February 16th, 2009 · 1 Comment
Each year the American Community School of Athens hosts an Annual Conference on Learning Differences. This year their conference is entitled: Differentiating Teaching and Learning: Unraveling the Myths. 
Christiana Perakis, the conference organiser and the Director of Stavros Niarchos Learning Center, says that the conference will be held on the 8th and 9th May 2009 in Athens. Some of the workshops and presentations include:
- Technology for Struggling Students
- Indentifying and Maximising Talent
- Universal Design for Learning and Accessible Technology: Building a Plan for Learning Diversity
- Differentiation: What, Why and How
- Collaborative Teaching Strategies Used between Special Education and General Education Teachers
Two years ago I was invited to present workshops at this conference and I was impressed with the scope of the workshop sessions and presentations. For more information contact
Chris Perakis or visit the
ACS Athens website.
Tags: Professional Development · Resources
February 5th, 2009 · 7 Comments
A teacher I know used to have her harp in the corner of her classroom and regularly played it for her students. From time to time I think about how lucky her students were to have this experience. One of the greatest contributions a teacher can make is to use their diverse skills, talents and strengths to enrich the lives and learning of their students.
Interestingly, Jane Kise in her book Differentiated Coaching: A Framework for Helping Teachers Change, suggests that a teacher’s strengths could possibility block one’s ability to differentiate their instruction. She argues that strengths build up a teacher’s beliefs about how students learn best. These strong beliefs can lock teachers into using practices and strategies that may not be in the best learning interests of all students.
Dr. Kise says, “when I have asked teachers about the students they have the most trouble reaching, or feel most helpless with, they describe students who don’t share their strengths. Teachers need to understand how their strengths drive their beliefs about learning and how those beliefs might affect students who are very different from them.”
For Dr. Kise, the art of professional development is helping teachers understand where their strengths and beliefs lock them into practices that limit their freedom to help students succeed.
What do you think about this?
Tags: Professional Development · Reflections · Resources
