ETAIPerspectives

December 2007

Imprints

Judy Steiner

Chief Inspector for English Language Education

Challenges

You must do the thing you think you cannot do. Eleanor Roosevelt

Cognitive Dissonance

Cognitive dissonance is a psychological term describing the uncomfortable tension that may result from having two conflicting thoughts at the same time, or from engaging in behavior that conflicts with one's beliefs.

Change

My heart is singing for joy this morning. A miracle has happened! The light of

understanding has shone upon my little pupil's mind, and behold, all things are changed. Anne Sullivan

Critical Thinking SkillsThat is what learning is. You suddenly understand something you've understood all your life, but in a new way. Doris Lessing

Craze

The business of teaching is carried forward…because some individuals of extraordinary vitality and strength of personality engage in it, and the fire that helps to guide them kindles the spirits of the young people whose lives they touch. Woodrow Wilson

Pay It Forward

The Law of the StarfishA man was walking down the beach one day and came across hundreds of tiny starfish that had washed up on shore. He immediately began to pick up as many as he could and throw them back in the ocean. He repeated this over and over, until another man walked up and asked him what he was doing.

"Isn't it obvious," said the man. "All these starfish will die if we don't get them back in the water. Please help me."

The second man replied, "What's the use, you'll never be able to get them all back in the water. So what difference does it make?"

The man bent down, picked up just one starfish, and tossing it back into the water said, "It makes a difference to this one.“ (Accessed from: http://ezinearticles.com/?Inspiration-for-Teachers:--8-Universal-Laws&id=69044

Confidence

My teacher thought I was smarter than I was; so I was.

Six-year old student

The hardest battle is to be nobody but yourself in a world that is doing its best, night and day, to make you like everybody else. E.E. Cummings

Control

My Impact as a Teacher by Haim Ginott

I have come to a frightening conclusion.I am the decisive element in the classroom.

It is my personal approach that creates the climate.

It is my daily mood that makes the weather.

As a teacher I possess tremendous power to make a child's life miserable or joyous.

I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration.

I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal.

In all situations it is my response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated or de-escalated, and a child humanized or dehumanized.

You must be the change you wish to see in the world. Mahatma Gandhi