Posted by graysen in Educators, Events, Professional DevelopmentJan 31st, 2009 | No Comments
Dorit Sasson has developed a dynamic professional development resource for educators. It matters not whether you are an experienced teacher or novice. The resources included in this program will help you move to the next level.
Besides the program, Dorit is a very passionate educator, and has a great desire to enhance the image of the professional educator. We all must work diligently to safeguard and promote our unique profession. There is no other profession on the planet like teaching, and I am so proud to be a part of it.
Check out Dorit and the wonderful resources she offers:
New...
Posted by graysen in Educators, Life Improvement, Professional DevelopmentJan 31st, 2009 | No Comments
A company that changes what people know, feel, dream, and do.
Hello everyone, I would like to introduce you to Dr. Meggin McIntosh. She is an awesome human being, and I am very impressed with her company. I highly advise you to visit her websites and subscribe to her newsletters. You simply can’t loose with this information.
Below is a current article written by Meggin to help educator become more self-aware about taking care of themselves. This is a major issue, as we all need to be in the healthiest form possible to be effective with our students and in our profession.
Educators...
Posted by graysen in Educators, Professional Development, UncategorizedJan 31st, 2009 | No Comments
As a professional educator, I am always looking for ways to improve my life. It never fails that one of the most effective means for my growth and success is through networking.
Recently, I began to focus on finding people who were in the business of uplifting educators through consulting, speaking, writing, videos, etc. I was amazed at the number of sites and blogs that existed. However, my focus was to really narrow down my search to quality sites.
Here are three aspects that helped me define quality sites:
Content - The content is critical to me as a reader and referral represenative. ...
Posted by graysen in Educators, Professional Development, Teacher VideosJan 24th, 2009 | No Comments
The Great Debaters is one of my favorite movies. Denzel Washington does an awesome job playing the role of a trailblazing professor at a Black University in the South.
His passion, perseverance and vision helps three students achieve what they could never have accomplished on their own.
This post is not about reviewing the movie, I will do this in another section of the blog. This post is specific to the comment that the professor makes to one of his students.
He mentions three very powerful ideals that pertain to every teacher in public, private and post secondary education.
1....
Posted by graysen in EducatorsJan 19th, 2009 | 1 Comment
The Hero
Heroes in our culture are usually celebrated in comic books or the movies. Superman, Spiderman, Mr. America, Aquaman, and the like remind us of our values, ethics, and, at times, our social mores. They also represent the best of humanity, both in physical abilities and moral aptitude, as they struggle against the forces of evil only to win in the end. Evil never wins over our heroes; they may experience occasional temporal defeats, perhaps, but never for the long term. Our good guys and superwomen always come out on top. We celebrate them and sometimes worship the symbolism and...
Posted by graysen in Educators, Professional DevelopmentJan 19th, 2009 | No Comments
Exciting
The word excite comes from the Latin word ex-citare, which means to rouse, to call to activity, or to stir up. Given those meanings, education is all about exciting—rousing students to learn, calling them to apply that knowledge, stirring them up, or provoking them, to positive emotional and intellectual activity. In a general sense, then, the goal of teaching is to create exciting activities that engage students and leave them with the desire to do more. In other words, teachers should strive to make learners become excited about learning, thinking, and doing.
When students...
Posted by graysen in Educators, Professional Development, UncategorizedJan 19th, 2009 | 2 Comments
My Mom is my Hero
When I think about the people who have influenced my life, I would have to say that my mother weighs in with the most impact. My mom is my hero. She has significantly influenced the way I view the world. And, I have always been extremely impressed with how she overcame the baggage of an abusive family and so many challenges as a single parent. Not only did she triumph, but she found a way to attend college while raising me. However, she would never have accomplished those most difficult tasks if not for the influence of one very supportive educators. positive.
A...
Posted by graysen in UncategorizedJan 19th, 2009 | No Comments
Child Abuse
Our profession is often confronted with issues of child abuse. However, with time, abuse is impacting children at younger and younger ages. Many of the kids we work with either witness abuse or are victims of abuse—in their own households. They come to school with these issues, and we expect them to perform as if all is well with life. Of course, we are not always aware of what’s happening; our clues don’t often arrive until a child comes to us directly. In any event, we need to be aware that the reality is, somewhere in your classroom or school or school system, children...
Posted by graysen in UncategorizedJan 19th, 2009 | No Comments
Sidney Poitier - To Sir, with Love
Sidney Poitier plays the character Mark Thackeray in the classic movie To Sir, with Love. Mr. Thackeray, a displaced engineer, finds a job teaching in one of the worst schools in a poor area of London, where he is assigned to a classroom full of at-risk students. These are the kids that many teachers avoid because they are the most difficult and challenging. Mr. Thackeray, who was only interested in the job for immediate financial reasons, soon realizes he might have bitten off more than he can chew, and we have no doubt he has been set up to fail as many...
Posted by graysen in Educators, Professional Development, UncategorizedJan 19th, 2009 | 3 Comments
“Teaching is tough? What does a teacher do that is tough?” is an attitude that comes all too easily to non-teachers. Well, depending on where you are in the country and what type of school you teach in, let’s start with vertical teaming, vertical planning, collaborative planning; attending grade-level meetings, team leader meetings, school staff meetings, instructional meetings, operational meetings; maintaining data notebooks; following standards-based instructional mandates; taking professional development courses; designing differentiated and collaborative (inclusive) instructional...
