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30goalsedu-blog · 9 years ago

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An Amazing Argentinian Teacher and Class – An Interview with Fabiana Casella by Vicky Loras

Post originally posted on Vicky Lora's blog, Goals covered- Teach Digital Citizenship, Make a Global Connection, Confront the Issues

Welcome! This year the 30 Goals Challenge for Educators is on a world tour and I am happy to be your Inspire Leader for this part of the journey. So where in the world is the 30 goals? We are visiting Buenos Aires, Argentina where we get to chat with a wonderful educator, Fabiana Casella. I connected with her on social media in 2013 and am so happy to see all the great things she does. She blogs at All4efl.blogspot.com.ar. View other participant interviews on this Youtube 30 Goals playlist including Shelly Terrell’s interview with me and Fabiana. Discover the other destinations we are traveling to at 30Goals.com.

The Interview

Vicky: Fabiana, I first connected to you online a few months ago on Facebook, and have been following you and your lovely class ever since!

Fabiana: Yes, you’re right, Vicky! I feel honored you have been following me!

Vicky: The honour is all mine, Fabiana! I learn so much from you. My first question is, how did you become an educator, Fabiana?

Fabiana: Well, when I was in High School I wanted to be a History teacher and a lawyer. Later, I realized I had to study something connected with the foreign language I was studying so, I thought of the possibility of becoming an EFL teacher.

Vicky: Wow, a lawyer – me too! Thankfully, for the world of ELT, you became a teacher : ) Can you tell us a few things about your students? What ages they are, what sort of projects you engage in with them?

Fabiana: I have always taught teenagers. I used to teach children and adults too, but my schedule is tight for I am a full-time mom. Right now, I am only teaching 13-14 and 17-18. Projects? Well, I had done crazy, but creative things in the past, that is to say late 80s when I started teaching, such as make my students read and record a whole play called “Murder At Walton, Hall” on video (VHS) where they performed like real actors and actresses! They had to study the script, adapt it or abridge it and simply… act! It certainly was a lot of fun for them, for the class and very rewarding and satisfying for all of us! Those that would not want to make a video, they made a picture story book with real photographs: they would dress up, take pictures and publish the “book” with narration and dialogs as in comic magazines. Some other projects were a little more complex and tough:my advanced students made documentary videos on the life of relevant people in the world: Mandela, Martin Luther King, Mother Theresa or Ghandi. They studied the biographies by heart, sat in front of a camera and started talking.

Nowadays, everything is more digital: with my advanced Senior group I started commenting the news by reading Twitter, BBC World, CNN, NY Times, The Salisbury Post, Charlotte Observer and Buenos Aires Herald. There is something I truly value and it is the student’s self motivation and I try to promote and never let it die. The students you see in the photo below, traveled to Washington, DC and New York to attend the Global Young Leaders’ Youth Conference. They interacted with youngsters from all around the Globe and when they came back home they shared their amazing experiences with all of us. One afternoon, one of the boys got a voice message from a friend from Saudi Arabia telling all his international friends about the conflict in Syria. It was wonderful to listen to the girl and after that, discuss the topic alltogether.

Fabiana’s students : )

Last year, we worked on two projects: Alcohol Awareness-Underage Drinking and Cyberbullying-Bullying-Digital Citizenship which was a real success, as my students participated actively in video, audio and images: in class and at home. A lot of reflection and comments in a foreign language was not an easy task, but they were fantastic.

Fabiana and her students’ project on alcohol awareness

Fabiana and her students’ project on Cyberbullying

My pre-Intermediate group participated in a project called “We Are On The Air”, which is an idea of a fabulous, Facebook friend and colleague an EFL teacher from Greece called Theodora Papapanagiotou. The students made videos about the area where they live and what they do. The idea is to show a bit of our city, Buenos Aires as well as some others around the world which she will include in her lecture at TESOL Greece this current year.

Theodora and Fabiana’s project We Are on the Air!

