Excellent article with in-class strategies and suggestions about developing strong student/teacher relationships, and the positive effects of such relationships.
This part of the article was so disheartening... "Evaluations are to make us look good-they affect or rating and certification. Coaching and development-should be done among friends."
PD is about learning, and the goal of any assessment should be recognition of what's already done well and identification of areas that can be strengthened. That's what we expect from students...why should it be any different for us as professionals? PD should be a chance to learn, grow, and share as professionals, not a punitive process or a dog-and-pony show. It's so disheartening that bad PD practices continue to reinforce these concepts.
Written for K-12 but applicable to adult learners as well (if not more so, for #1). Adults, far more than children, need to understand WHY something is meaningful and relevant to them in order to engage in material.
I love the reminders in here -- I think as teachers we all can use a reminder of really great practices that we don't always remember to use. But...I really hate the title. I'd prefer to call it "11 Really Great Reminders for Fantastic Teaching". :-)
Students' own responses from their high school survey. The common thread is "hands on" and "material relates to their own lives". Think there are insights here for ESL students as well.
Really interesting website for teachers and students. From their "About" section:
"This site aims to provide students and teachers with information and ideas to assist them apply the Habits of Mind. Each of the sixteen habits is presented along with information on when to use each habit and strategies to make the process easy. Each page includes a short video that demonstrates the Habit of Mind and could be used as a starting point for discussion."
Written for K-12, most points are even more salient for adult learners, especially regarding tying content into real life applications. How many of our students ask "why am I learning to write a persuasive essay? I'm studying computer engineering".