Reflective teaching: Exploring our own classroom practice By collecting information about what goes on in our classroom, and by analysing and evaluating this information, we identify and explore our own practices and underlying beliefs. This may then lead to changes and improvements in our teaching. Reflective teaching is therefore a means of professional development which begins in our classroom. Why it is importantBeginning the process of reflection Teacher diary Peer observation Recording lessons Student feedback What to do next Think Talk Read Ask Conclusion Why it is important Many teachers already think about their teaching and talk to colleagues about it too. However, without more time spent focussing on or discussing what has happened, we may tend to jump to conclusions about why things are happening. Beginning the process of reflection You may begin a process of reflection in response to a particular problem that has arisen with one or your classes, or simply as a way of finding out more about your teaching. What are you doing?
Katherine Bilsborough: Lesson plans – less is more You can travel without a list of course but you will avoid a few problems if you spend a bit of time planning – not a whole week though. That would be silly. A few minutes should be enough. New teachers who have had training will have been evaluated and assessed on their lesson plans. You can find lesson plan templates on the Internet too – that you can fill out yourself for your own classes. More experienced teachers tend to spend less time on lesson planning. But what the wise teachers have in common - whether they are new or more experienced - is that they understand the importance of lesson planning but are 100% practical in their approach. No more burnout – a simple guide to successful and time-efficient lesson planning Gather everything you need (course book, teacher’s book, class register, timetable, etc.) and make a cup of tea. Finally, here’s an example of one of my lesson plans – and YES!
Katherine Bilsborough: Lesson plans – less is more You can travel without a list of course but you will avoid a few problems if you spend a bit of time planning – not a whole week though. That would be silly. A few minutes should be enough. Pre-empting problems will bring peace of mind and when it comes to teaching, this is a major defence against burnout and work stress. New teachers who have had training will have been evaluated and assessed on their lesson plans. You can find lesson plan templates on the Internet too – that you can fill out yourself for your own classes. More experienced teachers tend to spend less time on lesson planning. But what the wise teachers have in common - whether they are new or more experienced - is that they understand the importance of lesson planning but are 100% practical in their approach. No more burnout – a simple guide to successful and time-efficient lesson planning
Planning versus Improvisation Why versatility and flexibility may sometimes win out over rigid adherence to a carefully prepared lesson plan. Anyone who has done any kind of formal training in ESL (CELTA etc) will know that lesson planning is absolutely essential in every lesson, and anyone who does not write out a proper plan is a terrible teacher with no thought whatsoever for his/her poor students, who of course will learn nothing. In this article, I would like to discuss the importance of lesson planning and whether or not it is entirely necessary. I am sure there are many novice (and not so novice) teachers out there who have terrible feelings of guilt whenever they have just blagged their way through a lesson, hoping that no colleagues will have realised that they have committed such an abomination! The main advantage of lesson planning in my view, is that during the process of planning you think through what you want to achieve and how you can do this. Leave a comment...
Which Early Childhood Experiences Shape Adult Life? | MindShift | KQED News By Maanvi Singh, NPR Most of us don’t remember our first two or three years of life — but our earliest experiences may stick with us for years and continue to influence us well into adulthood. Just how they influence us and how much is a question that researchers are still trying to answer. Two studies look at how parents’ behavior in those first years affects life decades later, and how differences in children’s temperament play a role. The first study, published Thursday in Child Development, found that the type of emotional support that a child receives during their her first three and a half years has an effect on education, social life and romantic relationships even 20 or 30 years later. Babies and toddlers raised in supportive and caring home environments tended to do better on standardized tests later on, and they were more likely to attain higher degrees as adults. Raby used data collected from 243 people who participated in the Minnesota Longitudinal Study of Risk.
Step 1: What is a PLN? Welcome to our professional learning series on building a PLN. This series guides you step by step through the process of setting up your own PLN. The aim of this first step is to: Explain what is a PLN.Help you understand why educators create their own PLN. The following information on PLN was co-written by Michael Graffin, a relief/substitute teacher and blogger from Western Australia. You can check out Michael’s original “What the heck is a PLN” post here. What is a PLN? The word “PLN” stands for “Personal Learning Network”, and it has its origins in connectivism theory (Siemens, G. & Downes, S., 2005). Let’s take this a little further… The Personal: Having a PLN is about making connections and building personal relationships with teachers, school administrators, university professors, and experts around the world. The Learning: Having a PLN is about sharing ideas and resources, collaboration, and learning. What is a PLN Video Watch this video to learn more about what is a PLN. Your Task
Flashcards | free printable flashcards, matching worksheets, printable bingo cards, printable games, activities, handouts and more There are 100+ sets of that I used to design curriculums for children ages 3-9 and 6-10. However, I use most of them up through to high school students and many with adults. See the left-hand menu for the current list of sets available. READ ME FIRST: These cards are excellent image quality and as such some of the files are quite large (1mb~4mb.) About the flash card sets: There are some multilingual handouts in French, German, Spanish, Japanese, Italian, Russian, and Portuguese for teachers of other foreign languages. The pictures were all put together with children in mind. The printable flash cards and game cards do not have the vocabulary written on them. large flash cards do include articles at times. PowerPoint Flashcards and PowerPoint Presentations for teachers : These contain text in each slide. The power of bingo: I use the printable bingo cards quite often in class. The hand-out is something I'm a little proud of.
Why Empathy Holds the Key to Transforming 21st Century Learning | MindShift | KQED News By Thom Markham Like other aspects of modern life, education can make the head hurt. So many outcomes, so much important work to do, so many solutions and strategies, so many variations on teaching, so many different kinds of students with so many different needs, so many unknowns in preparing for 21st Century life and the endless list of jobs that haven’t been invented. What if we discovered one unifying factor that brought all of this confusion under one roof and gave us a coherent sense of how to stimulate the intellect, teach children to engage in collaborative problem solving and creative challenge, and foster social-emotional balance and stability—one factor that, if we got right, would change the equation for learning in the same way that confirming the existence of a fundamental particle informs a grand theory of the universe? That factor exists: It’s called empathy. To make that argument requires a deep dive into the profound nature of empathy. The takeaway?
TeachingEnglish - British Council - Accueil TPACK Model | Digital Learning Futures TPACK Model Description from the project Resources and references provided by the teaching Teachers to the Future (TTF) project. The Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) conceptual framework espoused by Mishra and Koehler (2006), underpins much of the national directions for describing use of ICT in learning and for profesisonal work. The model in a nutshell The Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) conceptual framework was described originally by Mishra and Koehler (2006). This framework is represented in the diagram. Content Knowledge (CK) is about the subject matter from curriculum documents and the deep learning of concepts, as well as the higher order thinking and high level communication and other processes in the curriculum. Pedagogical knowledge (PK) is about the strategies, and techniques used in classrooms and other earning situations and environments) to ensure curriculum goals are met. Background information for deeper understanding Return to Tutorial
What to consider when teaching English in large classes How many students do you teach? Do you feel that your classes are too big? Author and education consultant Jason Anderson looks at the issues and offers some potential solutions. For many of us, our classes are larger than we would like them to be. Definitions of a large class What we label a ‘large class’ depends mostly on context and expectations. In this article, we will take the midpoint between these two figures. Where teachers work in large classes today Perhaps the two continents where teachers most commonly work in large classes are Africa (especially sub-Saharan Africa) and Asia (especially the Indian sub-continent and China). This is not a uniform picture. Large classes are not unique to low-income countries. The challenges of working in large classes We can divide the challenges into two general areas: 1. 2. TLC challenges include the following: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 1. 2. Working toward solutions to classroom problems Problem: My students aren’t motivated to speak in English.