There is a student sitting in your class who is ready to impress the heck out of you. You don’t suspect a thing. You think that s/he is plodding along at his/her usual pace. Maybe this kid has an Ipod wired to his ear. Maybe s/he doesn’t even bring a folder to class. It’s possible that s/he hasn’t even made eye contact. But it’s that time of year……
And out of no where this student is going to blow your socks off. S/he’ll turn in a piece of writing that is insightful…and legible.S/he’ll be the only one to catch the irony of a situation and nod at you when everyone else is clueless. S/he’ll make a connection to something that was done months ago in class when s/he could barely keep from falling asleep.
I’ve been watching it happen all week and I’ll bet it’s happening where you are too. A student who apologizes for the first time, ever. Someone who stays after class to ask a question that shows depth and perception.The child that wouldn’t open a book can’t put one down.
Really. Keep your eyes open. It’s that time of year. We teach children. They are growing and changing in miniscule amounts each and every moment of the day. When we are so close to them for so many hours we sometimes miss the changes that gradually carve out new insight and responsibility in a young person.
Take a few minutes and drink in all that they have survived, overcome, and struggled to become this year. Resist the urge to compare them to others or to what you think they should be. Open up to the idea that, for whatever reason, they are who and where they are supposed to be in this universe. In your room. As your student. Because they won’t be there, or those students much longer……
(Originally posted 4/15/13)
Tomorrow will be the second time in the past few months that we will have to get up in the morning and go to school after a tragedy. These are the moments we feel most helpless, and yet, these are the times that we have the most to offer. We need to approach tomorrow with grace and dignity.
Parents all over the country would like to stay home tomorrow with their children…and won’t be able to. We will have the responsibility of facing the day with their children. We must take that responsibility very seriously. We cannot let our own fears, doubts, prejudices….anything negative…invade the space we bring to the classroom. Our students need to know, again, that adults feel and adults grieve, but adults are calm, strong, and caring when children need those things most. That is our job.
It won’t be easy. This tragedy too is personal for many of us. Newtown touched us because it took place in a school…in our home away from home…to children and teachers. It rocked us and it rocked our students. This situation in Boston hits close to home as well. Many of us have gone to college, or have loved ones with college connections, to Boston. Boston is a city full of American history. Many of us visited there or vacationed there with our families. Many of us are also runners. Many teachers run. It keeps them sane. Most of us know at least one person who has run the Marathon. Perhaps you yourself have run it…or have been there to see those runners pass by that exact spot.
What is hardest is that it makes us feel so very vulnerable. Particularly if you spent the evening watching the coverage over and over again. It will be tempting to share our sorrow, our frustration, and more with our students. We must be careful about what we say and how we say
it…whether we are speaking directly to students or to colleagues within earshot of students. Each age group has it’s own vulnerabilities.We must be aware of those even as we deal with our own emotions. Tomorrow, as always, the children come first.
So know that tomorrow, we will all be in this together. We’ll be tired. We’ll be sad. We’ll be worried. We’ll be angry. But we’ll be the only adult in a room full of children….who need us to be a source of calm and strength. So when it’s tough, close your eyes for a moment and call on the strength of a colleague who, that very minute, will be in the same position in another classroom.
Because it’s coming. Oh yes it is. And sometimes when we least expect it. As TPRS teachers,in our department, direct grammatical instruction is “postponed” until year three or four. By this time students have acquired a good base of language. They only need grammar if they want to be successful in a college program that will, most likely, be grammar-centric.
So, since it was coming up on the last marking period of the senior year, I thought I’d give them their first “grammar-driven” unit. I started with the subjunctive, including formal commands (positive and negative) along with the negative informal commands….and just for fun the nosotros too. Oh…making sure to add in the use and placement of direct, indirect and reflexive pronouns. (no, they don’t know the linguistic terms for those but that didn’t seem to be a problem) We’ll finish the direct study and guided practice tomorrow. They have been doing online independent practice and Friday, when half of them are on a field trip, the rest of us will head off to the computer lab for a little more time.
Where’s the joy? Well……they’re enjoying it for one. All of them, even the ones who are not college-bound or have no desire to take a college-level language course. In fact, those kids may be enjoying it more than their classmates who, after years of indoctrination, worry a little too much about getting everything right. Today I got to spend a good twenty minutes standing in the back of the computer lab watching them cheer and high-five each other when they successfully took on a number of Quia challenges on commands and the subjunctive.
