Teacher debate: Friendliness vs. Friendship in the classroom

-


Friendliness vs. Friendship in the classroom. What a topic!
Has it ever happened to you that one of your students or even group of students confuse these terms and expects from you attitudes or behaviours that make you feel uncomfortable?

Let´s start by getting some definitions: 

Friendliness: Warm; comforting.
Friendship: The quality or condition of being friends.

 Evidently there is a big difference between both words. And even if it hasn´t happend to us, it is clear it is very difficult to be your student’s friend and maintain your teacher’s role. 

 Dr. Stacia Levy, teaches writing and reading skills at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California to both native and nonnative speakers of English. She analyses and comes up with some interesting ideas regarding this topic. 

 You Are NOT Your Students’ BFF (Best Friend Forever): Balancing “Friendliness” and “Friendship”

What do you think of the author´s Method to Maintain a Friendly attitude?

 Another controversial topic related is Facebook, should we befriend our students?

We will have a debate on the topic, some of you will be putting forward a positive view to the topic and others against. Prepare the ideas and arguments you´ll bring. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Thanks for your comment! We will make it public as soon as possible.

Popular posts from this blog

Let´s do away with boring introductions.

-
Those of us who´ve been teaching for some time, know there are some typical 1st day activities; for example introducing yourself. We can make good use of some excellent web 2.0 tools to do this. Storybird. Animoto.   Photopeach.   Xtranormal Go Animate If you want even more, here´s a whole lot more! 50+ web 2.0 tools to tell a Story Here´s my choice. Now it is your turn. Following the same structure, prepare an "About me" presentation. Which tool will you choose? Once you have your Story, just include the link in a comment. 
Read more

Vocabulary Building

-
This time it´s Ways of Breaking. Have you ever considered the amount of words in English you can find which describe different ways of breaking or damaging things? Here I´ve selected only some. Have a look! Activity: Burst into flames. Crack a joke... There are lots of phrases, idioms, expressions with many of the words presented today. Find at least five, write a sentence using each of them and post it as a comment underneath.
Read more

Learning styles. How do I learn best?

-
Image
We are all different and thus learn in different ways. Each of us has preferred or dominant learning style, but we also have a mix of them.  We can also use different learning styles in different circumstances as they are not fixed. Our learning styles model the way we learn and connect with knowledge, how we represent experiences, recall information; even the words we choose are influenced by our learning style.  The Seven Learning Styles Visual  (spatial) : You prefer using pictures, images, and spatial understanding. Aural  (auditory-musical):  You prefer using sound and music. Verbal  (linguistic):  You prefer using words, both in speech and writing. Physical  (kinesthetic):  You prefer using your body, hands and sense of touch. Logical  (mathematical):  You prefer using logic, reasoning and systems. Social  (interpersonal):  You prefer to learn in groups or with other people. Solitary  (intrapersonal):  You prefer to work alone and use self-study. ( http://www.lear
Read more