Tag: #spiritofteaching

Teacher Tales #50 – SEL, Impact and the Power of Read Alouds: Christine, elementary teacher and children’s book author

Teacher Tales
Teacher Tales
Teacher Tales #50 - SEL, Impact and the Power of Read Alouds: Christine, elementary teacher and children’s book author
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In this episode, we have a delightful chat with Christine about her love of animals, reading and the impact her life experiences had on becoming the teacher, and now author, she is for children. Like many children we have in our classrooms, Christine was shy as a child and did not feel comfortable being “in the spotlight”.  So, as a teacher, she decided to do “Read Alouds” with her students in which every student had a choice to join in or not. She understood the impact that giving students choice to experience real world, personalized and meaningful connections were to hook and empower student learning, especially with reading. We talk about how many reading programs today are too impersonal and computerized and don’t really give our students or their teachers the choice to follow their own interests, preferences and heartfelt joy of reading and learning. However, Christine shared with us how we can still be creative, be individual and at the same time cover the standards and academic expectations for the most impact and successful outcomes. You will be inspired by Christine and want to learn more about how she has found another path to be of service to the profession, to give back and to make a difference in the lives of children. If you want to learn more about Christine and her services, you can check out her website here and purchase her book, Elephant Beach, here. Stay tuned for her elephant series to be released as well as her book on how to help children process grief. Thank you, Christine!

Teacher Tales #45 – Reaching students, creating stories and setting pathways: Grant, college professor, PD podcaster and one who helps shape our profession

Teacher Tales
Teacher Tales
Teacher Tales #45 - Reaching students, creating stories and setting pathways: Grant, college professor, PD podcaster and one who helps shape our profession
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In this episode, we will gain another perspective on education and be deeply inspired by yet another fabulous educator, this time from the post-secondary world. Grant is a college professor at Georgia Southern where he not only researches and is an expert on chivalry, but he also is a Medievalist and Renaissance scholar. Additionally, he teaches a methods/pedagogy class and prepares teachers for the profession. But wait…there’s more… he also teaches courses in LSP (Language for Specific Purposes) and produces a podcast for teacher “PD on the go” entitled The World Languages Collaborative podcast. I invite  you to check it out and share with others.  No matter what you teach, you will find ideas and inspiration on Grant’s podcast! He strongly believes that teachers are like fisherman. We cast a net as wide as we can and “hook” our students. Then, through professional development and our lifelong passion for learning, we increase the size of our net and the ability to “hook” more students. Grant also shares so many inspirational insights to the stories that teachers can create for a student through their caring, encouragement and support.  As Grant and I explore the power teachers have to set a student on the best pathway toward their future, our conversation travels the depth and breadth of being lifelong learners. I hope you will  take a listen, be inspired and travel along with us!  

Linda Markley

Teacher Evaluations

creating community, Essential questions, i am enough, Introspection, Spirit of teaching, Spirit practices, teacher evaluation, teacher vulnerability

The other day, my husband and I were talking about teacher evaluations and all the expectations and accountability that are placed on teachers.

His perspective is from the business world and being a manager/administrator who did annual “reviews” of his employees.

First of all, they called them “reviews”, which is perhaps more appealing than “evaluations”.

Evaluation = from the Latin valere meaning to be of value or worth.

Instead of reviewing or taking another view(point) or look at the person’s performance over the past year with the intention of deciding what went well and what needs to change (plus-delta approach)…

…it seems that what administrators are being asked to do is determine what “value” to place on a teacher or decide what that teacher is “worth”.

I prefer a different model for reviewing or evaluating people’s participation and performance in an event called the “plus-delta” approach.

Technically, the “plus-delta” model was designed and developed by the aviation and medical industries as a debriefing system for meetings, simulations and practices.

This approach uses more “improvement” oriented language rather than language that may be considered too negative, judgmental and discouraging. 

How could the delta-plus model be better implemented in education, 

especially for teacher evaluations?

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Linda Markley

The 3? R’s of a Teacher’s Summer

Intention, Spirit practices

Ah, another school year coming to a close.

I know you all can’t wait for summer.

Time to rest, recharge, and reset for the next school year only a short three months away.

That’s what I call the 3 R’s of Summer:  REST, RECHARGE and RESET.

REST – let your body rest, relax and rejuvenate through self-care routines. Dial back your “go-go-go” mode and tune in to a “resting” heart rate free from stress and overexertion.

RELAX – chill out and let go of all those coulda, woulda, shoulda’s from your school year brain and mentality. Nothing is “on fire”, “urgent” or “needs immediate attention”.

RESET – do things that will bring on a general reset on your life in order to get back to equanimity, balance and a more leveled path to travel rather than riding the ups and downs of a roller-coaster of a school year.

Actually, I think there are a few other essential “R”s beside these obvious ones. 

What could those be?

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