The Cornerstone Accolades: May 2009
By Angela Watson
Every month, the Accolades take on a slightly different format. This month, I’d like to acknowledge three outstanding post series:
Total Teacher Transformation: Hope for All Teachers from Joel at So You Want to Teach?
Joel is known for having great series on his blog, but I really like this one because it speaks to the hopeless teacher. What do you do when you feel so far from your goals? Joel provides practical and totally do-able steps to transformation.
Year-End Reflections at Confessions From the Couch (Miss Teacha)
For the latter half of May, Miss Teacha has been posting her students’ reflections on learning, as well as her own. I appreciate her transparency and willingness to post not-so-flattering things about herself. She’s also had a great series of posts on classroom management tips. If you haven’t been keeping up, be sure to check out her blog.
Passionization from Angela Maiers
This might be the most original content I’ve seen in the edublogosphere. What an amazing four-part series on inspiring students’ passions and conveying our own. I’m linking here to the second post in the series, in which Angela argues that students’ home lives often drain them of their passions, and we as teachers might be the only ones who exhibit a zeal for life and empower the children in our care to do the same. This is deep, meaningful stuff, and an absolute must-read for educators.
Angela Watson
Founder and Writer
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Angela,
I am so honored and excited that you have chosen to share this series of posts with your readers. They were written straight from the heart in hopes that the conversation about teaching with our hearts would spread. Thank you for doing that!
I learn so much from you and from bloggers like Joel and Miss Teacha. I look forward to digging into their posts. Keep up the wonderful work!
I am also honored that you would link me . . .as frightening as the posts are! I don’t know if I belong in the same category as Joel and Angela-they are true revolutionaries in education and edublogging. Thanks so much!
Angela: You are fabulous. Your heart always shines through in your posts. I’m privileged to spread the word about you! I’m going to also post a review of your book (the copy you gave me at ASCD) over the summer so more teachers will discover it, as well. 🙂
Miss Teacha: I like frightening–it’s real! And that’s what you do best–you keep it REAL. You don’t sugarcoat anything. And I love, love, love the way you write about black history. I wish more teachers were passionate about teaching it (and not just during February). Solid teaching about slavery, segregation, and desegregation can do amazing things for ALL children in terms of helping them understand our country’s roots and why things are the way they are…not to mention the direction we need to head in the future.