Teacher's Sharing Zone

Seth´s Blog  is one of the many blog´s I follow.  Why?  Not only because he has a unique writing style, many of his posts will for sure,  set you thinking after you  finish reading them.   What does he write about? The following statement was taken from his blog. Seth Godin  " writes about the post-industrial revolution, the way ideas spread, marketing, quitting, leadership and most of all, changing everything." Have a look at this one.  The cost of neutral If you come to my brainstorming meeting and say nothing, it would have been better if you hadn't come at all. If you go to work and do what you're told, you're not being negative, certainly, but the lack of initiative you demonstrate (which, alas, you were trained not to demonstrate) costs us all, because you're using a slot that could have been filled by someone who would have added more value. It's tempting to sit quietly, take notes and comply, rationalizing that at le...

What do we mean when we talk about coherence? Build a definition of what we understand by coherence.  Can you think of words associated to this term? Let´s build a Word Cloud  with the words we get. Let´s watch the video and see what is wrong...   What question was she asked? Do you understand her answer? What is the problem? Can you explain in your own words why is coherence important? Adapted from:  C is for Coherence

Many times we hear our students say they don´t read, they don´t enjoy reading. Let´s reflect on how we tackle reading in our classrooms, what our ideas are, how we try to develop this skill. Reflecting on The Significance Of Reading In The Esl from Gladys Ledwith

Ok, so you´ve been teaching for a term, a month or a week and it is revision time.  Nothing new under the sun you say... it´s part of the learning process.  The author of the article we´ll be reading describes revision time as " an opportunity to consolidate everything you’ve taught into a cohesive language learning experience" . For sure we all agree on the first part of the sentence, but... what about the "cohesive language learning experience" part?  is there anything we are overlooking?  Let´s go to the article and read the author´s recommendations for creating a review lesson that is really useful to your students  ( and not just a way to buy time till they have the test) .  7 Steps to Fail-proof Your ESL Review Lesson What are your views regarding revision time? But going back to revising and recycling, if you are teaching intermediate or advances students, take a look at this article, written by the same author, full of useful tips whe...

Everybody likes listening to a good story. Have you ever wondered why? What do you think about this statement? Do you agree? A story can put your whole brain to work. This article may give you a few ideas on the power of storytelling.  The Science of Storytelling. Which are, in your opinion, the main concepts? What do you think about the suggestions for telling stories? Do you have any of your own? .-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.- There are a million ways in which we can tell a story. An interesting game to develop a number of skills is the following: "This quasi experimental web site is designed to foster visual thinking and build stories. It  draws upon collections of photos specified by a tag in flickr . You are dealt five random photos for each draw, and your task is to select one each time to add to a selection of images, that taken together as a final set of 5 imag...

Building Excellence in Student Work Through Critique and Revision What do you know about peer feedback? Have you ever tried it in any of your classes? Now let´s watch the following video. "This six-minute video gives a clear picture of how student work can improve through focused critique. It shows the evolution of a scientific illustration of a butterfly through multiple drafts toward a high-quality final product." Critique and Feedback: The Story of Austin's Butterfly from Expeditionary Learning on Vimeo . So far so good, but.... is there anything we (teachers) can learn in relation to our own learning? State 3 ideas you can pick from the video which describe the aspects you´d highlight.  The following article provides some ideas particularly suitable for young learners. Have a look at the four ideas described and share your ideas with the group.  Strategies to enhance peer feedback Two stars and a wish Plus, minus and what's next? War...

(August 30, 1954) Graduated with  B.A.  in psychology from  Stanford University  in 1976. After attending Stanford, he went to law school at  UC Davis , where he lasted one week before realizing that he hated law school. In 1977, he enrolled in the  UCLA Anderson School of Management , from where he received his  MBA .  He is a  Silicon Valley  venture capitalist, bestselling author, and  Apple Fellow . He was one of the  Apple  employees originally responsible for marketing  Macintosh  in 1984. He is founding partner and currently a Managing Director of Garage Technology Ventures ,  co-founder of Alltop as well as a husband, father, author, speaker, and hockey addict. He is also a well-known blogger. "Alltop is an online magazine rack that I hope you’ll check out—you’ll probably enjoy  Innovation.alltop . I’ve also written ten books. My latest is  Enchan...