Expectations


As a member of this Online Book Club, you are expected to post to the book blog at least once per week between now and July 11 -- that's six weeks. You should finish your book before then, and you will meet during the Institute in your groups to extend the discussion and plan how to present the book to the others in the Institute.

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Saturday, July 9, 2016

It Doesn't Have to be Perfect to be Effective

I appreciated the postscript to this text a lot. In my previous posts I whined a bit about the "pie in the sky"approach to implementing changes of this nature in a school, particularly if the school is large. While I know change can start in one classroom and spread from my own experience, I run into issues of how to make it a widespread adoption of a better way to teach and learn. The postscript emphasized the need to "think globally, act locally"when it comes to educational reform.

One of the most important tips Lattimer gives is to explore literacy practices in one's discipline. I believe I spoke in an earlier post about the importance of educators in other disciplines beyond English in understanding how to read and write in their discipline. I strongly believe that direct instruction when it comes to writing in a specific discipline should be a part of teacher training if it isn't already.

Most importantly, she emphasizes to start small and not get caught up on making the process perfect. We all know from our own experience that even the most thought out lesson plan doesn't go exactly as planned. We're going to make mistakes. Things are bound to fail miserably when launching something new, but we shouldn't give up. We need to reflect on our own practice -- meaningfully -- and implement changes and start all over again.

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