Besides the mental health theme, which is moving now into its third year here on the PLC, what other themes have risen to the top of the heap? Which ones remain in our group consciousness enough that we might want to keep them in our minds as we transition now into a period of rest and then start up again in the fall? Which themes should we take forward into the next academic year together?
One is certainly non-targeted input. This is not to say that targeted input doesn’t have a place in the future on the table here on the PLC, just not a very big one. We’ve kind of been there and done that. Fifteen years is enough for moi. There is starting to be too much good farm fresh food on the table that is non-targeted, made of all natural ingredients, and bursting with flavor.
Moreover, teachers can easily find a wealth of ideas about targeted work, a seemingly endless series of articles, really, in the categories and archives here or, best, just by using the search bar.
The NT theme here is going to really help a lot of teachers with the mental health piece. Particularly tasty in 2017-2018 will be the Invisibles concept with the One Word Images, as well as, of course, Story Listening, not to mention our tried and true non-targeted old friend, Questioning with Cards (formerly Circling with Balls) and the super-engaging Word Chunk Team Game, along with a wealth of other non-targeted strategies.
A third theme – along with the mental health and the non-targeted piece – that I see possible here for next year centers around avoiding bashing well-intentioned people who are dragging the movement down.
This is a big one. What does it mean? We’ll make that the topic of the next in this series of reflection articles. (It is good to reflect on what we are doing from time to time, so we can continue to grow in, as the French say, in the good direction.)