Spring in the education world is a frenetic time filled with final preparation for AP exams, honors teas and events for our best and brightest students, countless meetings and the final “push” to the end of the year in all of our classes. As busy as the final weeks can be, it is also an excellent time to actually take some time and reflect on the year that has past and consider how it has gone and how we might improve what we do the next time around. In that spirit, I have assembled a few items (more than the usual 4) that I ran across this week that will hopefully inspire you to think about some of the fundamental aspects of teaching and learning, and with some serious reflection, might help you to become a better teacher in the long run.
- 7 Characteristics of an Innovative Educator is a piece from the Teachamazing website that I thought did a good job of describing a mindset that leads to improved teaching.
- The 10 Skills Modern Teachers Must Have comes from the Edudemic website and includes some sound advice that dovetails quite nicely with the previous piece. On a side note, Loomis Chaffee graduate Jeff Dunn ’00 (@edudemic) is the founder of Edudemic.
- What if Finland’s great teachers taught in U.S. schools? is a piece that appeared in The Washington Post that came across my Twitter stream this week. The importance of a culture of collaboration among teachers was particularly interesting and intriguing to me. I am curious to hear what others think.
- The Atlantic had an article this week titled Why Private Schools Are Dying Out that caught my attention and made me think about what we are doing as a school to remain relevant in an ever-changing educational landscape.
- Open Your Classroom Door to ‘Be Better’ is a nice little piece from the Education Week Teacher website that provides some good practical advice that any classroom teacher can implement in the spirit of collaboration and improvement.
I welcome comments on any of this week’s “finds” and welcome suggestions for future editions of the Friday 4. Enjoy!