I was thinking about this recently. (Once upon a time I thought I’d be a college English professor). If I were a prof now I’d probably have a reading lab. Sciences have them. Perhaps the humanities need them too. We meet twice a week to discuss and we meet twice a week to read aloud together for 90 mins at a stretch. In so doing I build your capacity for sustained reading- in large by making it a group social activity. I suspect that done well students might enjoy it. It would give them a discipline they know they lack. Not sure it would work but some kind of dramatic re-centering of the reading seems like one possible response.
My training as a coach says that the coachee should never feel or be “the audience”. However, when I attend conferences that have as a theme of “active engagement”, I see room after room of a big screen with a power point, the presenter in front of the screen and ..an audience !
Power Point & Google Slides have led to a new serious problem in education that few are talking about. They give many teachers the illusion that they are teaching when in reality the are just ��presenting”.
Teacher modeling has taken a severe toll & students are paying the price.
We need to abandon the "one training and done" approach.
When we ask teachers to make instructional shifts, we need to support them not just with "a" training, but with expert coaching as they make shifts.
The just a "1 training and done" approach reflects an "I want to check the box mentality". This approach is neither pro teachers nor it is pro students.
The choreography of teaching 30 children at the same time > quite a long read but dare I say I think it's worth it. Nail this, you've nailed it! https://t.co/R9fxgXRcgK via @teacherhead
One of my students showed me his high school course list.
Notice that English has been replaced by “New Media Storytelling.”
I asked what books they read this year.
“We didn’t read any.”
These poor kids.
A parent recently asked me for the best way to improve his daughter's SAT Reading score.
The look on his face when I suggested that she read a book told me everything I needed to know about the state of reading in our culture.
Heartfelt thanks @LeaningEmma To you and @leaningshane I can only quote Charlotte’s reply to Wilbur in Charlotte’s Web… “You were my friend. That in itself is a tremendous thing.”
@Schoolguy Thank you Jim, my friend. Your name alone never fails to brighten my day. You mean more in this household (and many more, I’m sure) than I think you know. Big love from Shanghai 💕
“I second that emotion”! @LeaningEmma “Social media is fast, fleeting,
and gone in a flash. But a newspaper? A newspaper holds a moment in time—a snapshot of our lives, our community, and our history.”(Moosehead Lakeshore Journal).
Spent time today with students in the city. When I showed them Shanghai Daily in print, eyes lit up. For them, a physical newspaper is akin to a dinosaur or CD-rom. But there were smiles. A few touched its pages.
There’s magic in the printed word. Yes, we rightly change with the times. But for me? The sensory experience of a newspaper will never go out of style.
#China @shanghaidaily
@kathy_mclinn 1/2
I didn’t disparage teacher autonomy.
But autonomy for its own sake should not be acceptable in any field.
Tchr autonomy isn't more important than teaching in ways that help most kids.
We shouldn’t sacrifice kids' learning for the sake of teacher autonomy.