Tuesday, July 25, 2017

6-Word Teaching Story

From our life journey, stories evolve.

Educators have stories to tell. Their lives are a mix of teaching, learning, and family and are guided by passion-filled principles. When Kathleen Sokolowski sent a tweet asking educators to share their teaching story in a 6 word memoir, I paused to reflect on why I teach.

Teaching is my passion  and I have been: 



My long-standing career in education has taken me on an incredible journey from urban educational settings in Albany and Syracuse to Long Island where I taught and supervised K-12 students from diverse backgrounds. Experiences from novice reading teacher to reading specialist/coach to districtwide Language Arts Director have provided me with many windows into the hearts and minds of students

Because passion was still burning when I retired from public education, I changed gears to consider an unretirement lifestyle. I decided to go back to my passion, teaching and thus, began a career as an ELA Consultant. Teaching teachers has been a fascinating experience. Doors of possibility have opened. For the past two summers, I have taught an ELA Summer Institute at the local college to graduate students (teachers in the field). This summer, I asked the teachers to unleash their creativity with the end goal of finding their voices. They responded as I expected-with enthusiasm, passion, and pride.



You can see their accomplishments here.

No matter what type of student came before me in my career, I have been guided by positivity to impact learning. Motivating the learner from a passion-filled perspective has provided me with the opportunity to encourage all types of learners to move in small steps to succeed. 


Motivation is a key factor in engaging students
 in the task of becoming lifelong learners. 

What are my takeaways from decades of teaching experience:


Build a culture of trust and solid relationships
Engage learners from a stance of positivity
Kidwatch
Look for teachable moments
Scaffold
Honor ALL voices
Release responsibility
Celebrate the sparks that ignite

👏👏👏

What is your teaching story? 
Share your six-word story on Twitter 
with @MrsSokolowski and #liwp6words.

It's Slice of Life Tuesday at Two Writing Teachers
Join me to read what others slicers are writing about today.

1 comment:

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