Top Inspirational Books for Educators

Posted on Saturday, February 27, 2010



By Melissa Kelly, About.com Guide
1. The Courage to Teach
What is the essence of being a succesful teacher? According to Parker J. Palmer, it is to be able to make connections between themselves, their students and their curriculum. Truly an inspiration, this book takes a different look at teaching by giving educators a chance to reflect on their profession and themselves.

2. Not Quite Burned Out But Crispy Around the Edges
Help remind the educator in your life why they entered the 'noble profession' of teaching. This book is loaded with inspirational and humorous stories that highlight the joys and rewards of teaching without ignoring the realities of the job.


3. Extraordinary Teachers
When people ask me what I do for a living, it is interesting to hear their reaction to my answer. In fact, many people pity teachers for their 'low-reward' jobs. Worse, some even blame teachers for all the ills in society. This book reveals the extraordinary effects that teachers have.


4. Teaching from the HeartHelp remind the educator in your life why they entered the 'noble profession' of teaching. This book is loaded with inspirational and humorous stories that highlight the joys and rewards of teaching without ignoring the realities of the job.


5. To a Very Special Teacher
Wonderful, little book that is meant to be given from a student to a teacher. However, it is much more than that. This book can truly make an educator feel like they are having a positive effect on the world around them.


6. Teacher, Here's My Heart
This little book is full of beautiful illustrations and poetry written from the perspective of the parent to the teacher. It is truly touching and inspirational.

Continue Reading

Comments (0)

Top 12 Inspirational Movies for Teacher







1. Lean on Me
Morgan Freeman plays Joe Clark, the real-life bat-wielding Principal whose goal was to bring discipline and learning to Eastside High School in New York. While he was not always the easiest on the teachers, it would sure be nice if more Principals stressed the importance of discipline and learning in their schools as he did. This film shows the importance of having strong leadership at the top.

To Sir With Love
2. 'To Sir, with Love' (1967)
Sidney Poitier is the quintessential inspirational teacher. He plays an idealistic engineer-turned-teacher who ends up in an East End London school where the staff has given up on the rowdy, incorrigible students. Things start rough but once he throws out the textbooks and decides to teach the kids about life rather than square roots and split infinitives, he begins to win their trust and respect. The film deals with discrimination based on both race and economics. Poitier is perfect as the man the kids come to refer to as "Sir." Judy Geeson and Lulu were reunited with Poitier in the TV sequel directed by Peter Bogdanovich.


The Ron Clark Story

3. The Ron Clark Story follows the inspiring tale of an energetic, creative and idealistic young teacher who leaves his small North Carolinahometown to teach in a New York City public school. Through his passionate use of special rules for his classroom, highly innovative teaching techniques and an undying devotion to his students and helping them cope with their problems, Clark is able to make a remarkable difference in the lives of his students.  Even when he is almost overcome by pneumonia, Clark continues to work with his students, hoping that he can raise their test scores to an acceptable level, or possibly even higher. However, when Mr Clark returns, he finds out his class did not deliver the goods but he remains optimistic about their chances. The kids sit in the state exams and a few days later, Mr Clark takes the kids to see the Phantom of Opera. In the end, Principal Turner reveals that Mr Clark's class got the highest average in the state and Mr Clark was regarded by his students as their best teacher in the world.

Freedom Writers
4. 'Freedom Writers' (2007)
Hilary Swank plays real life teacher Erin Gruwell who takes on freshman English at Woodrow Wilson High School in Long Beach, California. The school is racially diverse but not well integrated, with students sticking to their own ethnic groups. Gruwell proves to be naïve and out of her element yet her dedication to finding a way to reach these troubled kids is truly inspirational and moving. In real life, a number of Gruwell's students have themselves turned to teaching because of her.

The Great Debaters
5. The Great Debaters
Denzel Washington directed and starred in this story of professor Melvin B. Tolson of Wiley College in Texas. Set in the 1930s, the film focuses on how he formed the school's first debate team and managed to challenge prejudices to get his team to face off with Ivy League Harvard. Washington is tough, intelligent, and passionate as a teacher with a cause.

