I, along with two other recent graduates from Faculty of Education programs in Canada, had the pleasure of speaking with Stephen Hurley of the Canadian Education Council about our teaching aspirations.

During the interview for his podcast series "Teaching Out Loud", Stephen asked a number of important questions that helped to better define my own educational philosophies. I appreciated the opportunity to share my passion for education, and further learned through the perspectives of my fellow teacher candidates. In a way, it provided me a window into the "interview process", knowing we will all be asked the same questions, but given our varying backgrounds and wordly experiences, our thoughts and opinions will be diverse -- much like those in our classroom!

Something to consider for your own teaching practice...

1. What is the most important quality that you believe a teacher needs in order to be effective in the 21^st century classroom?
   
   
2. What is it that attracts you most to the life of the teacher?
   
   
3. What is one idea or disposition towards teaching that has changed as the result of your practicum experiences?
   
   
4. What do you find about the profession that most resonates with your personality? What about you fits?
   
   
5. What is the aspect of work as a teacher that you think will challenge you the most?
   
   
6. If you were given the opportunity to design an inspirational poster to hang in your room and remind you of your vision of teaching, what words or phrases be included?
   
   
7. If you were to use a word or phrase to describe your most influential teacher what would it be?
   
   
8. What about your future life as a teacher causes you a little bit of apprehension?
   
   
9. What excites you most about your future life as teacher?

LISTEN to Starting Points: Conversations with Beginning Teachers

Graphic organizers can help students to actively isolate, process, and reorganize key information. Tools such as these can support self-regulated learning – students are assigned the independent role of deconstructing and making sense of information. Thankfully, the wealth of available resources helps to ease differentiation in the classroom, and you can always modify or create your own graphic organizers based on the needs of your students!

 • They help students better understand how things are ordered and connect

 • They help to improve students’ memory of the information

 • They act as a visual tool that helps to differentiate learning for students’ learning needs

 • They provide a guide for the writing process – helping to improve the published piece!

 • They can be used across the curriculum in a variety of ways to assist students’ learning

To ensure that students use graphic organizers (GOs) effectively, teachers must be sure to MODEL!

Before Instruction:

Use GO to provide a visual structure for the presentation of new material

Model the relations between the information presented and explicitly explain how to organize text into the GO

Create anchor charts that expand on the purpose of the GO by deconstructing the text and define characteristics – for example, label important details using arrows

GO Links and Resources

ABC Teach – several resources for KWL forms, Venn diagrams, and web organizers

Education Oasis – 58 graphic organizers (PDF) for cause and effect, narratives, compare and contrast, events and sequencing, concept and vocabulary development

Exploratree – ready-made thinking guides that help students to map their ideas, solve problems, explore, analyze,  and represent different perspectives (also available in Welsh)

Education Place Classroom Resources -- graphic organizers for writing projects, problem solving, decision making, studying, planning research and brainstorming (also available in Spanish)

Enchanted Learning – a variety of graphic organizers aimed at the junior and intermediate levels

Freeology – 100 FREE, printable graphic organizers for use across the curriculum

Graphic Organizer Index – a variety of resources for printable graphic organizers

Graphic Organizer Templates – a variety of GOs that can be used for instructional and assessment purposes – they can be adapted for your students’ needs and re-saved

Holt Interactive Graphic Organizers – 38 GOs (PDF) that include teaching notes with lessons and tips on how to use graphic organizers in the classroom

Houghton Mifflin EduPlace – a variety of GOs (PDF) that help to support the ordering of ideas and notes

Smart Sheets – research based teaching tools based on fundamental learning strategies that can be downloaded and purchases online

Super Teacher Worksheets – printable GOs for that support reading and writing in the classroom

TeAchnology – includes a list of general GOs, as well as subject and process specific organizers

Teacher Vision Graphic Organizers -- collection of FREE, ready-to-use GOs are designed to facilitate understanding of key concepts by allowing students to visually identify key points and ideas

The Graphic Organizer – provides GOs, concept mapping and mind mapping tools, as well as a teacher’s guide for effective implementation in the classroom

Thinking Maps – offers visual thinking tools that correspond with fundamental thinking processes, and can be used in various combinations to form a Common Visual Language for students and teachers at all grade levels, in all subjects