A little over three years ago, I volunteered to be a part of a group of French teachers in my school district (Surrey, BC) who would try new programs with their classes in order to determine what the best fit would be for French learners in our district. We had been using Communi-Quête (link here … Continue reading
As I wrote here and here, my collaboration partner and I have spent a lot of time developing effective learning maps for our French classes. (If you're not familiar with learning maps, they are essentially a blueprint for assessment in a given subject area for a given grade level. This book is highly recommended if … Continue reading
In the previous post, I focused on the story of how my collaboration partner and I got here. This post is dedicated to where we are now, and where we hope to go. Even though our collaboration started with a focus on our French as a second language classes, I am also trained as an … Continue reading
There is a growing body of evidence to support the premise that teacher collaboration supports student achievement. It also suggests that this collaboration works best if it is sustained, high quality, and connected to instructional strategies, curriculum and assessment. That all sounds good - as teachers, we tend to want things that will benefit our … Continue reading
The best way I can start this blog post it to say a huge thank you and give recognition to my collaboration partner, Meghann Kenkel. We are currently in year three of an increasingly wide-ranging collaboration that is showing no signs of slowing down. The text messages, Facebook messages, Pinterest messages, emails, and in person … Continue reading
First of all, full disclosure: this is not my original idea. I saw the idea that sparked this blog post on a Facebook post from literacy specialist and teacher Adrienne Gear, linking to this blog post from author, poet and educator Sara Holbrooke. The idea is relatively simple. Students start with a piece of paper … Continue reading
On January 10, 2016, I received an email from a colleague with a picture of a book cover (the featured image on this post), telling me that she had just read the book and that she thought I should read it. I forgot about it until we exchanged another email a couple of weeks later, … Continue reading
I know what to plan for if I want to engage my students quickly - almost anything to do with culture. People love learning about other people. What food do they eat? What music do they listen to? What is school like there? And a million other questions. Culture works. It's interesting, memorable and fun. … Continue reading
The biggest challenge my students have identified in their second language learning: listening. Authentic speakers go too fast, they use words my students aren't familiar with, it's hard to follow, and so on. I understand their frustration - I've been there as a learner. I've used a variety of programs over the years with listening … Continue reading
For most of my life, I haven't thought of myself as a math person - in high school, math was my most difficult subject. I struggled through Algebra 12 and finished with a C+, which was a huge accomplishment for me. My teacher took a dim view of my academic potential, and told me that … Continue reading
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