I believe English Language Learners need to speak the language at all times that is why I devote some part of my class to talk about updated news, like reading the newspaper in English, commenting on anything they read which they find interesting and doing vocabulary research. Last year, I also started a sort of flipping class using Edmodo, where I post varied types of tasks for them to do at home to be commented in class: Monday Morning News Update was We usually talk about the news the first minutes of the class: I feel my students need to be exposed to real content and have as much speaking practice as possible. Reading and listening make you a better writer and speaker.

It is some extra work for me and for the students, but in the long run we both benefit from it, especially THEM who are the ones that matter. Vicky: I absolutely love what you are doing and have done with the kids, fabiana – it is all about discussing values and life as well, not only teaching the language and you do that very well. You also use culture a lot in your classes. Can you tell us how you do that?

Fabiana: Buenos Aires is a melting pot, so maybe because of that, I have always been multicultural, and have never feared to learn from some other cultures. I taught in the United States for six years as an international and cultural exchange teacher so I would say, that was the key point in my career as a teacher. It opened my mind more than it had been before, and made me see things from different points of view. I interacted with people from all the continents and cultures which certainly gave me a lot of experience. I participated in fairs where we showed typical objects, traditions, music, videos, pictures, magazines from Argentina. We even took virtual trips to my country Since I came back to Argentina, I have worked at the same small private school, Colegio Canadá or Canada School, where its owners and administrators have always had a plan in mind: to be part of international projects: sports tours and exchange trips to English speaking countries, teach English as a foreign language intensively, make students sit for International Examinations, sing the Canadian Anthem or become acquainted with the History and Geography of English Speaking Countries. We do a lot of cross-cultural activities, I mean, if the Social Studies teacher is teaching The Tudors, we read about them in English, make posters to decorate the classroom, crossword puzzles, trivia and other activities online.

It is a tradition to celebrate Canada Day all around the school, this past year my students made posters, flags and sang the Anthem on video. Later, I decided to publish everything on a Padlet wall: http://padlet.com/wall/qlsb3wfv9t

Canada Day with Fabiana and her students!

Vicky: You engage a lot in social media. How did you become involved in them, and how do you think they help educators?

Fabiana: Honestly, I was really reluctant to expose myself online. About two years ago one of my best friends and colleagues and my friends in the USA convinced me to open an account on Facebook for me to be connected with other educators and keep in touch with them, respectively. Then, I became a sort of addict, browsed every education group and started to relate with the greatest teachers, educators, teacher trainers, and authors around the world. I began to build my PLN which has grown quite a lot and helped me to be a real connected teacher. Some time later, I even opened an account on Twitter. Sometimes I stay up really late as there is too much information to absorb in a such a short day of only twenty four hours!. Besides, being online gave me the opportunity to work hard on my CPD because I began to study a Specialization on ICT and Education and attend many free webinars provided by the British Council, Oxford, Cambridge, Macmillan, WizIQ, American TESOL, EVO Sessions, BESIG, IATEFL and some others such as the amazing Tics en El Aula. I even presented at two International Conferences: The Reform Symposium and at the Global Education Conference. It is a wonderful way to blend being a passionate mother and teacher!

Vicky: You are so active and amazing how you combine everything! You also blog. Can you let us know what inspires you and what you write about?

Fabiana: Well, I started blogging a little because in all my twenty something years of teaching experience, I have never documented anything I did! Nobody told me…!

Last year, Shelly Sanchez Terrell invited me to join the 30 Goals Challenge Groupon Facebook, and that was when I sort of pushed myself to write about my life as an educator. I know I am not perfect at what I do, but I try! I still have a long way to go, but still very happy I have already achieved some goals in my career. It takes time to think clearly what to write and how to write it: I am not a good writer, Im just spontaneous and informal. Anyway, all I express is from the heart.

Vicky: How would you like to close our interview?

Fabiana: I am extremely thankful and proud to connect with you and learn from and with you. As I said before, I still have to polish some aspects of my English, my teaching and blogging among other things because English is not my first language, but I am really willing to learn and progress on a daily basis and I would like to inspire colleagues and students to feel the way I feel as a lifetime learner.

Vicky: Fabiana, this has been such a great interview!!! Thank you and the kids ever so much for sharing and letting us into your classroom!

Thank you for dropping by! I hope you enjoyed your stay.