The Miracle Worker

6. 'The Miracle Worker'
Anne Bancroft as Annie Sullivan and Patty Duke as her unwilling and unruly student Helen Keller won Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress Oscars, respectively, for their work. The two had originally created the roles on Broadway, and Duke would later go on to play Sullivan in a TV movie version of the story. Sullivan's determination to reach the blind and deaf Keller epitomizes how a good teacher can make an amazing impact on a student.
To Be and To Have

7. 'To Be and To Have' (2002, France)
A one-room school in rural France is the setting for this documentary portrait of teacher Georges Lopez. Exhibiting amazing patience, Lopez must deal with students ranging in age from four to eleven. A wonderful portrait of a truly dedicated teacher. Another deeply affecting, small scale portrait of a classroom.


Stand and Deliver
8. 'Stand and Deliver' (1988)
Edward James Olmos plays real life teacher Jaime Escalante, a Los Angeles teacher who inspires his underachieving students to learn calculus to boost their self-esteem. But they do so well in their AP testing that their success prompts accusations that they cheated. Ironically, the real Escalante ended up losing his position as math department chair at Garfield High and eventually left the school and returned to his native Bolivia to teach.



9. Renaissance Man
Danny Devito's performance as a teacher of the 'Double-D's' is both humorous and inspired. What appears to be a light-hearted comedy truly has a deeper meaning. Devito's character proves that William Shakespeare still has much to teach students. Surprisingly clean and somewhat corny at times, Renaissance Man in the end teaches important life lessons on responsibility and character.



10. Mr. Holland's Opus
This memorable movie gives all teachers hope that they truly have an impact on their students. Richard Dreyfuss is wonderful as a musician/composer who must take a teaching job to support his family. In the end, Dreyfuss' character realizes that he has had as much if not more of an impact from his teaching as he would have as a composer.


11. Dangerous Minds
Michelle Pfeiffer is excellent as real-life former marine Louanne Johnson. Teaching English in a tough inner-city school, she reaches the "unteachable" through caring and understanding. Very true-to-life, Dangerous Minds does not fall into sentimentality but instead teaches us of the importance of making our own choices and not allowing circumstances to rule us.

12. Dead Poet's Society
Robin Williams gives an awesome performance as an unconventional English teacher in a very conventional (read conservative) private school. His love of poetry and his inspiring teaching methods have a great impact on his students. The central message of the movie, to live life to the fullest everyday, is not lost. Further, Williams' poetry recitations are awe-inspiring.

Source : About.com & About.com : Hollywood Movies

Continue Reading

Comments (4)

Famous Sayings About Teachers

Posted on Sunday, October 4, 2009

* "Teaching is not a lost art, but the regard for it is a lost tradition." - Jacques Barzun
* "Good teachers are costly, but bad teachers cost more." - Bob Talbert
* "The true teacher defends his pupils against his own personal influence. He inspires self-distrust. He guides their eyes from himself to the spirit that quickens him. He will have no disciple." - Amos Bronson Alcott
* "A good teacher is like a candle - it consumes itself to light the way for others." -Anonymous
* "Teaching is leaving a vestige of one self in the development of another. And surely the student is a bank where you can deposit your most precious treasures." - Eugene P. Bertin
* "The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires." - William Arthur Ward
* "A teacher's purpose is not to create students in his own image, but to develop students who can create their own image." - Anonymous
* "What the teacher is, is more important than what he teaches." - Karl Menninger
* "The dream begins with a teacher who believes in you, who tugs and pushes and leads you to the next plateau, sometimes poking you with a sharp stick called truth." - Dan Rather
* "In teaching you cannot see the fruit of a day's work. It is invisible and remains so, maybe for twenty years." - Jacques Barzun
* "Teaching is the profession that teaches all the other professions." - Anonymous
* "The best teachers teach from the heart, not from the book." - Anonymous
* "A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops." - Henry Brooks Adams
* "Teachers, I believe, are the most responsible and important members of society because their professional efforts affect the fate of the earth." - Helen Caldicott
* "Better than a thousand days of diligent study is one day with a great teacher." -Japanese proverb
* "The whole art of teaching is only the art of awakening the natural curiosity of young minds for the purpose of satisfying it afterwards." -Anatole France
* "Those who educate children well are more to be honored than parents, for these only gave life, those the art of living well." - Aristotle
* "A gifted teacher is as rare as a gifted doctor, and makes far less money" - Anonymous

