As I've gone through course work this summer I've dug deep into my own thinking behind learning maps and developed a better understanding of what they are and how I will be integrating them into my instruction. My students, however, were not along for that ride. Some of them have not used learning maps before, … Continue reading
As I've been documenting on this blog, I spent 7 weeks of my summer completing the first two of 10 courses towards earning an MEd degree from Queen's University. One of those courses, PME 800 or Self-Regulated Inquiry and Learning, required me to complete an inquiry project and to learn how self-regulated learning facilitates and … Continue reading
I recently wrote a blog post about the new books I was able to take home after participating in a resource review. New books have always been exciting to me, but once they hit my bookshelf, my main goal is to not let them gather dust. My biggest wish after each of the reviews I've … Continue reading
For teachers, finding opportunities to get involved in one's school district is usually not difficult at all. The challenge often comes in deciding which opportunities to choose, because it's impossible to participate in all of them. For the past few years, I have chosen to participate in LRS (Learning Resources Services) reviews of French books. … Continue reading
It's one of the standard forms of human interaction - ask a question, give (or get) an answer. We do it thousands of times a day, but it can be deceptively simple for second language students. The best thing to help students learn how to ask and answer questions is practice. Repetition. Lots and lots … Continue reading
This post is about a resource I developed in about 2017, and it allowed me to align the way that I teach reading in my second language classes with a series of beliefs that I've held for a long time: Reading is NOT translation. For years, every time I asked students to read something in … Continue reading
For the past 4 years, I have been part of a committee in my school district looking at a range of programs from publishers, with a goal of finding a new program for our schools to adopt in our French as a Second Language (FSL) classes. One of the biggest objections to the old programs … Continue reading