Find out more about The 30 Goals Challenge for Educators at 30Goals.com and join our 30 Goals Facebook community!

#2014interview #submission

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30goalsedu-blog · 9 years ago

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Share a Page of Your Future Textbook

Share a Page of Your Future Textbook by Walton Burns from Branford, CT, USA.

Originally posted at English Advantage: Share a Page of Your Future Textbook

A professional writer is an amateur who didn't quit.” - Richard Bach

Welcome! This year the 30 Goals Challenge for Educators is on a world tour and I am happy to be your Inspire Leader for this part of the journey. So welcome to my town, Branford, Connecticut. I invite you to accomplish the following goal: Share a Page from Your Future Textbook.

Different Ways to Accomplish This Goal

Design a page from a textbook of your own creation. It could be a printable handout for students or an on-line eBook with videos and interactive activities.

Think about a textbook only you could create. What is your big idea about the best way to teach students? Create one page of that textbook.

Take a lesson or activity that works well with students and re-imagine it as a page in a textbook.

Pick a page from your textbook that you think could be improved and rewrite it to match your needs.

Like any professional textbook, you might want to include any combination of discussion questions, a reading, a listening, pictures, grammar, vocabulary, cultural notes, speaking activities as well as design elements like titles, subtitles, diagrams, a color scheme and decorations.

Your students can: Rewrite a page of the textbook that they think could be better.

Take a text and prepare a worksheet or presentation teaching this text to the class

Prepare their own practice worksheet to help students review a grammar point or vocabulary

I would also encourage them to think about the design and look of their products so that they end up with something professional looking. My Reflection This all started with a challenge from Jason Renshaw to create a unit of class material. It got me to thinking why more teachers don't create their own materials.

I can't tell you how many times I have stayed up late Googling "Present perfect grammar practice" trying to find the perfect worksheet for my students. And they are rarely exactly what I want so I give them to students with caveats: "Don't do #5, we haven't covered that usage yet. I don't agree with #6 I think present simple works here too. Just conjugate the verbs, don't do the other part". It would be so much easier to just make my own worksheet to give my students. Obviously time is a big limitation but it would sometimes be much faster to do something myself rather than search and search and then adapt. And then it would be exactly what my students want. Plus, presenting my students with a nice well-thought out lesson or worksheet, maybe something with a bit of color and a clip art to make it look as nice as the textbook might impress them. It would show the students how much time I put into prepping lessons for them.

As I've been moving from teaching to writing, I've discovered that most of the coursebook writers are in fact teachers. And that some of the materials and ideas shared with me by my fellow teachers are just as good as those I've found in textbooks. So I challenge you to tap into your creative side and create not even a whole unit, but one page of a textbook. And I encourage you to make it look professional and shiny and well laid out just like a professionally published textbook. Who knows, it might lead to a new career as a materials writer!

Resources

Learning Twigs has some great ideas for layout and design and tons of blank templates you could start with.

Ribbon Hero 2 is a game from Microsoft that teaches you some nifty tricks with Word including design tricks.

Another course on designing in Word

My entry to the unit challenge, a course unit on mysteries. This is a whole unit so I wouldn't expect your page to look like this obviously.

A page from my teacher resource book of the future

A huge resource of teacher created worksheets for inspiration.

Different ways to design or even publish a book online

About Branford

By Becca Pie

Branford is not one of the more famous places in Connecticut and Connecticut is not one of the more famous states. But Branford was once the Strawberry Capital of Connecticut and our strawberries, raspberries and blueberries are excellent. It's also home to the Lobster Shack which serves Connecticut style lobster rolls--no lettuce or mayo, just chunks of lobster sautéed in butter on a roll. The dossant (much better than a cronut) was invented here. Beyond food, this is where Yale University was founded and home of the famous Thimble Islands. So we may be a small town in a small state but we have our pride!

Thank you for dropping by! I hope you enjoyed your stay.

Find out more about The 30 Goals Challenge for Educators at 30Goals.com and join our 30 Goals Facebook community!

#2014goal #submission

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30goalsedu-blog · 9 years ago

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Platero in handy

2014 is the year to commemorate two special anniversaries: 100 years since 'Platero and I' by Juan Ramón Jiménez was first published, on one hand, and on the other hand, four hundred years since El Greco was born.

