May 31
When I started watching this clip, I was thinking about the potential for motivating students. I think this video clip demonstrates the fallacy of Merit pay for teachers, particularly based on test scores. While it is true that teachers are a very autonomous bunch, we often don’t feel that way. I think many teachers feel bullied and micromanaged.
I’m still trying work out what this concept could mean for student motivation and appropriate curriculum design. Any ideas?
[Via Lifehacker]
My school’s Title I funds were slashed radically for the coming school year. We got the news yesterday. As a result my current school is no longer going to employ an ESL specialist. Things happened quickly and by the end of the day, I had a new job placement as a Special Education teacher at the school around the corner from where I have been working. My school is still trying to figure out how else to slash spending (and who else to surplus).
I’ve been going through various stages of grief. I’ve invested a lot into my identity as an ESL teacher and its a bitter pill to swallow. For years I have been worrying that very thing would happen, so it’s not unexpected but it is still not easy.
I am highly optimistic about my current school’s ability to survive without me and, in fact, without any ESL specialists at all. Still, I feel like there should be some legal or moral obligation to have more than one dedicated ESL specialist for a school with a population of 5oo+ English language learners (ELL).
I do realize that I’m blessed. I have an opportunity to start something new at a new school. I still have a job and a paycheck. I have a home and my family. God loves me and has given me much more than I deserve.
Side note: Yesterday I got a bunch of the school’s UALPA (Utah Academic Language Proficiency Assessment) results back from the state office of education. I haven’t had to time to analyze it yet, but it looks as though we (they?) made massive growth this year.
May 10
I was introduced to Dogboy and Mr. Dan last Saturday at my state party convention.
Are undocumented immigrants criminals? Based on the available information, responsible citizens must answer with a resounding “no” (Sutherland Institute).
May 1
I’m excited about this find. These free language courses were originally written for the United States Foreign Service Institute. You can buy them on Amazon but be ready to pay a lot more than you wanted to spend.
Here’s a list of the courses available (so far):
Amharic, Arabic, Bulgarian, Cambodian (Khmer), Cantonese, Chinese, Chinyanja, Czech, Finnish, French, Fula, German, Greek, Hausa, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Igbo, Italian, Japanese, Kituba, Korean, Lao, Lingala, Luganda Moré, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbo-Croatian, Shona, Sinhala, Spanish, Swahili, Swedish, Tagalog, Thai, Turkish, Twi, Vietnamese, Yoruba
