Top 10 Worst Things a Teacher Can Do

The article, “Top 10 Worst Things a Teacher Can Do” by Marissa Kelly, focuses on the most important element in teaching – the relationship between the teacher and student. The heart of Kelly’s article is respect and fairness for the student, while maintaining professionalism and boundaries. Kelly disputes the old adage of “don’t smile until Christmas,” but she tempers it with advice of avoiding the trap of becoming the student’s friend. More importantly, Kelly cautions the new teacher about using humiliation or embarrassment as classroom management techniques, and encourages teachers to be fair, consistent, and respectful of students at all times.

Kelly’s suggestions are essential foundations for teachers, whether they are new to the profession or seasoned veterans. Her list of “don’ts” strike at the core of a teacher’s philosophy for being in the classroom. That is, are we in the classroom to foster student learning, growth, and wellness, or are we in the classroom to satisfy some inner, narcissistic, need? Do we as teachers believe that all children can learn or only those from particular backgrounds? Do we believe in the dignity of all students? Our answers to these fundamental questions will determine whether we partake in Kelly’s list of “don’ts” and risk damaging a student’s self esteem, growth, and learning, or avoid these unhealthy pitfalls that ruin the ever important teacher – student relationship.

VLIB -- Virtual Library

VLIB – Virtual Library
The Virtual Library website is a great resource for content management for teachers. The site includes many subjects that would be useful for teachers including agriculture, the arts, business and economics, communications and media, computers, reference, international affairs, natural science and math, social and behavioral sciences, and society (religion, gender studies). I visited the Natural Sciences and Mathematics section of the website and found many additional that would be useful when putting together lesson plans. However, several of the web links that I clicked on were not operating properly (e.g. the Education web link). As a new user to this site, I was discouraged and this lead me to challenge the current state of the site.

Concept to Classroom

Concept to Classroom
This is a wonderful site for educators – interactive, informative, and cutting edge! The Concept to Classroom site has tools for the all levels of teachers – beginners, veterans, and those who are studying to become teachers. The workshop menu includes a variety of topics including assessment, cooperative learning environments, making family connections, and multiple intelligences. Although the information in the multiple intelligence workshop was basic to the theory, the website provided many resources to further one’s knowledge of the topic. Definitely a website to furl!

Planet PDF

Planet PDF
I’m a little confused about the value of this website for teaching and learning. I understand the value of the pdf format for interchanging documents between users. The pdf file allows users a universal format to view documents regardless of their operating system. Virtually any file that can changed into a pdf format, including Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Publisher, and many others. Once the document is converted into the pdf format anyone who has Adobe Reader or Nitro PDF can view the document whether or not they have the original software program in which the document was created. Pdf conversion software is ubiquitous (in fact it’s free with Mac) and the reading software is free to any user. Teachers can use this tool to disseminate documents, reading assignments, and news information to a large group of students and parents in a format that is universally recognized.

One valuable tool on this website were the numerous books already converted into pdf format. With this new generation of learners who are so comfortable with computers (i.e. the digital natives) , the pdf version of books will be essential for teachers to meet learners on their turf!

click here to download adobe acrobat reader

Furl It

Furl It Social Bookmarking Site


This website is an incredible tool for all who use the web, especially for those involved in research and teaching. Furl It enables a surfer to catalog websites and web pages according to topic, recommendations, headlines, and subscriptions, much like a bookmark on a common browser such as Internet Explorer, Firefox, or Safari. However, the beauty of this tool lies in the fact that a web user can access the cataloged web pages now matter what computer they are using! The implications of this are far reaching. For the teacher or researcher who uses multiple computers, they are able to catalog their favorite websites and access them whether at home, school, or on vacation. Additional features of the site that make it really cool include the ability to share websites and web pages with a friend or group of friends (e.g. 3rd grade teachers throughout the district) and to access pages even when the URL is no longer valid. I was so impressed, I already started using it to catalog websites for math, sailing, and school.