Chapter eight in Becoming a Better Teacher continues on with the importance of questions. The chapter itself is titled "Action Research: Asking and Answering Questions About Practice" and sounded fairly daunting to me upon first read. The essential question posed is "how do questions teach?" and touches upon what has been discussed about questions in… Continue reading KIAT Book Club: Becoming a Better Teacher Ch. 8
Tag: katie is a teacher
Ten Films to Use as Primary Texts
Teachers tend to show films simply to accompany primary texts in the classroom. In English we'll show To Kill a Mockingbird as we read the novel, in Social Studies we show films like Passchendaele to accompany our lecture on the historic event. In Chemistry we'll show those amazing James Bond knock-off films to teach chemical… Continue reading Ten Films to Use as Primary Texts
KIAT Book Club: Becoming a Better Teacher Ch. 7
This week's chapter in Becoming a Better Teacher is all about reflection. As teachers, we are told consistently to reflect, and we do. I know that personally, I reflect upon each lesson and each day after completion and consistently ask myself what went well and what could have been done better. It's how we improve… Continue reading KIAT Book Club: Becoming a Better Teacher Ch. 7
Ten Ways to Incorporate Humour in the Classroom
I find the best way to get students involved, retain their attention, and ensure that they recall curriculum is to make lessons interesting and meaningful to them. Overall, the easiest way to do this is to utilize humour in the classroom. Some of the best comedic gems to use in the classroom can be found… Continue reading Ten Ways to Incorporate Humour in the Classroom
KIAT Book Club: Becoming a Better Teacher Ch. 6
Chapter six in Becoming a Better Teacher is titled "Portfolios: A Window into Students' Thinking and Learning" and as soon as I read it, I was reminded of my seventh grade Language Arts teacher who had us work on portfolios throughout the year. To this day, I think it was my favourite year in English.… Continue reading KIAT Book Club: Becoming a Better Teacher Ch. 6
KIAT Book Club: Becoming a Better Teacher Ch. 5
This week in Becoming a Better Teacher, chapter five discussed scoring rubrics. Upon beginning a career in elementary, scoring rubrics were almost non-existent to me. When I went through university and did my practicums in High School English; my professors and mentor teachers both said the same thing to me: "you can just tell what… Continue reading KIAT Book Club: Becoming a Better Teacher Ch. 5
KIAT Book Club: Becoming a Better Teacher Ch. 4
In the last chapter of Becoming a Better Teacher, it discussed curriculum design and went through steps to help teachers implement a functional curriculum in their classrooms. This chapter is all about assessment. This is close to my heart as I have always been opposed to teachers teaching to end of year or unit exams rather… Continue reading KIAT Book Club: Becoming a Better Teacher Ch. 4
Mini Office
A few months ago, a co-worker of mine stumbled upon a Mini Office made by Kristen Vibas on Teachers Pay Teachers (my Heaven!). She forwarded it to me because she thought my students could benefit from it, and I am hugely grateful that she did! The office itself was created for English Language Learners, but… Continue reading Mini Office
KIAT Book Club: Becoming a Better Teacher Ch. 3
We're on to chapter three in Becoming a Better Teacher! The chapter itself is titled "Standards-Based Curriculum and Assessment" and begins by asking some pretty important questions: how can teachers define learning in completely different ways and grade completely differently yet still be considered following standards. How is this something that can be controlled? Essentially,… Continue reading KIAT Book Club: Becoming a Better Teacher Ch. 3
KIAT Book Club: Becoming a Better Teacher Ch. 2
Hello again, and welcome to our discussion of Becoming a Better Teacher. Last chapter talked about incorporating essential questions into the classroom. This chapter is titled Curriculum Integration as a Tool for Coherence and discusses the need for teachers to rely less on textbooks and more on their own designed curriculum focused on student need.… Continue reading KIAT Book Club: Becoming a Better Teacher Ch. 2
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