Teach100 Mentor

Experts are calling it a crisis. The United States are experiencing a national shortage in teachers, with eight percent of educators leaving the field each year. The cause? An exponential rise in teacher burnout.

Here’s how Teach100 Mentor teachers work with, not against, smartphones in their classrooms:

Teaching online: it may be the future, but how are teachers feeling about it now?

From technology use to lesson plan adaptation, shifting from an in person classroom to an online one can require a lot of adjustments. While some teachers love the breadth of opportunities online teaching presents, like access to new locations, subjects, and students they couldn't otherwise reach, others struggle with managing new platforms, reshaping lessons to suit a chatrooms instead of classrooms, and doing without that in-person 'je ne sais quoi.'

In honor of "Online Teaching Tuesdays" (our weekly series covering topics in virtual education), we asked Teach100 Mentors: what do you think of teaching online? Would you do it? Have you done it? And if so, would you be okay with internet instruction being the future of education?

Here's what they had to say:

Today, you don’t have to search very far to see bullying occur. Whether in the news, social media, professional settings or in a school environment, bullying has become more common in all areas of society. By definition, bullying is the unwanted, aggressive form of behaviors and threats to intimidate others repeatedly. Bullying has always existed in school environments among children. However, now more than ever is bullying prevalent and a growing issue educators and teachers are looking to improve.

Teacher compensation is a divisive subject. On the one hand, everyone agrees that the work of teachers is incredibly important. On the other hand, a shroud of mystery is pulled over the process of teaching and learning, and people who have never taught themselves are confused about the work. What are teachers really doing all day? Why should their work days end at three when 9-5ers remain chained to their desks? I wish I could have a 2-month paid vacation! (Okay that’s more of a statement we can all relate to than a question).

Though we all instinctively avoid it, failure is inevitable in life. That's why learning resilience and how to incorporate feedback is a key part of any child's education. Truly failing is also instructive in the understanding of consequences: not doing homework (or forgetting it) should mean getting a poor grade on that assignment. But the feedback loop (and a student's learning process) may be short circuited by a parent bringing in the forgotten assignment, or a teacher extending a deadline.