The highs and lows of teaching: From making a difference, building great relationships and shaping the future, to homework, reports and helicopter parents.

A teacher’s reflection on 6 months of blogging…

13,000 words later and I feel like I’ll never get sick of posting. Over the past 6 months I’ve had the joy of having some good chats with fellow educators like the experienced, very enthusiastic and full-of-ideas Norah Colvin, to new teachers such as the very switched-on and similarly enthusiastic Cultivating Questioners, as well as blogs such as ijstock and Cognition Education. Let’s admit it, every blogger loves to get comments! When a comment comes through from people of the same wavelength as you, it’s always exciting, isn’t it!

More than a chance to network, hear from other people that are passionate about education (teachers and parents alike) and learn new things, blogging is a great chance to just hammer your thoughts out on a keyboard, send them into cyberspace and get things off your chest. Particularly when you work in a profession which is constantly evolving, and which there seems as though there’ll never be a manual on ‘how to teach’. Therefore, all schools do things differently and of course, you’re never going to agree with everything that goes on within your school and system. It’s always nice to hear you’re not the only one!

I started this blog to share My 2 Cents on a range of education-related topics. Long story short, one of my rabbits was sick, and after consulting ‘Dr Google’, I discovered that hardly any professionals post useful advice relating to their profession online. I felt, as a teacher, that I could easily write about what I do, and that it might help a parent, a teacher, anyone. Thus began, “A teacher’s take…”

A summary of my posts:
A teacher's take on getting your kids to school on time... And why it's the least you can do...

A teacher's take on why schools should scrap 'grades', and give kids real 'feedback'...
A teacher's take on rethinking education...
Ken Robinson's take on how we should be viewing education...
Ken Robinson's take on schools, and how they kill creativity...
A teacher's take on letting kids play...
A teacher's take on positive teacher-student relationships...
A teacher's take on student reports... And why they're a waste of my time!
A teacher's take on homework...
An Australian teacher's take on America's Common Core...
A teacher's take on parent-teacher relationships...
A teacher's take on respecting teachers, pt2...
A teacher's take on respecting teachers, pt1...
A teacher's take on earning respect from students...
A teacher's take on positive thoughts and how kids let negative thoughts consume them...
A teacher's take on independence and helicopter parents...
A teacher's take on the jargon of explicit teaching...
A teacher's take on "How Children Learn"...
A teacher's take on self-help and parenting advice...
A teacher's take on blogs...

Teachling <Wordpress> < Twitter>

 

 

My 2 Cents

A teacher's take on blogs.

So, now seems the perfect time to launch this blog… It’s back to school this week for children and teachers in UK and USA! Meanwhile, us here in Australia are counting down the days to our school holidays in a couple of weeks. What’s this blog all about?
A few weeks ago one of my pet bunnies, Bobbi, was seeming a little under the weather. I jumped onto Google and quickly learned my rabbit had cancer, myxomatosis, hay fever (go figure), blocked sinuses, along with the numerous other diagnoses ranging from the tragically dire to the utterly weird (apparently ‘poopy butt’ is a legitimate concern for rabbits) trumped up by random bunny owners from around the world. Hang on, I thought, not a single diagnosis I found on good old Dr Google was written by an actual veterinarian! I thought, there must be many thousands of vets around the world, why are none of them on forums or blogs answering questions about people’s pets? I thought, wouldn’t it make more sense for me to get advice from a vet, rather than who-knows-who? Props to the thousands of bunny enthusiasts for putting forward your 2 cents but whom I really hoped to hear from was a vet. So I’ll have you know I did take Bobbi to the vet and it turns out all he had a regular cold – no big deal. However, that just further proved my point and it got me thinking.
If there are people with expertise in a field, why are they not doing their bit and sharing that expertise with others? Sadly, it probably comes down to making money more than anything else – Why give away for free, something you can charge people for? But…

Me, I’m a teacher. A primary school teacher from Melbourne, Australia. Why would I keep secret, what I know about education and what I think about how we can work together to maximise your child’s future?

I believe in communities – learning communities made up of children, their parents and families, their teachers and school, and everyone else that plays a role in their life, development and future – working together. Whilst my students are the centre of my Universe, I know that I am just a tiny part of their lives. Improving a child’s life-chances is everyone’s responsibility.

So that’s why I decided to start this blog. I hope it is a useful read for parents in particular. I’m here to help… I hope! I’m happy to share my 2 cents on whatever it is you want to know about education.  I recently saw a segment on TV titled “The Rise Of The Mummy Blogger”. Yes, there’re lots of blogs for parents written by parents, and plenty of great teaching blogs written by teachers for teachers, but sometimes it seems parents don’t get to hear what teachers really think. When you ask your child’s teacher, they are often obliged to tow the party line (ie. Tell you what ‘the school believes’) or tell you what you want to hear just to keep the peace. That’s where I come in.

I hope you like it and be sure to reply to my posts so I know what you’re thinking and what you’d like me to write about.

- Mr Teachling

Important disclaimer: I am a qualified, registered and experienced teacher, although I must advise that the contents of this blog ('Teachling') are general in nature and written in good faith, without consideration of any individual’s or group’s specific circumstances or needs. The contents of this blog should not be relied upon as professional recommendation (whether expressly or implicitly), rather as background information only.