The Cornerstone Accolades: May 2009

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.