Browsing all posts in Lisa Nielsen.

Innovative Ideas for Educating English Language Learners (Part 1)

I was a bit intimated about providing a keynote presentation at the NYS Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) conference this month because of my own rather unpleasant memories of being made fun of for my “white” accent in high school, and later in college, Spanish classes. I always envied those [...]

Engage Me or Enrage Me! (Pt.2)

How to Start Engaging Students with Passion-Based Learning: (Continued)
Ideas for Engaging Students in Passion-Based Learning:
Discover and Consume:
First you need to support your students in finding area of passion and deep personal interest which is an ongoing journey.  Next you may want to connect them with other students and teachers who share these interests so they [...]

Engage Me or Enrage Me! (Pt.1)

How to Start Engaging Students with Passion-Based Learning:
Recently I attended Alan November’s Building Learning Communities Conference where I participated in a session for educators exploring how to become transformational leaders. A participant at my table said, “This is all nice, but kids need to learn that school isn’t always interesting. Sometimes school is just boring.” [...]