Language Connection Professional

The issue of cultural responsiveness in our classes ..   Scholarly resources on the topic of Culturally Responsive Teaching  Leadership approaches in education regarding cultural diversity and cultural responsiveness is closely associated with the need we feel as educators to prepare our students for the 21st century. Our learners need appropriate skills to function in their diverse cultural communities and beyond their cultural borders. (Banks, 2012)  Title: Culturally responsive practices as whole school reform. Authors: V.M. Mayfield University of Colorado, Denver & Dorothy Garrison-Wade University of Colorado, Denver. Date of publication: 2015 Journal: Journal of Instructional Pedagogies. The purpose of the study is to outline successful culturally responsive practices in a Middle School in the US which appears to be closing academic opportunity gaps between White and Black students. Data collection techniques : observations, interviews, and focus groups. There has bee

Teaching according to Learning Styles and ..the evil eye Identifying and catering to individual students learning style is a belief held by many educators around the world. It seems that it's one of the popular misconceptions. Research suggests that learning styles don't actually exist! How can a common, generally accepted notion be wrong ? Confirmation bias seems to be the reasonable answer to this. People tend to look for information that confirms their belief and ignore data that challenges their idea. (think of astrology and zodiac signs, evil spirit, populist politicians etc) 4 interesting links to the topic   No evidence to back the idea of learning styles Learning styles misconception Howard Gardner: ‘Multiple intelligences’ are not ‘learning styles’ - The Washington Post https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/beautiful-minds/enough-with-the-learning-styles-already/

Promoting positive social change related to healthy development and learning ‘When I was getting my teacher training masters I was told, you’re a teacher, not a social worker. But there is a social work aspect to the job.’  (Ledra Sun teaches at Delair elementary school in New Jersey, US.) The power of motivation coming from the feeling that what you do as a teacher can make a difference in someone’s life is evident in teachers who claim to enjoy being in this profession. Indeed, It can be an inspiring profession, rather than simply a job, because you use certain tools along with a set of moral standards and values which can literally change people’s lives.  Societies have the school systems they deserve. Emile Durkheim, the French Sociologist, argued that educational systems reproduce society’s values, norms and beliefs, and therefore he rejects the idea that education can transform society and resolve social problems.( Durkheim, 1897/1951: 372-373). In essence, Dur

Reassessing Teacher-Parent Conferences     It all started when I started experiencing those Teacher-Parent conferences as a parent, about a decade ago. I just couldn't believe that feedback from professional teachers could be so shallow, with flimsy, oversimplified comments like 'she's smart, she can do much better if she tries harder' So I started a number of workshops with my colleagues, analysing ways of making those meetings more efficient and meaningful. In the last couple of years we've been looking at student-led conferences. I've been reading a lot about what's been happening around the world and how SLTPCs work in various schools in the US, UK and Finland. I thought of sharing my reflections on 2 of the resources I have used in my little research. here goes: Journal  :   Students Take Center Stage. By: Tucker, Kaylen, Principal, 02716062, Jan/Feb 2016, Vol. 95, Issue 3  Introduction : Sonora Elementary School (California

Thoughts on the idea of being a Reflective Teacher  ‘Reflection’ is certainly not an unfamiliar concept in my profssional life. With the support of excellent and motivated teachers in our language school, I feel that, as a director of studies, I have managed to implant the seed of reflection both in and out of the classroom.               As teachers we help our learners become responsible of their own learning. We try to do this on various levels (setting learning goals with our students, working on tasks which are based on critical thinking and not merely on presenting new language, getting regular feedback on both the material and the approach used in class, showing them simple reflection strategies) Needless to say, we do not always succeed.         As professional teachers we have created a ‘sharing’ culture which allows us to be more reflective even as we plan our lessons. We upload and share all our LPs and resources ,and we have set up an informal ‘peer obser