Top 5...

Here are the Top Five things I get excited about, when I think about teaching English:
(in no particular order)

1. Cross-curricular assignments, where students must draw from what they are learning in other subjects in order to do their work for English class.
2. Assignments that reflect real life, such as learning how to write college entrance essays.
   
3. Making really great use of multimedia - making movies from concept to screening, using blogging as a writing, reflecting and interacting tool, etc.
4. Organizing my curriculum into large projects or papers, with bite-sized, graded checkpoints along the way.
   
5. Fostering higher-order thinking, from projects that require students to analyze, synthesize and create, down to the types of multiple-choice questions I ask on a test.

Mmm. I'm feeling inspired just typing it all out =)