I love change. I consider myself a progressive: I want to get better and am trying to be proactive rather than  reactive. For me, time constraints force me to prioritize. Sometimes, I have to go with a less effective or risky lesson because of time.

Since people don’t think they NEED to change, that to change would be admitting that what they’ve been doing is wrong. But it’s not about right or wrong.

Regarding empathy, instead of just asking if I’d want to be a student in my classroom, I also ask if I’d want MY children to do the activity.

I will say that some days I need a teacher-centric day. If every single day is student focused, I get overwhelmed. Again, time management is at play here.

I try to teach my students inductive – that is, I trick them into learning. They often ask what the activity has to do with English class. My goal is that by the end of the lesson, they can tell me.

If best practices dont serve all students, then that’s not really best practices. BP just became a buzz word for vocabulary exercises and glorified worksheets, but there are still Activia that reach most learners. Think Hattie’s scale!

Having an audience is important. That audience needs to be not just me or room 174. I need to help them reach a broader audience.

Q1: I don’t even see it as risk taking. I just do it. What’s the worst that could happen? I lose a day of instruction?

Q2: I don’t let the grade stifle my students. They can redo and fix. I try to have my grades really reflect learning.

Q3: I think I exhibit all of the qualities. My flaws aren’t addressed in those pages, but I have them!  😉