TEACHING SECRETS: TIPS FOR ENGLISH TEACHERS
MARY GRACE L. SAGUM
Renee Moore, a veteran high school teacher, offers four thoughtful tips for rookie educators. She suggests that “English teachers have much to learn as they boldly walk into a classroom.” English teachers have much to learn. Among them are: 1. Join or create a supportive professional network. Thanks to years of persistent hard work, professional learning communities and other types of teacher networks are more numerous and accepted than they were even a decade ago. it is worth the time to seek out a group within which a veteran teacher can ask important questions about daily classroom practice and get thoughtful, helpful feedback.
2. Develop a deep working cultural knowledge of your students and their communities: Do extensive classroom research on culturally engaged instruction. Empowering language arts instruction is a dynamic practice. It is shaped by informed and collaborative analysis of the particular cultural experiences, strengths, and learning goals of a specific group of students within a particular community. One method is the Culturally Engaged Instruction or Personal English Plan (PEP). The PEP is an individualized learning plan developed with each student in high school English classes. Starting with a series of diagnostics, the students develop their learning goals for the year. The student himor herself is responsible for monitoring progress on the PEP. Having students working in reading/ writing workshops facilitates having the individual planning conferences.
3. Explore technology and other teaching tools, even the initially unlikely ones: Find out as early as possible what the tech possibilities and limitations are at school. Then determine how those options might help your students. This is another area in which networking can be immensely helpful. There are hundreds of teachers who are using technology in myriad forms under all types of conditions, and documenting their work. These teacher-created resources in technology address a range of grade levels and can help you apply tech knowledge to your own work, making you more effective and efficient in the classroom. — oOo— The author is Teacher III at Justino Sevilla High School, Arayat, Pampanga