TPRS year 3 - new school next year

I found myself on the last full day of school cracking up and having a great time with my Spanish students.  The best part, I wasn't teaching.  I had a guest come and teach my classes with his version of TPRS and CI.  

My kids were able to kind of see someone else's teaching as well as show off all that they had learned this year in Spanish.

I sat in the back and cracked up.  They were clever, funny, interested.

But it was bittersweet.  These students I have invested in all year (some for two years), weren't happy with me as I told them how great the year has been and how much I have appreciated being their teacher this year.  That many times although we've been learning Spanish together, I feel like at times, it was like we were just hanging out (intentionally though while still learning).

Nevertheless, I would take my fond memories of them as I embarked on a journey with my family to a new place.  I'll be teaching in the KC area this next year and I'll be teaching in a school that is traditional in their Spanish instruction.  But the teachers have seemed open to what I do and would like to see it implemented.  I am very excited about this opportunity to possibly win over some other teachers to TPRS and CI.  

But I will greatly miss my students and the opportunity to continue investing in them and teaching them to see their growth as individuals as well as students of Spanish.

I think that's the difference in the TPRS and CI for me.

I used to teach in terms of lessons.  We would go over the lesson and then they would have practice worksheets and I would go back to my desk because my job had been done.  It was as if I created this wall of "now it's my time."

I got to know some of the students but all of the talking about THEM was usually in English on the lower levels and in Spanish 3, they still were very shy about speaking.

By the time I did TPRS and CI, I just saw this whole change in my understanding of how to teach and what it is to be a teacher.  I got to know my kids a lot better, their successes, their fears, their struggles, and most of it in Spanish.  

I would say that's why it will be even harder to leave my school.  I got to know the kids better these past two years, and their quirky personalities.  I took down my wall with TPRS.

TPRS year 3 - sad

A week ago (Wow, it feels like time has flown by and yet at the same time these days seem so long!), I felt like I had a few amazing first days of class.  I was getting to know my students, my students were laughing and enjoying learning, and it was just a great start to a new year.


Then after school, a student came in and told me that some were talking about:

1. my class is boring
2. I don't know how to properly teach a foreign language

This could have been something that no one actually said. But I am inclined to believe that someone did say it because high school students are renowned for complaining about everything.

It bothered me though. Of course it would happen when I was really enjoying all of my classes. I felt like all of my classes were clicking and all had their own neat personalities that I was already excited to explore as the year went on. And I hear this.

First, this bothers me because it most likely (from what the source said) came from a student that is a heritage / native speaker of Spanish.  So of my class is boring, I realize my class isn't actually made for student that already speak Spanish at home.

But I had talked to my native / heritage students last year periodically to check their thoughts on class compared I what they saw in traditional grammar classes the year before with a different teacher. They were very positive and many told me that actually liked Spanish class more because we used the language in class and the stories were interesting.

Kids will be bored. As I tell my students: "boring people usually are bored."

That is I recognize that my class will still bore those who simply might hate school or who knows what else.

Regarding the opinion that I don't teach my foreign language class right, I will assume that this is in reference to my not teaching via the "traditional model" of lots of vocabulary and explicit grammar instruction. I did teach with explicit grammar instruction for four of my seven years teaching. It didn't ever really seem to click with the students. They would always remember the first activity of the year because I would repeat the greetings a lot and in context and have them practice. More than anything their remembering it was due to all of the repetitions.

I complained to my wife about it because it really brought me down and she responded (in Spanish): "You aren't a gold coin."*

*This statement meant (to my wife), "You'll never please everyone." Which is true.  I imagine that even a gold coin can't please everyone though! ;-)