Teachers active on the internet: outlet and extra income
Maintaining a website or Facebook community is laborious, but it pays off and sometimes it relieves. "When I write about it, I make the problem a lot easier."
Picture: Fred van Diem
One of the teacher sites on the internet is that of Anke van Boxmeer (32), group 1/2 teacher at Roald Dahl primary school in Sint-Michielsgestel. Well-presented teaching materials, 'golden' lesson tips and useful links.
“During my last year at the teacher training college I started collecting lesson ideas on my own site and I continued with that once I was in the classroom”, Anke van Boxmeer explains about the history of Jufanke.nl. She has a simple explanation for the fact that there are quite a few teacher sites on the internet. “Group 1/2 uses less methods, which means that teachers have more room to give substance to the lessons themselves. Well, and they start looking for good material. ”
Less methods are used in group 1/2, which means that teachers have more room to give their own interpretation to the lessons
Van Boxmeer offers most lesson ideas for free, but for some things visitors are redirected to the Kindergarten University where they can download the teaching materials for a few euros. “A colleague, Miss Sanne, set up the Kindergarten University and I joined it together with some other colleagues. In this way we can reach many colleagues with the material we make and we get a small fee in return. But the pleasure we get from it is number one. ”
Jufanke.nl has about six thousand page views on school days, with peaks at eight thousand during the Children's Book Week. “Especially starting teachers and trainees know where to find my website. It is ideal for them, because in those early days you have your hands full teaching and then it is nice if you can use existing material. ”
Van Boxmeer built the site all by himself. “At the time I bought a book with HTML codes and a software program and got to work. Fun to do, but if I have a code wrong, I am sometimes puzzling for hours. I have considered moving everything to a standard Wordpress site, but that probably takes too much time.”
Great ideas on Facebook
Biology teacher Cees Mulder (Image: Fred van Diem)
Cees Mulder (41), biology teacher at the Kaj Munk College in Hoofddorp, is happy with his website Mijnbiologie.nl, but exchanging ideas via Facebook works even better.
With the same enthusiasm as TV biologist Freek Vonk and TV forester Arjan Postma, Mulder talks about his profession and about his website Mining biology. “I started doing this about eight years ago. I already wrote 'biological' columns for Spits and 3FM. Mining biology is a digital learning environment with a lot of practice material for teachers and students. My writing for the site and the columns were so successful that in addition to my work in class, I was busy almost twenty hours a week. ”
Mulder spent a lot of time on the site without making any money from it. That is why he decided six months ago to start working with a paid login. “I'm not going to tell you how much I earn in total, but schools pay 250 euros for all their teachers and students for two years. Not much, right? ”
Really cool to be in contact with my fellow teachers in this accessible way
Mulder is happy with his website, but he is missing something. “I manage to share things with fellow teachers, but there is no interaction. It seems that everyone is on their own island and does not dare to share their knowledge, perhaps because they are unsure about it. ” To do something about that, he went to Facebook in November 2017 a community started, of which 1400 biology teachers are already members.
“Lesson ideas are now exchanged there every day. There are fantastic ideas that I could never have come up with myself. It's really cool to be in touch with my fellow teachers in this accessible way. ”
Ups and downs of an MBO teacher
MBO teacher Arine van den Bor (Image: Fred van Diem)
Arine van den Bor (32), teacher of secretarial subjects at Hoornbeeck College in Gouda, does not share any teaching materials. However, her experiences as a brand new MBO teacher. For the first time the parents' evening, students criticizing the lessons and assessments, ways to maintain the concentration of students.
These themes are discussed on the website Simplyeenstartendembodocent.nl van van den Bor who started as a teacher in MBO in September 2017 after a career of fourteen years as a secretary in the non-profit sector. “I always thought it would be nice to keep a blog, but I did think that you really should have something to say for that. Starting as a brand new teacher in MBO seemed very suitable for this, with all the ups and downs. This way I can let others watch my life. ”
I always thought it would be fun to keep a blog, but I thought that you really need to have something to say. The start as a brand new teacher in secondary vocational education seemed very suitable for this
Van den Bors blog is candid. She regularly writes about her own insecurities and her teaching style that she is still searching for. In a blog of January 24, she tells about an incident in which she heard her students scold her in the hallway. “It took quite a while,” says Van den Bor. “It helps enormously for me when I write about it. I immediately make the problem a lot easier. ”
Her blogs are not only read by fellow teachers, students have also discovered her website. “It is true that my name is not mentioned anywhere on the site, but via LinkedIn I do regularly report a new blog. One of my students found out and my students have been loyal readers ever since. ”
Doesn't that lead to self-censorship? “No, I write what strikes me and what concerns me myself. However, I do discuss privacy-sensitive incidents with my students before I put them on the internet. I also first had a conversation with the students who called me names behind my back. I want to teach them to talk to people instead of about people and I think I should set a good example myself. ”
