dictate a lesson. Also through active learning students can work together on tasks which will get them speaking to new people enhancing their social skills. Through this they will learn how to work with people from different backgrounds and attitudes. Also as teachers, we can ask the children working in a group to give one another feedback or to observe one another. This way students will receive feedback on their work straight away and more often. They will also see how others learn and may find a way that suits them better and helps them in their learning. Active learning is also a great way to enhance a child’s self-confidence as it gets them speaking out and doing activities with others, compared to sitting silently in a classroom. It is also better experience for the student as they get to do activities which are enjoyable, which in the long term, will be more beneficial to their learning.

Cooperative learning

There are also many benefits that can be taken away from the practice of cooperative learning within a classroom. One thing I have noticed from being on placement is that from working as part of a group, children ‘translate’ if you like, what the teacher is saying in to a form of language that is easier for the children to understand, therefore making the task seem easier to them. From working in small groups, children learn to listen to others viewpoints, which they may have the same view, thus they are able to work together to develop on that point. Also if there is part of a task that one student does not understand and another does, they are able to work together to ensure that they both finally end up understanding both parts. Not only do students have fun learning in groups, it also motivates them as they wants their group to do well. Often teachers have targets for students working in groups, such as group point, therefore the students within each group will want to work more and they will achieve more from their learning as they have something to work towards.

Professionalism tdt;

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Patience. For teachers, patience is key. It is the ability to accept delay, trouble or suffering without becoming angry of upset, something that teachers must have. As a teacher, we may not always know the background of the student or what their home life is like, and it things like this, that may affect a child’s behavior in a classroom. Therefore we must be patient when it comes to a child’s behavior and not be too quick in becoming annoyed or upset.

Empathy. This is the ability to understand and share the feelings of someone else. It can be quite a challenging skill to have, although every child is different, thus every child has different feelings. As teachers, we should be a person who a child feels they can come and speak to about anything, so we should be understanding for them and easy for them to discuss any issues with. Therefore empathy is a key ability to have as a teacher.

Self control. Personally I feel that this is one of the key abilities that a teacher must have. it is the ability to control your emotions, behavior and desires. If someone does something to annoy you, it can be very easy to loose your temper, although this is not something that you can do in front of a class full of young students. As teachers we need to be able to control ourselves, so that children are able to look up to us and respect us.

Respect. We as teachers want to gain the childrens respect, and the obvious way for us to do that, is to respect them. We can not demand respect if we show none. Respect is a feeling of admiration for some one else because of their qualities or achievements. Children will come in to classrooms with all different sorts of qualities and achievements, thus we need to learn to value and respect all different sorts of children, as children are all different. If we want to gain their respect, we must show ours.

Fairness. Coming back to the idea that every child is different, as teachers it is crucial that we treat all children the same. No child is above or below another. It is the act of treating people equally, and a classroom must be an equal environment in which kids are aware of that also. There should not be one child who feels that they are in any way below another child, and as teachers, it is our responsibility to create that environment.