Leading a student-centered class can be scary. For an instructor used to being the star of the show in a lecture-style class, relinquishing control to students can feel like letting go of the wheel on the highway. However, dipping your toes in the water can be as easy as starting each class with a dynamic warm-up—that is, a simple, 5 -10 minute activity done at the beginning of class, which obligates students to do three things: 1. Use language to focus on meaning 2.

by Stefan DuBois There are various tempting personas to adopt when teaching culture in the classroom: the “Ben Stein,” droning through a laundry list of “Did-you-knows?”; the “crusty old aunt on the couch,” torturing students with an interminable slideshow of the instructor’s own photo albums; the “projectionist,” playing a tangentially-related movie or video whose primary objective is soaking up time until the bell rings. All of these personas fall into the trap of the Atlas

By Erin E.H. Austin, NBCT The fact that we had to completely reinvent the way we do public education over the past two plus years is painful, but it’s also--dare I say it--exciting! As a veteran teacher, I’ve found that it makes me want to “steer into the skid”; I want to see just how much I can shake things up. The pandemic years seemed like as good a time as any to change the entire framework of my teaching. The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) “The 2030 Agenda for S

Global Experiences For All: 5 Ways to Make Student Travel More Equitable By Erin E.H. Austin, NBCT I will never forget my first trip to Paris. I stood before priceless works of art, I drank wine under the Eiffel Tower at night, and I even got locked in Père Lachaise Cemetery after hours. (Not my finest moment.) That trip changed me. It opened up an entirely new world and culture, and it fueled my desire to learn the language, make connections, and most importantly, explore th