Tuesday, August 22, 2023

Ignoring the Negative

In Maybe We Don’t Want To Tell Our Story from Ideas and Thoughts, Dean Shareski states,

“While it’s easy to say, “Ignore the haters” it’s a challenge for institutions knowing that nearly every post comes at a cost. This is particularly true on social media posts.”

With many people using social media today and many people feeling like they can say anything in a comment, I believe we need to teach our students how to handle different situations that they may encounter.

I remember when I first started my blog and encountered my first negative comment. I felt shocked and hurt but I learned how to deal with it. I learned to ask several questions that helped me deal with this.
  • What perspective was the commenter coming from? Were they another teacher, or a student, or a parent?
  • Was I unclear about something that I had written? If I had written it differently, would it have helped the reader understand better?
  • Does the commenter make a valid point and should I rethink my position?
  • Is the commenter just a troll and the comment should be deleted and ignored?
I think asking these questions, would help me understand the comments better. One reason I blog is to share my ideas and feeling. But I also want to be open to other perspectives and hopefully learn from others. Having a conversation with others (through commenting) can broaden my perspective and help me learn new things.

How do you help students deal with negative remarks? Please share.

Photo by Andre Hunter on Unsplash

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