(FYI, the formation and use of the subjunctive is a fairly difficult grammatical concept to teach, and the rules for creating the different kinds of commands are complex. And of course there are a slew of exceptions and irregulars)
Okay, that’s a geeky kind of joy, but it is joy nonetheless. It makes me very, very happy to see good ole farmboys and girls from our school on the hill rocking a grammar quiz.
Then, one of them turned around to me and said, “You know what’s weird Profe? None of the people who designed these games seem to care if we have any idea what these words mean. They only want to know if we put the right letters in the right places. How weird is that? Makes no sense.
Luckily we already know what they mean.”
Dance. of. joy. :o)
Lesson learned. Anticipate joy. You never know when it will show up.
Spring has arrived (we hope!) despite our doubts. This month I’m going to try to think about the things that I need to accept. Not approve of. Not necessarily like. Not support. Not endorse. Not encourage….although maybe those things as well. But accept.
The things that, in order to function with some semblance of sanity, I need to accept. Fighting their existence is one thing; denying them is another. Acceptance means growing up when I want to have a temper tantrum. Acceptance means that I can analyze, adjust and even reject if I want to…but first, I have to accept that they exist.
First on my list? Probably the hardest one; I don’t have time to do all of the things that I would like to, or feel called to do. If I work on accepting this, instead of denying it, perhaps I’ll actually budget my time a little bit better, create a few more boundaries, and appreciate the time that I do have in my day enough to honor it.
So there it is: I don’t have enough time to do everything on my to do/want to do list. And THAT’S OKAY.
(yes, if I’m writing in caps I need to tell myself that a few more times) :o)
Today I had the chance to spend a day at an event with over 150 teenagers from 17 different school districts. I was “gobsmacked” at what they had to say. Over and over again I heard the same message. What we do matters a great deal….and what we teach about doesn’t.
They told us that the pressures are everywhere and they know that they aren’t wise enough to deal with it all. They shared that they didn’t know how to juggle the demands of school, work, activities, family responsibilities, friends and romantic relationships. They said that they had received few explanations on HOW to do things, and many demands that things be done right.
So, it is the little things that we do that make a difference. I asked a group of students what their teachers did that conveyed understanding, support and caring. Here are some of their responses:
● When a teacher lets me borrow a pen/pencil without embarrassing me.
● When a teacher holds a door open for me and says good morning.
● When a teacher makes eye contact in the hallway and says hi.
● When I miss a question and the teacher says, “I see how you might have thought that.”
● When a teacher doesn’t let kids walk all over him.
● When a teacher stops kids from making out in the hallway.
● When a teacher doesn’t allow cursing in her room.
● When a teacher stands in the hall between classes to keep an eye on things.
● When a teacher compliments something I’ve done.
● When a teacher doesn’t let a class know who the favorites are.
● When a teacher apologizes.
● When a teacher explains something that I don’t understand, just because I don’t understand
it.
● When a teacher checks to see if I understand.
● When we can laugh in class…not at or about people but at life.
Not one thing about lesson planning, assessment, mastery learning, critical thinking or documentation. Not that those things don’t have their place…but not in the hearts of our students.
These past few weeks have been difficult. We are struggling with how the new pre-assessments required by our district have affected our relationships with our students. It has been soul-sucking to say the least. We work so hard in the first few weeks in our department to create and maintain an environment of welcoming, trust, companionship and caring. Then we have to take an entire week to test our students, with a test that we had not seen, on material we, and they, knew that they did not know using skills that we, and they, knew that they had not yet developed.
Our students rose to the occasion beautifully. But it was still heart-breaking. I would say more, but I still don’t trust my emotions enough to put it on the blog.
Our goal this week was to disregard whatever “curriculum” plans we had in mind, and focus the entire week on activities and interactions that re-established an environment of success and trust. (my colleagues are amazing, by the way) Then I was out sick for two days! I feel like it has been an uphill road to get (back) to where I wanted to be three weeks ago.
As always, it is the students that lift us up. I’ll share “Brian”‘s story with you this morning. Brian is a senior and this is his second year as my student. I know his family very well professionally and personally, but I didn’t feel that Brian and I had much of a connection. He is extremely bright, and extremely quiet. It has always been hard to get a response from Brian, in or out of class. I have never really known if he is shy, withdrawn, non-communicative, anxious, socially awkward or if I just don’t register on his scale of “things important enough for a 16 year old to get involved with.”
