We are smarter together! Please share an idea, a resource, a skill, or a strategy which you discovered or developed that others should know about. Keep the conversation going with thoughtful questioning.
My contribution: the power of celebration. I don't know if I've learned it recently, but definitely more deeply and with greater appreciation. When we notice and name what's going well, students/teachers feel affirmed *and* we clarify what quality is within literacy.
While at WSRA I learned from Matt Glover the power of having choice of genre. Choice of genre being even more powerful than choice within genre. I think sometimes teachers are so lock step in programs that require only genre study, that they aren't even exposed to the possibility that any other type of study exists. In reality, a unit of study could be on many things; punctuation, illustrations, craft and process, ect...
Matt taught me that you will never run out of ideas on potential teaching points for a child, regardless what genre the child might be writing in. AND...that a child fixated on one topic could write virtually any genre on the same topic-LET THEM...
I’m sorry I’m late but just arrived in Philadelphia. It’s not so much what I’ve learned recently as what I learn anew every day. Even after 47 years in this profession, I’m humbled each day to acknowledge that I still have much to learn and it is my honor to seek new understandings along the way. I know with absolute certainty that the minute we think that we have reached a so-called point of arrival, we are either deluding ourselves or have lost the spark of inspired curiosity that makes me want to jump out of bed each morning. I think that this applies to our teaching as well. If we think that we have the perfect lesson and that perfection is even possible, then we have probably missed the point. In my mind the real power of our teaching is to be willing to wade in the muck and mire of uncertainly or what Dorothy Barnhouse calls the NOT KNOWING. It's a very exciting place to reside because it comes with so many surprises - and always new learning opportunities
My contribution: the power of celebration. I don't know if I've learned it recently, but definitely more deeply and with greater appreciation. When we notice and name what's going well, students/teachers feel affirmed *and* we clarify what quality is within literacy.
While at WSRA I learned from Matt Glover the power of having choice of genre. Choice of genre being even more powerful than choice within genre. I think sometimes teachers are so lock step in programs that require only genre study, that they aren't even exposed to the possibility that any other type of study exists. In reality, a unit of study could be on many things; punctuation, illustrations, craft and process, ect...
Matt taught me that you will never run out of ideas on potential teaching points for a child, regardless what genre the child might be writing in. AND...that a child fixated on one topic could write virtually any genre on the same topic-LET THEM...
I’m sorry I’m late but just arrived in Philadelphia. It’s not so much what I’ve learned recently as what I learn anew every day. Even after 47 years in this profession, I’m humbled each day to acknowledge that I still have much to learn and it is my honor to seek new understandings along the way. I know with absolute certainty that the minute we think that we have reached a so-called point of arrival, we are either deluding ourselves or have lost the spark of inspired curiosity that makes me want to jump out of bed each morning. I think that this applies to our teaching as well. If we think that we have the perfect lesson and that perfection is even possible, then we have probably missed the point. In my mind the real power of our teaching is to be willing to wade in the muck and mire of uncertainly or what Dorothy Barnhouse calls the NOT KNOWING. It's a very exciting place to reside because it comes with so many surprises - and always new learning opportunities