Shall we introduce El Greco to Platero and arrange a creative educational meeting?

That's our goal at Platero in handy (Platero que ni pintado), and to accomplish it we are proposing that the characters in El Greco's paintings tell the story of Platero, becoming real storytellers.

The idea comes from @inmitacs, a Spanish Arts teacher interested in ICT, Education and Challenges, who has previously founded and taken part in other collaborative projects, such as Queremos Musicarte.

At URJC we are accomplishing this goal and we'll be flooding the classroom with Art and Literature. Are you going to miss it?

I invite you to accomplish this goal too, as part of the 30 Goals Challenge for Educators on its 2014 world tour. I am happy to be your Inspire Leader for this part of the journey, when the tour lands in Spain once more.

Accomplish this goal:

Choose an extract, dialogue, or chapter of Platero and I which can be narrated.

Choose a character from one of the paintings by El Greco.

Encourage your students to record a podcast or a videoclip so the creative meeting between the narrator and Platero takes place.

Or, get them design their comics, avatars os super stories. Any creation goes as long as some part of Platero and I is being told by a character in one of the paintings by El Greco.

Reflection

Promoting the interaction between several subjects, across various languages and countries, as well as working with key comptences is an essential part of any collaborative project that aims at bringing Languages and Cultures together.

By accomplishing a goal like this you will be able to foster Language skills, Communication skills, Writing, Arts and ICT skills. You will also get yourself and your students connected with other peers in the world and introduce them into Spanish Art and Literature, giving them the chance of becoming world digital citizens.

Resources

Grecoland

Greco App (Android)

400 hundred years without El Greco App (Android)

El Greco iOS App

BYG Toledo "El Greco 2K14" iOS App

Platero and I

Platero, follow me! App (Android)

Platero, follow me! App (iOS)

Platero and I. eBook

Pixton Comic Creator

Comic Maker App (Android)

Comic Strip It Lite App (Android)

Thank you for dropping by! I hope you enjoyed your stay.

Find out more about The 30 Goals Challenge for Educators at 30Goals.com and join our 30 Goals Facebook group!

Thanks ever so much to Platero que ni pintado Project!

#2014goal #submission

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30goalsedu-blog · 11 years ago

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Goal: Make Real World Connections

by Ian Snyder from Sunbury, Pennsylvania originally posted at A Teacher’s Thoughts.

To accomplish this goal:

Bring in a member of the community that uses content from your classroom in their workplace. Have them present a “Why it matters?” session with your class. (This can be through a classroom visit, a field trip, a Skype/Google Hangout call, etc.)

Post pictures, videos, student reflections, projects. We want to see how your classroom came alive!

My Reflection

In the world of writing, I am pummeled with questions and looks that often shout, "Why do I need this skill?" Overall this question is posed to teachers on a daily basis. Because our students are being raised in a world where the culture serves as a domineering third parent, what we say is often drowned by much louder voices. Entering this school year, I set a goal to engage my students with the real world, specifically how writing plays out in the work world. Since they are heavy on the visual side of learning. I asked, "How can I show them writing? I recognized that showing them would be a louder voice.

So I started to ask myself, "Who can I bring into the classroom to engage my students attention and still speak threads of content?" Musicians. Poets. Professors. Publishers. As I started to ponder this question, the amount of people who administer writing in their workplace seemed to explode in my head… (read full post here)

My first classroom visitor, Alex from the Allistair:

About Sunbury, Pennsylvania

Sunbury was once a hugely popular city in Pennsylvania. It was actually at one point considered an important stop for the musicians, artists, and performing theater. We have the Edison Hotel, which was the first place to use the electric light bulb. Like many towns around the area, dying industry has brought a lot of poverty.

There are many people in this town who have high hopes of what Sunbury can still be. We are situated right along the Susquehanna River in the beautiful Susquehanna Valley. We are surrounded by Bucknell University, Susquehanna University, and Bloomsburg University. The beautiful surrounding mountains call people to the outdoors and camping.

