TPRS year 2 - visitors

I was reading the other day about someone having a visitor coming into their class and how it was great because it gives the students a chance to show off.  It got me thinking that I really think that would help some of my students.  Yesterday, one student (who had heard all about Spanish class) came into my 5th hour class.  They enjoyed performing for him.  He (a native speaker and friend) thought class was amazing and also confusing (because he didn't know their inside jokes).  The students in that class have interesting personalities and their inside jokes in class are unlike any other class.

Today though, a teacher had two observers who were going into teaching and they needed to do some observation hours for their undergraduate teaching class.  She passed them off to me because he kids were just taking tests.  The girls were both graduates of the school I teach at and Native Spanish speakers.  I was a little bit nervous because the morning didn't go exactly the best (the previous entry on Junior High is a result of today not going so well in that class).  And that sort of put a bad taste in my mouth the rest of the day.  But my kids know that if I am not having the best day, they just get to try a little harder to help me out.  And they almost always rise to the occasion.

So my observers came in 5th hour and stayed through 8th hour.  I think at one point of staying in Spanish for most of the class I stopped and told them, "I don't know if you realized, but this is only a Spanish one class."  And sure my kids were making grammatical mistakes, but they were understanding SO much Spanish and it was really fun to tell the story with them.  They were showing off like crazy and it was awesome.  I wish I could have observers come more often.  It really is great for my kids (and for me) to see how much they have been learning.