The other day I remembered that one of the best projects I ever did during my university studies was a self-guided blog about learning French, for a linguistics class. I loved being able to link my ideas to videos, other blogs, resources, and artifacts related to my learning. As we move into a day and age of portfolio and proficiency-based assessment, I realize it's time for me as an educator to 'walk the walk' and demonstrate my own learning alongside that of my students.
I read blogs, tweets, facebook posts and articles related to Educational Policy, Pedagogy, Lesson design, frameworks for learning, collaboration (and more!) on a daily basis. Yet I haven't been gathering them in a central place. Truthfully, I shouldn't trust my brain to hold onto what's important. I need to gather my thoughts and put them on the 'page.'
Lately I've been preoccupied with thinking about what's most effective in instruction. Educators are known for often hitting burn-out. I think it's partly because there's no clear-cut definition to when the work 'ends' - we can literally run circles trying to constantly improve, and that risk of burnout is real if we don't focus on being efficient and leverage the capacity we have in order to be most effective. I'll give an example: my computer and cellphone are now six years old; beyond the age of kindergarten students. I'm not a fan of consumerism, or waste, but at a certain point I'm wasting my time waiting for things to load, and the outdated apps impede my ability to communicate effectively with the teams I help to manage as a Professional Specialist Association executive member. I facilitate social media workshops, but I have been largely absent from the social media dialogue I love, because my tech just doesn't work. At what point does it become futile to insist on re-using the same tools? Yesterday I decided enough was enough. I spent $300 to get a new phone & properly protect it. And you know what? I feel so much better. My time and energy are worth more to me than to let myself get dragged down by ineffective tools and inefficient methods. I feel like my energy and efforts towards teaching need to be similarly weighed. I don't want to work harder than my students; I want to be *effective.* I need to do what they *need* me to do, and I don't need to do any more. How does it help my students if I'm scattered, stressed, burnt out, or overdoing it?
A while ago I Skyped with a teacher in Michigan, Erin Parris-Dallia (@señorapd), who teaches Core French and Spanish. She told me all about a great class she had with her students, where they focused on a question (What is different about food in Cuba vs. food that we eat in the USA?). They explored an authentic Cuban fast-food restaurant's website, and gathered what they learned in a Padlet screen. I love skype chatting because I can click the links she sends to me while we're talking, and I can see what her students did! The class used the vocabulary they had gathered to build comparative sentences to express themselves about their preferences, and about their learning. Erin also told me about IPA: Integrated Performance Assessment. While B.C. has been redesigning our curriculum at home, other provinces along with the United States have been undertaking similar revision of their curriculum. While Ontario's language curriculum is indirectly aligned with the CEFR (Common European Frame of Reference), it remains to be seen if that will be the case in B.C. (although the colleagues I've spoken with are crossing our fingers that ours will be too!). In the U.S., the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) has articulated similar proficiency standards under their own umbrella. Integrated Performance Assessment is a new method for concretely assessing a student's language proficiency according to ACTFL's standards. I've looked closely at the resources online, and I've decided I want to purchase the books (now where did I put that pro-d funds request form...?). I'm eager to read them and to share out about what I learn. My hope is that the books will reduce my anxieties about language assessment... it's just not as cut-and-dry for languages as it is for some other subjects like math or science. Language assessment requires consideration of both verbal and written language production as well as reading comprehension and aural comprehension. Maybe a lot of effort towards learning about IPA will help me burn less energy later when it comes to identifying proficiency and thus zero in on what are or are not effective methods for instruction.
Stay tuned!
-Nicole
#wellness #selfcare #energy #effectivemethods #pedagogy.
I read blogs, tweets, facebook posts and articles related to Educational Policy, Pedagogy, Lesson design, frameworks for learning, collaboration (and more!) on a daily basis. Yet I haven't been gathering them in a central place. Truthfully, I shouldn't trust my brain to hold onto what's important. I need to gather my thoughts and put them on the 'page.'
Lately I've been preoccupied with thinking about what's most effective in instruction. Educators are known for often hitting burn-out. I think it's partly because there's no clear-cut definition to when the work 'ends' - we can literally run circles trying to constantly improve, and that risk of burnout is real if we don't focus on being efficient and leverage the capacity we have in order to be most effective. I'll give an example: my computer and cellphone are now six years old; beyond the age of kindergarten students. I'm not a fan of consumerism, or waste, but at a certain point I'm wasting my time waiting for things to load, and the outdated apps impede my ability to communicate effectively with the teams I help to manage as a Professional Specialist Association executive member. I facilitate social media workshops, but I have been largely absent from the social media dialogue I love, because my tech just doesn't work. At what point does it become futile to insist on re-using the same tools? Yesterday I decided enough was enough. I spent $300 to get a new phone & properly protect it. And you know what? I feel so much better. My time and energy are worth more to me than to let myself get dragged down by ineffective tools and inefficient methods. I feel like my energy and efforts towards teaching need to be similarly weighed. I don't want to work harder than my students; I want to be *effective.* I need to do what they *need* me to do, and I don't need to do any more. How does it help my students if I'm scattered, stressed, burnt out, or overdoing it?
A while ago I Skyped with a teacher in Michigan, Erin Parris-Dallia (@señorapd), who teaches Core French and Spanish. She told me all about a great class she had with her students, where they focused on a question (What is different about food in Cuba vs. food that we eat in the USA?). They explored an authentic Cuban fast-food restaurant's website, and gathered what they learned in a Padlet screen. I love skype chatting because I can click the links she sends to me while we're talking, and I can see what her students did! The class used the vocabulary they had gathered to build comparative sentences to express themselves about their preferences, and about their learning. Erin also told me about IPA: Integrated Performance Assessment. While B.C. has been redesigning our curriculum at home, other provinces along with the United States have been undertaking similar revision of their curriculum. While Ontario's language curriculum is indirectly aligned with the CEFR (Common European Frame of Reference), it remains to be seen if that will be the case in B.C. (although the colleagues I've spoken with are crossing our fingers that ours will be too!). In the U.S., the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) has articulated similar proficiency standards under their own umbrella. Integrated Performance Assessment is a new method for concretely assessing a student's language proficiency according to ACTFL's standards. I've looked closely at the resources online, and I've decided I want to purchase the books (now where did I put that pro-d funds request form...?). I'm eager to read them and to share out about what I learn. My hope is that the books will reduce my anxieties about language assessment... it's just not as cut-and-dry for languages as it is for some other subjects like math or science. Language assessment requires consideration of both verbal and written language production as well as reading comprehension and aural comprehension. Maybe a lot of effort towards learning about IPA will help me burn less energy later when it comes to identifying proficiency and thus zero in on what are or are not effective methods for instruction.
Stay tuned!
-Nicole
#wellness #selfcare #energy #effectivemethods #pedagogy.