Tuesday, May 8, 2007
Welcome
Welcome--I'm really excited for you!
It's my pleasure to welcome you to this meeting place. My intention is that all of you will read with avid interest all of the handouts I give you, talk with ELLs, observe teachers and students, search the web, converse with others and then you will come to this meeting place and share what you know and want to know about teaching ELLs.
This is what I envision:
You are out in the field (e.g. classroom) teaching. First of all, that's pretty exciting. You're probably already examining your feelings about being the teacher. Don't you want to include all of the students in your classroom? Aren't you feeling a little nagging thought that maybe you didn't reach every student with that last concept you were trying to bring across? In these three weeks you'll be learning methods and techniques by observing, reading, discussing (in person and here) and actually trying things out on students in your classroom.The great thing about these "ELL" methods and techniques is that they don't only work on ELLs. The information and tips you learn during these three weeks will serve you well with all kinds of students (and people in general). And it's a little like acquiring a wardrobe. You try things on, sometimes they fit well and sometimes they don't. You see the outfit on someone else, but it just doesn't work for you. Or, you change the belt and shoes and that's all it took to make it great...you get the idea.
Some suggestions:
Tell us about your day teaching; in this setting, we are most interested in the ELL angle
Discuss your reading assignments in terms of your real life situation in the classroom
What have you found on the web that would benefit/interest the rest of us?
Anecdotes about your or others' ELL experiences
Questions
Tips:
Write well--clear, concise, good spelling & grammar...
Don't mention names when you're relating your experiences from the classroom--even if what you're writing is complimentary
Respond to others' entries--answer questions, give examples, make suggestions
Don't be inhibited; this is a fun learning tool
PS: This is the first time I'm using this tool with a class. I'm pretty excited about it and hope you will put in and get a lot out of it!
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2 comments:
Just a tip! I was posting a long comment to a different blog and wanted to include a link to another website at the end. When I returned to my comment after going back to the website and copying the URL to paste on the comment, all my writing was gone. OK, I admit to being a blogging novice, but I guess I should have either gotten the URL before writing in the template or just not tried to include it. I lost a long comment and wasted a lot of time. I know that this is late to be posting on the welcome page but I wasn't sure if it could be helpful.
Thanks for the tip. And to echo you, I know this is late to be posting on the Welcome page too, but tips like these are heartily encouraged (and definitely welcome)!
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