Just wondering: How well do you go about challenging yourself to be a better teacher? And when I ask you that question, I’m also asking myself it too.

One of my favorite teaching quotes is: “He who dares to teach, must never cease to learn.” – Richard Henry Dann.

So what are you doing to keep your skills sharp? What have you been reading that has challenged your teaching skills and practice lately?

A few weeks ago, I came across this article: Self-educate to survive. I liked it. Yes…if you take a second to read it, you’ll quickly discover that it has nothing to do with teaching English to adults. It’s about web designers and how they go about staying fresh and up to date in their ever changing marketplace. On the surface, nothing much to do with teaching, right?

Wait! Think for a Minute:

• Recall, for a moment, how you got into teaching English. Did you follow a university career as an educator? Are you a certified TESOL instructor? Or did you, like the author of the article, just sort of find yourself drawn into the profession because of the tools you had on hand? That was me. My background is in Social Work, but what I didn’t know until I got started over 11 years ago, was that my VOCATION was in teaching English. This is what I LOVE to do. This seems to also be something I’m made to do. (And I seem to be good at it.)

• If you don’t have an official ‘English teaching educational background’ you likely have learned on the job. You’ve seen other teachers do things that you thought were cool, so you tried it yourself. You’ve read a book or two, or maybe internet based articles, and have gotten development ideas that way.  Maybe you’ve been lucky enough to be mentored by a teacher with more experience than you, and have gotten their feedback. (And you’ve done something with it.)

Maybe there are some similarities with teaching and that article. But even if felt there wasn’t much of a connection between your life as a teacher and that article, I would like to at least invite you to connect with the important idea that self-education is a must if you want to see your teaching skills grow over time. The question is, if you agree with that last point, is how to do it.

How are you doing it? Are you following a strategy of some sort? Are you working on your teaching skills on your own, or as part of a group?

Join a group! Let’s make one… It’s one thing to work on your skills based on what you feel or sense about yourself. It’s a complete other ballgame to work on your skills in the company of likeminded peers.

I love to write. In university, I discovered that my English professer also loved to write, so we formed an informal writer’s group and hounded each other to produce a chapter a week in our work. Then we met together to read it to each other, and talk about it. That writer’s group was like pure gold to me. Looking back on it, I would say it was one of the greatest highlights of my university experience. I grew so much, I could actually feel it.

What do you think would happen if we got together on a regular basis to build our teaching skills? Would you be game for that? We don’t have to meet physically each week, as time is often against us, but we could meet virtually.

Here’s my proposal. If you’re interested, send me an email of just leave a comment.

1. Join me on Google+ (It’s Google’s version of Facebook.)

2. We’ll create a special Google+ circle where we can post info, share ideas, ask questions, and hangout.

3. Each month we’ll identify a skill that we’d all like to work on together, we’ll outline goals and expectations, and then work together on building those skills into our teaching tool kit.

What do you think? Would you like to join something like this? What would you like to see happen in your development as a teacher?

(Photo: by kennymatic)