(I don’t take that personally, many times I was so involved in my own world at 16 that I couldn’t have cared LESS about my high school teachers!!!) If I asked Brian a question, I would get, after a long pause, a one or two word answer at best.
One day last spring, after class had ended, Brian walked over to my desk and said, “I’d like to know more about colleges that teach languages. I think that I would like to become an interpreter. I really like this class.” From a student who rarely smiled, much less answered. He left the room so quickly that I didn’t even put together a response!! And that was the end of our communication for the year.
On Friday, Brian came to my room at the beginning of one of my planning periods and asked for a pass to come in. He said that he had no friends in his Sr. Lounge that period and that he got bored.I gave him a pass, he came back, started talking and didn’t stop for 35 minutes!!!!!!!
The conversation started when he asked if I had ever heard of “vocaloids”. (I hadn’t) and asked if he could show me an example of some songs that he really liked on youtube. (like this one)
He said that this song really put into words how he had been feeling about the world for a long time and that it taught him that he had created a very small, protected, but unhappy world of his own to live in. It was a dark place and he thought about leaving the world to escape it. He realized that if were strong enough mentally and emotionally to do that then he also had the strength to step out of it and look for happiness and purpose.
How does one respond to that?
What an incredible young man. What a gift on a dark day, in a dark week.
His message to me was that he didn’t give up. And he wanted me to know that. Having been there myself at his age, and numerous times after that, I was humbled and honored.
That is what four years of departmental support and safety can bring to a child. I am his third Spanish teacher. The two that he had before me had created a safe path for him to be on. He trusted me as he trusted them. Some people need years before the feeling of safety allow them to step out verbally into the world. Input before output. Not just of language, but of trust, confidence and self-acceptance.
Before he left for his next class Brian said to me, ” I appreciate that I can be myself and that you are interested. It feels good to know that. We can talk about what matters in this class and you will listen.” From a boy who only two days ago started to speak….
There are Brians in every class. Just know this. Because you many not see the connection does not mean that language acquisition and personal development are not occurring. Trust me, it’s happening.
I was just lucky enough this week that Brian shared his light with me.
Bob Patrick wrote: I don’t put a lot of time into it, but I always do it in Latin. I teach Latin teachers how to do these things in Latin, too, because they are the things that we all do every day, and they provide one of the easiest ways to do CI and multiple repetitions. So, while it should take up as little time as possible, don’t miss the opportunity to do it in L2.
Sara wrote:
I agree that the classroom organization doesn’t help the students learn Spanish but, I believe an unorganized class does detract from the learning.
With a solid system in place, I’m free to focus on the language and now how I want to handle bathroom passes.
And this is exactly what happens…once CI becomes a way of thinking, we start to view everything in the classroom through CI lenses. Then our focus can shift to how to align even the smallest details.
We want the systems to align with our instruction and our relationships.
That is truly Backward Design. As Sara said, a solid system is golden.
Teaching without one is a great deal of unnecessary work. It doesn’t matter exactly what our system is.
Next question: What should a system do?
1. A system should make relationships strong and confusion minimal so that classroom time can be maximized for acquisition. (or in other words, what Sara said above)
2. A system can prove opportunities for interaction in the TL that lead to acquisition. (or in other words read Bob’s statement above)
It doesn’t matter if you pass papers left to right or front to back as long as 1. and 2. above are happening. It doesn’t matter if you have kids carry a toilet seat to the bathroom or only sign out 3 times a marking period if it isn’t interfering with 1. and 2. (tee hee unintended pun that I couldn’t bring myself to delete)
Above all, it helps us to look at the systems that we have in place in order to see if they align with our Rules. If what we expect/demand of our students is outside of the Rules, then we will be seen as hypocrites. We may never be able to control whether or not our students respect us. That is a choice that they will make. We can, however, control whether or not our actions and words are honorable and making changes when necessary.
What can happen is that we get caught up in Rules and Systems (amongst other things) and forget that we are about Acquisition. You’ve heard the expression “Weighing the baby doesn’t make him grow.” Neither does buying him bigger clothes. It just makes him look nice when he fits into them. Sometimes our teacher-obsession with How To Set Up and Run
A Classroom does just that: make the teacher look good because the behavior is under control. That is nice, good and necessary, but not the end goal. I hope that that makes sense.
Rules are the first expectations that we communicate to our students.
Teachers who are new to TPRS, or struggling with TPRS often want to know what Rules work best. We have been taught that Rules=Discipline.
