Creating a new course isn’t easy, especially if the goal of said course is to raise students’ standardized test scores. Public high schools are often judged on their ACT/SAT scores, and even the smallest dip can lower a school’s credibility, or worse, funding. If you’re tasked (like I once was) with creating an ACT (or SAT) preparation course from scratch, it probably feels like the weight of the world is on your shoulders. But there is hope. Let’s get started.
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Many teachers describe the profession as a calling. Some may have even felt the yearning to teach before they were in school themselves. Lining up their teddy bears to lead storytime or bossing their siblings around. You’ve probably heard people say that a career in teaching won’t make you rich but it turns out the naysayers only have half the story.
Educating students truly takes a village. From teachers to administrators, board members to maintenance staff, there are a lot of adults involved in making schools productive and safe places for students to learn. So often the focus is placed upon the relationships between these adults and the students they reach. However, maximizing the value in these staff-to-student interactions requires the adults to form positive bonds amongst themselves as a school faculty.
A few years ago when I was a language student, I came across dozens of my notebooks full of new words and translations. Sadly, I realized all my efforts had been in vain, as the majority of the words seemed unknown to me. Obviously, I should have tried harder by flipping through the pages once in a while. But then I wondered if there was a better way to learn new words.
Taking notes is a vital skill in acquiring and retaining knowledge. Unfortunately, note-taking skills are not always explicitly taught in schools, or, when they are, they are often taught in a one-size-fits-all manner. A teacher or tutor can have an immediate positive impact by matching a student to a note-taking style that blends their learning style and organizational preference.
As teachers in the modern classroom, we have the most advanced means of instruction through technology the world has ever seen. The options available to us are constantly evolving, which makes them both increasingly useful and difficult to master. Luckily, with a strong community of adventurous teachers willing to put in the effort, the ESL classroom is benefitting from the incorporation of new technologies and insightful course design.
For some people, the term ‘diverse learners’ conjures the image of students who are learning disabled. Yet for a teacher, this image is an outmoded mindset. Every student has strengths and weaknesses. Every student has her own way of learning. Most importantly, every student has her own way of best expressing what she has learned.