When I was giving a guest lecture about social media and learning to pre-service teachers at the University of South Australia, one student asked me what social media could they start to join now - as a pre-service teacher.
It is well known in education research that many teachers in their first years of teaching leave the profession and that teacher resilience and retention is an issue. Conversations with my friends who went straight into teaching (instead of continuing with my research pathway) paint a very realistic picture of the experience that even the most organised and high-achieving graduates can go through while settling into the first 6 months, or even year. Now don't get me wrong, this is a very rewarding career and this experience may not represent all graduates but for some, or many, running a primary school classroom full time, while still building teaching resources, classroom ideas, finding your feet in the school community, working with parents and children, and refining practice (among other items!) can be challenging.
Being part of the CSER Digital Technologies MOOC has really opened my eyes to the numerous and vibrantly active professional learning networks and communities across a number of social media sites. If I was a pre-service teacher or a new graduate, I would have really valued the conversations taking place in these spaces and even found these communities a useful source of support and ideas!
This inspired me to develop a Prezi Presentation about Social Media sites and some suggested communities for teachers. Of course, there are many out there and I have only just scratched the surface (from an Adelaide, South Australia perspective with an interest in ICTs), but I encourage teachers to explore, Google search and even speak to other teachers to find out if there are any online communities and networks within your area of expertise, location and interest. For example, I know that there are very active Teacher Librarian groups, STEM groups, Mathematics and Literacy groups.
Here is a link to the presentation: http://prezi.com/mdfubcadf5tk/social-media-for-teachers/
Feel free to remix and re-share the presentation with others!
It is well known in education research that many teachers in their first years of teaching leave the profession and that teacher resilience and retention is an issue. Conversations with my friends who went straight into teaching (instead of continuing with my research pathway) paint a very realistic picture of the experience that even the most organised and high-achieving graduates can go through while settling into the first 6 months, or even year. Now don't get me wrong, this is a very rewarding career and this experience may not represent all graduates but for some, or many, running a primary school classroom full time, while still building teaching resources, classroom ideas, finding your feet in the school community, working with parents and children, and refining practice (among other items!) can be challenging.
Being part of the CSER Digital Technologies MOOC has really opened my eyes to the numerous and vibrantly active professional learning networks and communities across a number of social media sites. If I was a pre-service teacher or a new graduate, I would have really valued the conversations taking place in these spaces and even found these communities a useful source of support and ideas!
This inspired me to develop a Prezi Presentation about Social Media sites and some suggested communities for teachers. Of course, there are many out there and I have only just scratched the surface (from an Adelaide, South Australia perspective with an interest in ICTs), but I encourage teachers to explore, Google search and even speak to other teachers to find out if there are any online communities and networks within your area of expertise, location and interest. For example, I know that there are very active Teacher Librarian groups, STEM groups, Mathematics and Literacy groups.
Here is a link to the presentation: http://prezi.com/mdfubcadf5tk/social-media-for-teachers/
Feel free to remix and re-share the presentation with others!