Rules are not discipline. Rules are communication. They tell students what we expect. From the rules students infer what we value. If there are toomany or they are too specific and we send the message that we value control. If there are too few or the consequences for breaking them are too spare, we communicate that we value the students’ admiration more than their cooperation.
What we should strive for are rules that set boundaries for the relationships that we want in our classrooms. So the question is: What boundaries are necessary for successful discipline and acquisition?
These are mine…
1. Pay attention when someone is communicating.
2. Ask questions when there is confusion.
3. Point out when there is a problem.
4. Make a situation better rather than worse.
5. Try not to offend or harm.
6. Join in.
7. Appreciate and honor.
8. Honor individuals.
9. Honor relationships.
10. When possible, do all of the above enthusiastically and creatively.
None of them specifically deal with language. Why? #8. If I make make a rule that specifically states how much language can be used, or what kind, then I have to make sure that it is appropriate for all my students,every day, at every level, in every situation and then keep track. I’ll never pull that off.
I keep my rules in mind for behavior. I keep the language in mind for the activity involved. Before we start, I’ll let them know what I have in mind for language. If I don’t, eventually rules # 2 and #3 come into effect and I have to address the issue.
When I have a rule that says “No English”, I engage the natural and instinctive teenage reaction to rules: Break ’em.
When I ask students to say something again in Spanish rather than English, they just do, if they can. If they can’t then I realize that they aren’t ready for production of that structure at that moment. I handle it in whatever way is best for that class at that moment and move on.
Are you wondering if they just answer me in English all the time? Some try. Most don’t. Why would they? If they trust me, if we are interacting in Spanish, if they are confident and capable, if they are engaged…well then, they speak to me in Spanish because that is what we do. Not because that is the rule.
Believe it or not. :o)
Does it happen instantly? No. But what we are focused on for the majority of our instruction and interaction is INPUT. INPUT leads to acquisition.
Output has other functions. If I have a heavy-handed No English Ever rule, then I give output another function: What to do to make the teacher angry.
Totally against all of my rules. :o)
Next question: So when might we “require” the TL from students instead of L1???
* When it is fun…like a silly signal response.
* When it is cultural, like after a sneeze.
* When it is easy, like thank you or yes.
* During lessons for acquisition.
We will get so so so much more L2 from students when we make it a natural, comfortable and confident part of our interactions and relationships than we will ever ever ever get from making it a rule.
The person who needs the rule is US. We are the ones who need to remember to communicate and to interact with slow, clear, Comprehensible Input in the TL.
In the last piece I wrote, “It is important we connect with the class for at least a moment to them know that we are here, we are glad that they are here, and that we will be making the decisions that direct what happens in the room.”
If I make a few changes, I can summarize what I believe about discipline:
“We must connect with the class in order to let each student know that we are here, that we are glad that they are here, and that we will be making the decisions that direct what happens in the room.”
When all three of those are present, we are on the right path. When even one of those is missing in a given moment, we are on a dangerous detour. It is when we have been juggling one or two of those instead of all three that we see our individual students and entire classes slipping away. With some groups it is the only way to keep everyone safe ( I have several of these groups this year!!!!!!). At this time of year it becomes very important. (I know that many of us are feeling it.)
As Susie has often told us, “Discipline proceeds instruction.”
At the beginning of the year, the beginning of the period, the beginning of the activity, the beginning of the conversation.
Connect first, then communicate: I’m here. I’m glad that you’re here. I’m making the final decisions.
Of course there are many, many other things implied: I’m here because I care. I’m here because I’m knowledgeable. I’m here because you matter.
I’m here because I want to be. I’m glad that you are in my world. I’m glad that you came to class today. I’m glad that you’re trying. I’m glad that you trust me. I’m glad that you exist. I will listen to you. I will take your thoughts and feelings into consideration. I will pay attention to you. I will see the good things about you. I will forgive the difficult things about you.
I have faith in you. I have faith in the adult you will be come. I will honor the child inside of you. I can see great things in you. I will not let you hurt yourself. I will not let you hurt others. I will not let others hurt you. I will help you to learn to deal with problems. We all have struggles.
We all have feelings. Everyone matters. I am the adult and will do my best to act like one at all times. I will remember that I may be the adult, but I am not always right. I will try to model all of the behaviors that I expect from you…especially forgiveness. I will be in charge. I will take the responsibility. I will walk the walk.
But only three need to be said on a regular basis…and with our actions as well as our words:
I’m here. I’m glad that you are here. I’m making the final decisions about what is best for this class.