Continue Reading

Comments (1)

Apa itu Web 2.0

Posted on Saturday, June 27, 2009

Sebenarnya istilah ini sudah lama muncul tapi kita perlu tahu, apa sih web 2.0?

Apa itu web 2.0? Sederhananya adalah web generasi kedua yang menawarkan kemudahan dalam penggunaan aplikasi dan interaksi, komunikasi serta sharing dan lain-lain. Istilah ini dipakai untuk menggambarkan aplikasi-aplikasi Internet generasi baru yang merevolusi cara kita menggunakan Internet.

Web 2.0 adalah generasi web yang membuat ’semua orang’ yang terhubung ke web mampu menyediakan dan mendistribusikan konten (teks, grafis, dll) di web. Website yang membuat orang dapat berbagi konten di web dengan mudahnya (tidak perlu pengetahuan pemrograman web pun bisa berbagi data di web) adalah web 2.0: Blog, Photo Sharing (flickr), Video Sharing (YouTube), Presentation Sharing (Slideshare.net), Social Networking (Facebook, myspace, friendster, linkedIn, etc) dll.

Kalau generasi pertama adalah milik web programer dan web designer, nah ceritanya sekarang nih, aplikasi internet sekarang berorientasi kepada user atau pemakai. Ini nih definisinya saya cuplik dari Wiki "Web 2.0" refers to what is perceived as a second generation of web development and web design. It is characterized as facilitating communication, information sharing, interoperability, User-centered design.

Istilah ini diperkenalkan oleh Tim O'Reilly pada tahun 2003 dan dipopulerkan dalam the O'Reilly Media Web 2.0 conference tahun 2004. Kendati ini adalah istilah baru tapi bukan berarti menunjukkan versi internet baru. Web 2.0 lebih mengacu kepada perubahan dalam aplikasi-aplikasi web dan kemudahan penggunaannya oleh para pemakai internet.

Karakteristik dari Web 2.0 adalah bahwa kita tidak hanya sekedar menerima informasi. Web 2.0 memberi kemudahan dan kemampuan pengguna internet biasa atau awam untuk mendistribusikan dan mengembangkan konten. Web 2.0 juga menjadi sarana untuk berbagi konten bukan saja dari satu ke banyak melainkan distribusi informasi terjadi antara banyak-ke-banyak: many-to-many. Dan inilah esensi dari web 2.0: partisipasi. kolaborasi. many-to-many. contoh spesifik dari web 2.0: Wikipedia, Flickr, dll.


Berikut ini fitur-fitur Web 2.0 : (kutipan dari wiki):

Web 2.0 websites typically include some of the following features/techniques. Andrew McAfee used the acronym SLATES to refer to them:[13]

Search
The ease of finding information through keyword search.
Links
Ad-hoc guides to other relevant information.
Authoring
The ability to create constantly updating content over a platform that is shifted from being the creation of a few to being constantly updated, interlinked work. In wikis, the content is iterative in the sense that users undo and redo each other's work. In blogs, content is cumulative in that posts and comments of individuals are accumulated over time.
Tags
Categorization of content by creating tags: simple, one-word user-determined descriptions to facilitate searching and avoid rigid, pre-made categories.
Extensions
Powerful algorithms that leverage the Web as an application platform as well as a document server.
Signals
The use of RSS technology to rapidly notify users of content changes.

Continue Reading

Comments (2)

Chat Box

Photos from our Flickr stream