Teacher Inservice Workshops And Professional Development Courses Are What University Teacher Trainin
Today’s teachers are prepared for yesterday’s students. The truth is that college and university teacher training has been stuck in the 1950’s for the past 50 years. Content and testing have remained the central focus of teacher preparation, while students’ behavioral and emotional problems became the central focus of the classroom. In essence, most teacher training programs prepare teachers to work with a student who no longer exists. Contemporary teacher training gives today’s teachers yesterday’s tools, leaving even the most talented educator sometimes feeling ill-prepared to cope with students of the 2000s who have moved far beyond a time of bobby sox and poodle skirts to cyber sex and nipple rings.
While it is unlikely that teacher college and university training programs will change dramatically any time soon, there is no harm in speculating about what the curriculum should look like now. Subjects that are currently covered only in teacher inservice workshops, professional development seminars and education conferences, should be routinely included as a major focus of professional training for educators. When this type of practical training is left to be an optional add-on that must be sought out, located, and often paid for with a teacher’s own personal funds, it becomes far less likely that most teachers will ever update their skills. I know this is true because many participants of my popular Problem Student Problem-Solver Workshops tell me that they have to pay for their own training, beg for days off so they can attend, and sometimes even use vacation time or forfeit their pay when their school can’t or won’t fund the costs.
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Professor Diane M. Barone is one of my favorite researchers when it comes to understanding how to cater effectively to English language learners. (ELLs) She has so much to offer new teachers on the subject and I spend a lot of time reading her books, which has helped with some of my research questions and writing.
She has been gracious enough to provide in-depth answers to my questions on teaching ELLs. She has even been more gracious to answer any more questions, which you can either email to me or leave in the comment box. So with a round of applause, let’s welcome Diane M. Barone.
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Nowadays, it makes so much more sense for teachers of ELLs working in faced paced classrooms to collaborate. Teachers need to learn from other teachers what works especially when it comes to supporting struggling ELLs. But this is not such a simple task. As Henry Ford said, “Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success.” For supporting ELLs, this collaboration never had a more meaningful role in supporting struggling ELLs learn how to read. I think new teachers especially, become frustrated when they don’t use collaboration strategically, but when they get to build on their collaboration, their interest grows.
Teachers can learn from other teachers who work with ELLs in either a general education class or small ESL learning group. They can create supportive learning and working environments when they know the various ranges of activities that have worked successfully for ELLs. They get excited about adapting activities when it can help their ELLs become more proficient readers and decoders. They learn collaborative strategies by collaboration. The key is to put the teacher as the learner.
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