Teachers' Blogs..
Recently, I've been coming across many teachers' blogs. In them, I see numerous pictures of these teachers taken together with their students. On one hand, I am intrigued on reading what is written and seeing the pictures. On the other hand, I am disturbed. These teachers are mostly in their mid-twenties.
It all started at the beginning of the year, where my classmates and I shared our contract teaching experiences with one another. Most of them mentioned that they stayed on because they love being around children. They still keep in contact with their students via MSN, SMS or even having outings with them. When I heard this from one my classmates, I thought it was an exception. But after all of them shared, I realised it was a norm. At that moment, I thought I was a complete failure. During my contract teaching experience, I don't think I built much rapport with my students. When I announced that it was the last day with them, none of them showed any reaction. There was no further probing, no goodbye, and definitely, no asking for handphone number, email or MSN contact.
Shouldn't a teacher and her student keep a certain distance? There's all this talk about building rapport with students and winning their trust over. But to what extent should this rapport building go to? I get uncomfortable with the thought of being so over-friendly with my students. I always feel that if we become on par with the students, that is becoming friends with them, the students would take advantage of the situation and climb above our heads. This notion came about from my contract teaching experience. It's impossible to strike a balance between being friendly to the class and getting them to learn. I would rather be Miss Unpopular but achieve my objective of making them learn something at the end of the lesson.
There's nothing wrong with taking photographs with students. But I feel that splattering them on one's(teacher's) blog seems rather inappropriate. Did the teachers get the students' permission before doing so? I understand that most students would love to have their faces put up for the whole world to see. But there definitely would be exceptions. After all, not everyone owns a pretty face. If I were a student, I definitely would not want my picture up on my teacher's blog.
Moving on to the point about frequently MSNing/SMSing/going out with students. Yes, it's true that through these, we can get to know and understand our students deeper. But seriously I really can't imagine myself doing those. It seems to make a mockery out of our profession. There's a limit to what we can do to help our students. I'm a firm believer that teachers should have a life of their own. Our lives should not just revolve around school and students. Otherwise, we will definitely suffer from a burnout. Building rapport with students is indeed important but it should be confined to the school premises. Anything other than that is an invasion of our personal space.
It all started at the beginning of the year, where my classmates and I shared our contract teaching experiences with one another. Most of them mentioned that they stayed on because they love being around children. They still keep in contact with their students via MSN, SMS or even having outings with them. When I heard this from one my classmates, I thought it was an exception. But after all of them shared, I realised it was a norm. At that moment, I thought I was a complete failure. During my contract teaching experience, I don't think I built much rapport with my students. When I announced that it was the last day with them, none of them showed any reaction. There was no further probing, no goodbye, and definitely, no asking for handphone number, email or MSN contact.
Shouldn't a teacher and her student keep a certain distance? There's all this talk about building rapport with students and winning their trust over. But to what extent should this rapport building go to? I get uncomfortable with the thought of being so over-friendly with my students. I always feel that if we become on par with the students, that is becoming friends with them, the students would take advantage of the situation and climb above our heads. This notion came about from my contract teaching experience. It's impossible to strike a balance between being friendly to the class and getting them to learn. I would rather be Miss Unpopular but achieve my objective of making them learn something at the end of the lesson.
There's nothing wrong with taking photographs with students. But I feel that splattering them on one's(teacher's) blog seems rather inappropriate. Did the teachers get the students' permission before doing so? I understand that most students would love to have their faces put up for the whole world to see. But there definitely would be exceptions. After all, not everyone owns a pretty face. If I were a student, I definitely would not want my picture up on my teacher's blog.
Moving on to the point about frequently MSNing/SMSing/going out with students. Yes, it's true that through these, we can get to know and understand our students deeper. But seriously I really can't imagine myself doing those. It seems to make a mockery out of our profession. There's a limit to what we can do to help our students. I'm a firm believer that teachers should have a life of their own. Our lives should not just revolve around school and students. Otherwise, we will definitely suffer from a burnout. Building rapport with students is indeed important but it should be confined to the school premises. Anything other than that is an invasion of our personal space.
posted by The Aspiring Chef @ 12:12 PM
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