I have started a non-profit youth center in Sunbury called The Refuge. We serve the youth of the community in 7th-12th grades through an after-school program and various programs. You can see more about the center here.

Thanks so much for stopping by and seeing what Sunbury has to offer.

Our new Amphitheater on the Susquehanna.

The new Front Street Project.

Front brochure from The Refuge. Join our newsletter here.

Thank you for dropping by! I hope you enjoyed your visit.

Find out more about The 30 Goals Challenge for Educators at 30Goals.com and join our 30 Goals Facebook community!

This is our 4th stop on our world tour! View the other stops and goals on our virtual map, http://30goals.com/map2014

#30 goals #connections #student engagement

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30goalsedu-blog · 11 years ago

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Goal: e-Encouraging to e-Read

by Mª Jesús García San Martín (@MJGSM) from Spain, originally posted at Stop and Learn English.

e-Reading is Fun!!!!

Welcome! ¡Hola, Bienvenidos! This year the 30 Goals Challenge for Educators is on a world tour and I am happy to be your Inspire Leader for this part of the journey. So where in the world is the 30 goals? We are visiting Spain. I invite you to accomplish the following goal: e-Encouraging to e-Read.

Accomplish This Goal

Make a video/audio recording giving a self-portrait of yourself as an e-reader or interview other e-readers and ask them to shape themselves when talking about e-reading.

Brief definition of the e-reading features of the student

Places and times where they read

Devices they use for their e-reading

Types of e-books they read

The e-book of their lifetime

Students can accomplish this goal by planning their recordings together sharing a Google draft doc. Then, they can record their self-portraits or interviews using a mobile phone or tablet and uploading them to a podcasting service, or stream record them straight away (that will depend on the students’ skills).

If you go for video clips instead, then they can use their mobile devices any way and upload their outcomes to a video channel.

My Reflection

Reflecting about oneself’s e-reading habits and being able to paint a self-portrait may encourage both us as teachers and our students to enjoy e-reading better.

Gaining more knowledge about our students’ e-reading preferences will make it easier for teachers to single out the most adequate ebooks to keep on promoting reading among our students.

Finding out about what their peers read, when and where they do so, undoubtedly will encourage students to go e-reading. Exchanging book recommendations is always a natural way to arise interest for new books to read, and by doing so through mobile devices and ICT gadgets we are improving digital skills, too.

Here you are the final outcomes of some C1 ESL students’ video self-portraits recorded with the iMovie app for IOS and then uploaded to our classroom Youtube channel: Self- portraits. We did this to celebrate World Book Day in April 2013, and in order to share it with the rest of the community, we also created an Augmented Reality Poster that announced the coming self-portraits. We used Aurasma to do so. If you’d like to find out what the poster hides, just follow the instructions in this blog post: Celebrating World Book Day.

Resources

Google Drive

TinyVox

SoundCloud

iMovie

Youtube

Aurasma

About my country

I am happy to introduce you to my country, Spain. I come from Avilés, a town in Asturias, Northern Spain, but at the moment I’m living and working in Madrid.

You are all invited to come and have a taste of Spain when you drop by. I will be happy to treat you to Sidra, Fabada and Casadielles, the specialties in my area that you can’t miss!

Of course, the one and only song you are bound to listen when you are in Asturias is our Anthem, Asturias Patria Querida.

Thank you for dropping by! I hope you enjoyed your stay.

Find out more about The 30 Goals Challenge for Educators at 30Goals.com and join our 30 Goals Facebook community!

This is our 3rd stop on our world tour! View the other stops and goals on our virtual map, http://30goals.com/map2014

#30goals #elearning #ebooks

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30goalsedu-blog · 11 years ago

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An Amazing Argentinian Teacher and Class – An Interview with Fabiana Casella (@FLCasella)

Post originally posted on Vicky Lora's blog, Goals covered- Teach Digital Citizenship, Make a Global Connection, Confront the Issues

The Interview

Vicky: Fabiana, I first connected to you online a few months ago on Facebook, and have been following you and your lovely class ever since!

Fabiana: Yes, you’re right, Vicky! I feel honored you have been following me!

Vicky: The honour is all mine, Fabiana! I learn so much from you. My first question is, how did you become an educator, Fabiana?

