Daniel Barker, a Math teacher from Stockholm, has some remarkable insights to offer about education. In his blog he writes, "I stora drag kan man säga att i stället för att läraren har genomgångar i skolan, på lektionstid och där eleverna sedan får läxor att jobba med hemma, så spelar läraren in sina genomgångar på film och låter eleverna titta på dessa filmer hemma, i förväg. Poängen är att då finns både klasskompisar och läraren till hands..."
Just kidding. I don't understand Swedish, and I don't expect my readers to either. But this is what it's like for young immigrants to the US who are expected to understand English at grade level. In the above picture Barker illustrates the Flipped Classroom, a concept that another blog explains in English. Traditionally, teachers lecture in class and students do homework at home. In the best case scenario, both the lecture and the homework are understood. All too often, neither is. Most ELLs have this problem. What Katie Gimbar, another Math teacher, suggests is for students to instead watch pre-recorded lectures at home on their computers and work together on assignments at school. This way, teachers will no longer have to teach to the middle. Those students who don't understand can watch the recording again or post questions. Those who do won't be held back in class listening to needless lectures. Of course, this will only be possible when every home has a computer and Internet access.
The next blog is Stories From School: Practice Meets Policy, a blog written by National Board Certified teachers. One of the contributors is Travis A. Wittwer, an English teacher from Washington State. He writes about the importance of paper. It remains the lifeline of schools despite its increasing obsolescence. From the office to the copy room to the classroom, massive amounts of paper are required. Teachers often have to buy paper so their students can write assignments by hand. Wittwer argues that his 9th Grade students aren't ready to type and that it's easier to critique handwritten drafts. Unfortunately, he may be correct. Even today, not all young people have been trained to use computers or even have access to them.
Finally, in The Organized Classroom Blog, Charity Preston discusses effective ways to organize an elementary school classroom. Most of the articles have little to do with technology, but in one post she talks about Prezi. Similar to PowerPoint but more advanced, it allows teachers to upload scanned assignments and even videos onto digital student portfolios to share at parent conferences. This is a useful tool to communicate with the parents of ELLs whose English proficiency is limited.
The way I see it, these blogs have two audiences. The first audience consists of highly passionate teachers who want to improve their teaching. The second consists of graduate students and teachers who are forced to read blogs for professional development. Tic Tac Interactive is the only blog that doesn't seem to get any comments, which is surprising. Even high-quality blogs have no guarantee of getting high exposure.
I have encountered useful advice on these blogs, but I don't know if I'll be in a position to follow it in my career as a teacher. For one thing, the school I work at might not have access to sufficiently advanced technology. Another problem is that none of the professional development workshops and conferences I attended as a part-time ESL teacher were that informative. The presenters either stated the obvious or presented technology that I wasn't prepared to use. That said, I'll gladly continue reading these blogs if necessary for professional development.
