Connecting Teachers Across Continents Through On-Line Reflection and Sharing
✍ Scribed by Ingrid Bowman; Beth Ann Boyle; Lynne Doherty Herndon; Karen Ashley Greenstone; Angela Valente
- Publisher
- Wiley (John Wiley & Sons)
- Year
- 2000
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 56 KB
- Volume
- 9
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 1056-7941
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
TIME CONSTRAINTS, RELUCTANCE to discuss classroom or work-site challenges with colleagues, lack of budget for conferences, and limited institutional resources can leave ESOL teachers isolated, unsupported, and stymied in their professional development. What practical forum can help us move beyond the sense of isolation that so often accompanies our teaching? This is the issue that 12 of us discussed at the 1997 TESOL annual convention in Orlando, Florida, in the United States. We were meeting for the first time since completing an intensive master of arts in teaching program at the School for International Training in Brattleboro, Vermont, in the United States, where we had developed a common philosophy of student-centered, reflective teaching practice. Now, a year later in Florida, our talk focused on this shared philosophy and on how to realize it more effectively in our real-life classrooms around the world. Together we reflected on how to place ourselves in the service of our students' learning and on how we could continue to develop professionally by reflecting on our teaching and learning.