Return-Path: <nifl-aalpd@literacy.nifl.gov> Received: from literacy (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by literacy.nifl.gov (8.10.2/8.10.2) with SMTP id i1FMMEI25091; Sun, 15 Feb 2004 17:22:14 -0500 (EST) Date: Sun, 15 Feb 2004 17:22:14 -0500 (EST) Message-Id: <6CE2BF38.493597F9.0AB94E44@aol.com> Errors-To: listowner@literacy.nifl.gov Reply-To: nifl-aalpd@literacy.nifl.gov Originator: nifl-aalpd@literacy.nifl.gov Sender: nifl-aalpd@literacy.nifl.gov Precedence: bulk From: AndresMuro@aol.com To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-aalpd@literacy.nifl.gov> Subject: [NIFL-AALPD:1037] Re: Light, not heat X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 X-Mailer: Atlas Mailer 2.0 Status: O Content-Length: 3438 Lines: 27 Jackie, et al: this morning, after your message I started to look for some of the info online. I found most of the references right away. I started to copy, and paste URLs, and I keep closing and having to re-re open the message to past the URL and then I got tired of going back and forth with baby jumping on my lap, wife screaming behind, etc. So, I figure, just type the names and subjects in your browser and you'll go to a bunch of sites with literature. I do recommend Niel Carlson's "Physiology of behavior" as a primer on how the brain works. Oliver Sacks published a book on how Deaf people learn, very accessible, but it is out of print. The NALS stuff is readily accessible on the web. My references to Ogbu, Cummins, Spener (sp?) and others, people will have to find them by doing a search on the major education journals such as Harvard Ed. Review, Journal of ABE, Tesol Quarterly, etc. The Critical Pedagogy stuff, and Frankfurt stuff, are entire schools on pedagogy and philosophy. I can refer you guys to specific texts, but you'll be better served by choosing where to start. I hate sounding like some bookworm or some kind of cyber ivory tower geek, nerd, dweeb with no grunding on pratical experience (or whatever Melissa said), so I try not to post references or quote names in most of my messages, or write in pompous academic jargon. I wear the most geeky and nerdy spandex cycling clothes when I ride my bike and feel like a total nerd while wearing that stuff. I don't want to feel like a nerd in these newsgroups. So, I'll leave it at that. I think that it is enough for me to know that George and Katherine like me to crown me as the ultimate cyber nerd in these groups :-) Anyways, regarding the application to PD, it is very straight forward. The more that people know, the more that they can share with their staff. However, regarding professional development, I only have one suggestion, and it is very simple. Be nice too your staff and they'll make terriffic teachers. let them be, and let them figure out what works best with their students. The less requirements and assessments, etc that you impose on them, the better that they'll teach. Those who don't like it, or don't get it will eventually leave on their own. In our program, we don't hire teachers, because we cannot afford it. We hire college students or other people w/o degrees that would like to learn how to teach. Since we don't pay that much, the only compensation that we can offer is to be extra nice to them. We want people to wake up thinking ...."cool, I have to go to work". Many have crappy lives, and we want work to be the best place that they can go to. It seems to work. people seem to be really committed to what they are doing. Despite the fact that we pay misserably, we have very low turnover. those people that get degrees and take other jobs, keep working with us anyways. We are some kind of a recruitment center for adult educators in el Paso. When someone needs teachers, they call us and ask us to send any of our teachers that have degrees. So, regarding PD, the best advise is: 1) to be nice to the people that you train, and persuade the supervisors to be nice to them. 2) convince the gov to drop the wia/nrs stuff. It is truly a huge barrier to teaching. Create spaces for teachers to figure out what is best for their students. andres -- go here: www.geocities.com/andresmuro/art.html
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