Online Community: A to Z Teacher Stuff Forum

For the past several months I have been regularly reading and occasionally posting to the forum section of the A to Z Teacher Stuff Forum. There are a variety of different ongoing threads here, from the very general, such as Secondary Education, to more specific topics such as Behavior Management. Here are my opinions on the situation, Wild West Movie style:

The Good:

The nice thing about reading and posting to this forum was that many of the people were very supportive; whether or not I took their advice or agreed with what they were saying, it was nice to see people generally supporting each other, which in my experience, isn't necessarily always the case in the relatively anonymous Internet world. This post was a good example of that type of support and advice.

Another thing I enjoyed about reading the forum was the wealth of ideas out there-- again, not that all of them work, but usually they are being supported by people who have found them effective in their classrooms.

The Bad:

Truthfully, while there were a lot of things that I enjoyed about participating in the online community, I have to say that I really prefer talking to someone face to face. Especially in the situation I am currently in at Bartlett, where my colleagues in the Cook Inlet Tribal Council program are all teachers that retired and then came back because they truly love teaching, poring over articles on the Internet seems like an inefficient use of time in comparison to talking with seasoned veteran teachers who know my particular situation and my students.


The Ugly:


The worst thing about posting and reading through the forums at A to Z Teacher Stuff was the fact that there are several posters out there who are constantly pushing a particular fad, which may or may not be related to a product. Either these people are really hooked on one particular idea, such as "Power Teaching," or they are somehow promoting a product, because regardless of the person's situation, it seems that they always recommended the same thing. An example of this can be found here.