ELTWeekly Volume 8, Issue 5
[ELTWeekly Volume 8, Issue 5 | February 8, 2016 | ISSN 0975-3036] Top 10 Tools for Expression in the EFL Classroom (OUP ELT Blog) Webinar: Help teens build vocabulary and express…
Shifting Mental Models in Educators (Edutopia)
[ELTWeekly Volume 8, Issue 5 | February 8, 2016 | ISSN 0975-3036]
Early in my career as an instructional coach, I worked with an enthusiastic new high school teacher who inspired most of her students to demonstrate their learning in all kinds of creative ways. Her ninth-grade English class performed skits, recorded radio plays, and published magazines that were of exceptional quality and showed mastery of learning. However, a handful of students were never in prominent roles, produced mediocre work, and weren’t mastering the content.
In my observations, I had noticed a trend in the teacher’s interactions with them — she didn’t push them as she did the others, she let them off the hook easily, and she gave them simple tasks. All of these young men were African American, and this group comprised almost the entire group of African American males in her classes. I gently and carefully probed into the teacher’s decision making, asking nonjudgmental questions about her assumptions about these boys, and then one day, she said this: “I think they’re just lazy. I don’t think they’ll follow through. So I give them tasks they can manage.”
Try One New Thing in the New Year (Edutopia)
[ELTWeekly Volume 8, Issue 5 | February 8, 2016 | ISSN 0975-3036]
One of my favorite rituals of the New Year is putting up a fresh wall calendar. Like most of us, I rely on an online tool to keep track of daily appointments and deadlines. But the paper version, with all those blank pages, is a better reminder of the possibilities ahead as we start another trip around the sun.
Rather than listing resolutions (which tend to get forgotten by the time we flip the page to February), let’s consider inspirations for 2016. What’s one new thing you want to try in the coming year?
To warm up your thinking, consider these suggestions from Edutopia readers. Some ideas involve technology tools. Others focus more on classroom strategies. A few are healthy reminders to take better care of yourself. Whatever’s on your wish list, Edutopia has plenty of resources to help.