Collaboration – Often times, we wonder or talk to people who are curious about the reasons why we should collaborate with our colleagues in various roles in the realm of education. Some teachers once asked me why they should help their colleagues improve (doing peer observation or peer teaching, for instance) when their work in …
Last week, in the BT SIG Symposium, one of the teachers participating in my talk approached me and kindly asked what suggestion I had to help act in the context he worked. He claimed he wanted and needed to be observed, but his superiors considered that unimportant; he needed time during the week to take …
Professional development demands making choices, sometimes very hard, sometimes very easy ones. The first choice is deciding to follow the path of growth in the career we decided to pursue in education. As Wallace (1991) mentioned, development has to be done by the teacher, nobody can develop for another person. However, teachers have the choice …
In this post, I would like to discuss the teaching profession from a broader perspective, looking at the group of professionals collectively and using the metaphor of a constellation to analyse team work and cooperation. A while ago, when discussing teacher development with a colleague, he repetitively gave me feedback reminding me that I am …
I have recently been involved in discussions about excellence in teaching and have wondered what it means to be excellent as a teacher. From what I have observed in discussions as well as in my context, the definitions and criteria that state what an effective teacher does depends on the circumstances they work, institutional or …
Attending a TESOL conference Last week I had the opportunity to experience the TESOL international conference held in Seattle. From my perspective participating in conferences is an enriching way to seek for professional development. You are faced with so many different contexts that not only give you a chance to reflect on your …
Some teachers choose peer observations to enhance their development during the academic year. Working on observations helps teachers improve their awareness of their teaching, as well as broaden their repertoire of teaching techniques. The various possible perspectives that come with diversified tasks (e.g. in Wajnryb, 1992) may all add different aspects to the teaching and …
Diversity is one of the most frequent topics in current discussions around education. Its various interpretations can also be a form of diversity, accepting that we may all have opposing views on the same subject. In this post I will be discussing diversity and hope to generate more questions than provide answers. The University of …