Reading teachers’ reflections on what works or doesn’t work in their classrooms is not only a favorite hobby of mine, but also an opportunity for professional growth. Last Saturday, I decided to start sharing some of my favorite posts each week. While a majority of the blogs I read are written by world language educators, I’ll also share some other general education posts as I come across them in my readings.
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“How Am I Doing? I Know How!” Improving Formative Feedback
Japanese Teacher Colleen Lee-Hayes continues her series of posts that focus on the power of involving students in the feedback loop. She shares several ideas that will make a big a difference in helping students move from compliant students to engaged learners and will help her “ensure that students don’t wait for me to tell them how they are doing – but rather that they will know and be able to articulate for themselves.” Read Colleen’s post –>
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Let AuthRes Take the Lead ~ Step 1
It’s highly unlikely that anyone missed this post, but I’m including this latest gem from the Creative Language Class. Kara is starting a series on the role of authentic resources, which seems to be one of the biggest roadblocks for many teachers in moving from textbook coverage to thematic unit design. I can’t even count the number of times I get asked “Where do I find the resources for this?” In this post, Kara is proposing the turn the game on its head and use an authentic resource to design the unit instead of spending countless hours searching the web trying to find an authentic resource to support your unit. Read Kara’s post –>
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Dream Team
Finding a new blogger is always exciting. Finding a new world language teacher blogger is even more exciting. Finding a world language teacher blogger who I admire for their courage in trying to go down that Path to Proficiency has me jumping for joy. So, of course I was excited then to see a new blog from Spanish high school teacher Jaime Basham right here on P2P. Her first post serves as a good reminder that we can do this teaching thing alone. You have to surround yourself with an incredible team. Read Jaime’s post –>
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Can we produce innovative students with teachers chained to a script?
This newspaper response written by University of Georgia professor Peter Smagorinsky is not as easy to read and reminded me of the realities of teachers. While passionate about teacher effectiveness and student learning, I sometimes wonder: Are we asking the impossible of teachers, given the current system” ” Read Peter’s post –>
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Why Don’t We Differentiate Professional Development?
I’ll try not to provide an answer to that question here, because that would be a blog post to itself. Anyone that knows me, also knows how interested I am in changing the way professional development is happening. In this Edutopia post, Pauline Zdonek is asking the tough question: “Isn’t it about time that we practice what we preach?” Read Pauline’s post –>
Make it a great week and keep posting and sharing. I can’t wait to see what next week’s blogging will bring us.