Fabiana’s students : )

Fabiana and her students’ project on alcohol awareness

Fabiana and her students’ project on Cyberbullying

Theodora and Fabiana’s project We Are on the Air!

Canada Day with Fabiana and her students!

Vicky: You engage a lot in social media. How did you become involved in them, and how do you think they help educators?

Vicky: You are so active and amazing how you combine everything! You also blog. Can you let us know what inspires you and what you write about?

Fabiana: Well, I started blogging a little because in all my twenty something years of teaching experience, I have never documented anything I did! Nobody told me…!

Vicky: How would you like to close our interview?

Vicky: Fabiana, this has been such a great interview!!! Thank you and the kids ever so much for sharing and letting us into your classroom!

About Argentina

Fabiana created this fantastic slideshow to introduce us to Argentina.

Buenos Aires, Argentina-South America on PhotoPeach

Thank you for dropping by! I hope you enjoyed your stay.

Find out more about The 30 Goals Challenge for Educators at 30Goals.com and join our 30 Goals Facebook community!

#30goals #interview

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30goalsedu-blog · 11 years ago

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Goal 1: Prepare for the Journey

Originally posted by Shelly Sanchez Terrell at TeacherRebootCamp.com

“All glory comes from daring to begin.” ~ Eugene F. Ware

Welcome! This year the 30 Goals Challenge for Educators, Cycle 5: Make a Difference, is on a world tour and visiting participant blogs from all over the globe. They are acting as our Inspire Leaders and helping us become better educators by challenging us to accomplish short-term goals. Choose 1 to 30 of the goals to accomplish by December 31st, 2014. Read more about the world trip here. If you’d like to be one of our stops, please fill out this form.

Goal 1: Prepare for the Journey

The first goal is to Prepare for the Journey. To accomplish this goal-

reflect on your teaching in 2013 and share at least one accomplishment

introduce yourself to the 30 Goals community

make a connection with at least one person in the 30 Goals community

Some ideas on how to accomplish this goal: Try doing a 321 introduction, in which you list:

3 things we should know about you

2 goals you’d like to accomplish this year

1 achievement you are proud of from 2013

You can do this as a short video, poster, slideshow, comic, or podcast. You choose the tool. Here are 50 tools listed in a word cloud by Janet Bianchini. You can find many in my Symbaloo of digital storytelling tools. A few recommendations include Animoto, Smore, Buncee, Pic-Collage, MakeBeliefsComix, Tellagami, Fotobabble, and Powtoons. Here are many 321s from the participants of the Crafting Your Ebook EVO session. This activity is an idea I learned from Nicky Hockly. Feel free to post your 321 in the 30 Goals community or on this map, 30goals.com/participantmap Here's my 321 for this goal:

My Reflection

The beginning of the year is when we are most motivated to accomplish goals. One way to keep ourselves motivated throughout the year is to join a supportive community of individuals aiming for the same goals. Together we can motivate and inspire each other. The 30 Goals community is full of inspiring teachers worldwide who provide examples of how to accomplish great things with students even if it is for only one class. We know teachers are busy, because we are teachers. However, we also know how tough it is to be a teacher. In order to stay motivated so that we "make a difference" each time we are with our students, we need support. We are getting to know each other at this stage so that we can build lasting relationships. Let us know about you on your blog or the 30 Goals Facebook community. We look forward to getting to know you!

Your Stop: San Antonio, TX

We start our journey in my hometown. San Antonio is the 7th largest city in the US and famous for its RiverWalk. San Antonio is full of culture. I invite you to listen to Tejano, Mariachi, and Conjunto music which has Polish, German, Mexican, and American influences. We have many festivals which feature this type of music and we eat delicious foods, such as gorditas and fajitas.

Thank you for dropping by! I hope you enjoyed your visit.

Find out more about The 30 Goals Challenge for Educators at 30Goals.com and join our 30 Goals Facebook community!

Challenge:

Share your achievement and let us know about you in a blog post or post it as a status update on our 30 Goals Facebook community.

Follow our virtual world tour!

#30goals #teacher #teachers #teachermotivation

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