One of the graduate courses I'm taking this summer is on Advanced Techniques and Methods of Instruction. It's designed for teachers seeking certification, but it is one of the electives I had to take. I approached the course first with hesitation and annoyance - "I'm already certified. Why do I have to do these assignments again?" What I am thankful for now is it has helped me re-evaluate what I thought I knew about teaching and redesign my approach to teaching and learning.

At the same time, I've been engaging in various conferences this summer - TASSP, Leadership for the Digital Learning Age, TASA Summer Workshop. That's just June! I've been engaging in various conversations with educational leaders from all over. We're all looking for the same thing. Alan November was just able to put it together for me today - meaningful, purposeful, and inspiring learning. I would argue this is not just for our students but for ourselves as well.

What is meaningful? It is the relationship formed between teacher and student and with the self.

What is purposeful? It is the relevancy that teachers use in guiding students to make connections between themselves and their world.

What is inspiring? It is the rigor that teachers build to engage students in creative and critical learning and questioning.

It was with these three things and the various conversations I've had over the last month in mind that I wrote a research paper for my graduate course on educational best practices for the English Language Arts classroom. It's very rough, but I would like your feedback. What do you think are the educational best practices for the ELA classroom? For every classroom? What do you think makes meaningful, purposeful, and inspiring learning?

Education Best Practices for the ELA Classroom