I didn't think this would be a topic to interest me but I have been gripped by
this idea of
"students [and adults] feeling pressured to have a MySpace account and to be into
gaming of some
sort
or another. Technological peer pressure, you aren't ANYBODY if you don't have
a...cell
phone/camera/computer, mp3 player, ipod, myspace account and whatever other techie
gizmo you can
think of."
and I wonder if this can also be translated into how we feel about our own personal
professional
performance.
I know that a few years ago when I was just an apprentice teacher-librarian and
studying that all
the text books etc said that collaborative, co-operative planning and teaching were
IT. That you
couldn't really be top of the tree for students if you did not operate in this way.
And I felt
demoralised because there was no way, under the structure and strategies of my
school that I would
ever be more than a specialist teacher used during teacher planning time. (And ten
years later, I am
right!) I read everything I could from everywhere I could glean it that might
help me change the
mindset of those who held the purse strings but nothing changed.
But, with some years under my belt, and the knowledge I had gained through
membership of these sots
of online communities, I figured that my energies would be better spent making the
situation I had
work to the max. Maybe, according the experts, it isn't the ideal, but I offer the
best I can in
the circumstances I work within. The result is that I am a much more confident
practitioner and
that confidence is translating into competence and I am actually doing more.
So I wonder if some of our members are feeling as though they are failing because
they do not or can
not offer every one of these new services. I once worked in a school where the
principal was like a
fat frog on a lilypad snapping at every fly that came along and swallowing it,
rather than being
more selective. The result was a lot of teachers doing a lot of new, innovative
stuff but nothing
was being done well so we were very frustrated, tired and confused.
I continually read of new things that some of my colleagues are doing with their
students,
particularly with ICT, but have learned to think "How wonderful the kids to have
that opportunity"
and move on. That's not to say that I never try anything new, but I have learned
to be comfortable
and confident with what I do do. I don't gobble every fly, just the juiciest that
appeal to my
taste buds. I am not the only teacher these students will have so their entire
education and
success in this world is not dependent on me. I am but a tiny part, someone whose
name will
probably not even be remembered ten years from now.
So if you are feeling that you are less valuable to your students than you might be
because you
don't have all the latest whizbangery, take time to reflect on what you do have and
do to contribute
and congratulate yourself on that.
Barbara
Barbara Braxton
Teacher Librarian
Palmerston District Primary School
PALMERSTON ACT 2913
AUSTRALIA
T. 61 2 6205 6162
F. 61 2 6205 7242
E. barbara@iimetro.com.au
W. http://www.palmdps.act.edu.au
"Together we learn from each other."
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