Best Practices and Beyond

Fawn Johnson, at National Journal/Education Experts blog, asked guest bloggers to respond to an intriguing post that ended with these questions:

What are the best ways to foster honest student-teacher relationships? How do teachers mask dislike for students? How should they deal with their own problems while teaching? How important is the passion in teaching? Are there practices that can help compensate for a not-passionate teacher? How can schools encourage professional camaraderie among teachers? Do students really need to like their teachers in order to learn?

Here’s what I shared:

Much of the discussion today around writing at the secondary and community college levels focuses on remediation or developmental writing (aka getting students ready for “college-level” writing).  Never mind (for now) that there is much debate within higher education over what college-level writing is. Too many people, even within the teaching profession, equate good writing only with having technical proficiency in using grammar conventions.

This is the second in a seven-part series on National Board Certification Standards for teachers.

 “Teachers are committed to students and their learning” (NBPTS Core Proposition #1).

True to its core beliefs, NBPTS is celebrating its 25th anniversary by engaging in some hard reflection and making important (some would argue, overdue) changes in some of its processes and products. But the heart of National Board Certification remains the Standards, and those Standards are still the best statement by our profession of what it means to be a highly accomplished teacher.

For too long, learning at school has been tied (figuratively and literally) to the old bell schedule and the Carnegie unit. 50 minutes to one hour per subject per day. Oh, then we got really creative and came up with the block schedule: 90 minutes to 2 hours per subject on alternate days. 

Slowly, we are realizing that learning and time do not have to be conjoined. It is not only possible, but possibly much better for students to learn at varying paces, based on the subject matter, availability of resources, their particular learning strengths, interests, and weaknesses--moving toward common goals, but arriving from different directions. 

If you haven't checked it out yet, it's not too late (actually it's never too late) to explore the great conversations going on at the k12Online Conference this year. 

The two-week event has teachers from around the world sharing with each other on how to improve the quality of our teaching and our students' learning through use of a wide variety of web and tech tools. The sessions (which are archived) range from the novice to experienced levels and all grade levels.