Questions are the sign of a healthy classroom. Encourage students to ask all sorts of questions, especially open-ended questions that require process, experimentation, and research. Let them see that the instructor doesn’t “own” all the knowledge or have all the answers. You will be creating a classroom culture of inquiry & critical thinking.
Saying goodbye to one of your teachers is not an easy thing to do. You don’t always meet a teacher in a classroom. Sometimes, you meet a teacher in a book. That was Dr. Angelou. A teacher to anyone who opened one of her books and read even a page of her beautiful words. The world’s teacher.
Rest in peace Maya Angelou. Thank you for your amazing legacy of words & action, for leading the way, & for sharing w/ us your powerful philosophy that, “when you know better, you do better.”
Dr Angelou on Doing What You Love: “You can only become truly accomplished at something you love. Don’t make money your goal. Instead pursue the things you love doing and then do them so well that people can’t take their eyes off of you.”
On Stories: “There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.”
On Success: “Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it.”
On Survival: ““My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style.”
Try something new during these last few weeks of the school year. It can be like a dress rehearsal to see if you want to blend it into your “teacherly bag ‘o tricks” for next year. I like this education infographic from the amazing Mia Mac Meeken.
Day one. We begin.
I’m a gal from New Jersey, now located on the West Coast–teaching, raising a family, & living my dream.
The theme for this blog is “Always Learning.” I’m a college English instructor and although it’s my name on the schedule where the instructor is listed, each day I learn from both my students, and my colleagues. Add in the wider academic community (ie, all of you!), via my Twitter PLN, Pinterest, teacher blogs on Tumblr, and well…the access to information, learning, and new ideas is endless. Family, friends and life are also all great teachers. I’m always learning and I love it!
For a while now, I’ve been determined to start a blog to both reflect on my own teaching, learning, writing, and reading, and to share content and ideas with others.To give back. To model the openness that is so vital in our profession. I’ve been doing this on other social media channels, and even blogging with my students, but I came late to setting up my teaching blog. (Ok, truth be told this blog has been in the planning stage for over a year! A year! Wow!) No more. Summer, sunshine and time off have given me the burst of creativity that I needed to envision and launch this new site. And here it is.
I’m passionate about student success, literacy, and educational equality. I believe in education to empower people of all ages and backgrounds, and to save & change lives. To teach is to be a small part of this and that to me, is living my dream. In my next post, I’ll explain how I named this blog…but here’s a hint. I’ve taught college English for 16 years in a student-centered classroom.
I’ll try to keep future posts short and sweet and end with something useful each time. Today, it’s this link to “15 Young Adult Books Every Adult Should Read.” I plan to read Feed next. How about you-have you read any of the books on this list? Which would you recommend?
Happy Summer. Happy Reading.
~Lisa
College Ready 