Rate Your Students

In the age of technology, students and teachers alike are becoming tech-savvy. The teaching profession often comes under scrutiny from students, parents, community, and society in general and there are numerous sites on the net that allow for the public to comment on, complain about, or praise educators.

Some popular sites are Rate My Teacher or Rate My Professor. I'm sure there are plenty more and if you come across any...please add them in the comments below. These forums allow people to voice their opinions whether negative or positive. Then you have sites like Facebook where people can create their own groups of interest and discuss topics of interest. I've noticed that most schools are mentioned somewhere on Facebook as members or alumni gather to talk about experiences, memories, reconnecting, and who knows what else.

I recently came across a similar type of site designed for teachers...Rate My Students. This site is basically a blog where teachers can creatively express their frustrations, successes, learnings, and general reflections on teaching. In accordance with ethics of professionalism, names are not used and the reflections ring true I'm sure with many educators.

Here is the blog description...

Welcome to Rate Your Students, a public forum where faculty and students can work out the tricky dynamic of the modern classroom. Students can tell us why they won't take the iPod out during a lecture, and professors can tell us why their clothes are so frumpy.

I've visited the site a number of times in the past couple of days and have greatly enjoyed the posts there. Many people do not appreciate the struggles that so many of us passionate teachers deal with in our occupation. It's definitely worth a read for fellow teachers and also for students to perhaps see things from a slightly different perspective...i.e. outside their own.