Last night we celebrated the final class of Read to Succeed (R2S) for World Language Teachers. I've been wanting to collect some inspiration for all of you, and so I used our entrance slip and exit slip as an opportunity to gather words of encouragement. For the entrance slip I asked them to complete this sentence stem: "Even on the tough days, this is what keeps me teaching..." Here is what your colleagues said:
So here is what keeps me going even on the tough days: YOU! You are all a precious resource. Thank you for your incredible hard work and for caring so much about your subject matter and your students. And last but not least...of course I made a video! (haha) This was my little thank you and tribute to the first group of intrepid WL teachers who will soon receive their Read to Succeed Endorsement.
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I created this video with our elementary immersion teachers in mind because they are working this year to integrate literacy with the content areas of Math and Science. Nevertheless, I think the strategy is applicable to any WL teacher who wants students to be able to determine and articulate the main idea of a text and its supporting details. A big part of our effort is based on using non-fiction books to teach Science content, but other teachers could use any type of text based around your unit theme. For this demonstration, I've intentionally made the anchor chart plain and simple because right now I know all of you are in the midst of parent conferences, and are probably exhausted. However, if the creative bug bites, you could use all sorts of fun icons to spice up the presentation. Here are a few other graphic organizers that can be used to teach students about main idea and supporting details of a text (they can be adapted for fiction or non-fiction). Any of these could be re-created as an anchor chart, or printed to go in an interactive notebook.
Your feedback was so positive, that it got my wheels turning about what we share with each other, and what I share with you--particularly here on Voices from the Field. I think it's vitally important to share our successes with each other, since it can be difficult to get out of our classes and see what others are doing. But it can be just as powerful to share our struggles as well.
Dawn and I are working on a monthly newsletter that we will be sending out soon, and our first issue is focused on the idea of having a growth mindset, or seeing our mistakes or failures as learning opportunities. If you have any insight on this matter, please let me know and maybe we can include your thoughts or words in the newsletter. In the meantime, here is some food for thought: I'm working on a concept I'm calling "One Minute PD." I know we're all busy and yet we want to improve our practice, so I started making some one minute videos that I hope you'll like. This one has to do with the growth mindset. If you like it, feel free to share. And just in case you're like me, and the growth mindset doesn't come naturally to you, here's a link to another blogger who shares some words about having patience with yourself. FYI...Rome Wasn't Built in a Day |
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