TPRS / CI and Block Scheduling

*Note: Someone recently emailed me a question about using Block Scheduling. I am no expert, but I found out how to make it work for me during the 3 years that I taught on the block. Here are some ideas that hopefully are helpful below.*

A few years ago I was forced (against my will) to teach on A/B block scheduling when I was hired at a new school. I was forced because it was a bomb dropped on me after I accepted the job (if I remember things correctly). I didn't even know to ask that question in the interview! Oops!

The way that block scheduling worked at that school was 90 minute periods, 4 a day. One day was A, then next day B. Early dismissal Wednesdays A or B alternated each week. So if there were no interruptions whatsoever, then in a two week cycle, I would see each class 5 times total. (One week Monday, Wednesday, Friday and then the next week Tuesday and Thursday).

When I first started it, I hated it. Then after I left it, I sort of missed it because I could more easily see the benefits (that I was able to get out of it). Although I still believe that every day instruction is better for acquiring language (shorter more often) than a big chunk every two days.

How do I teach my classes these days?

If you're in the Spanish Teachers in the U.S. Facebook group, you might have seen this question to me by a talented teacher: Chris Cashman:

Señor Jeremy Jordan​​, el grande, el honorable y majestuoso:

I read the great article about your recognition posted by an admin. I noticed that the day the reporter was present, you were doing a TPRS style lesson. However, you are well-known for your videos of verb conjugations and explicit grammar (albeit presented in a super fun and attention grabbing way).

These two camps of people -- TPRS folks and learn-the-verb-chart folks -- tend to belong in different camps. One group believes that students will learn things gradually over time with repeated exposure, so don't worry about the verb charts and certainly don't assess knowledge of them. The other believes that language learning can indeed be aided by explicit grammar teaching.

I know I'm hugely overgeneralizing an issue here, but you're showing some evidence of perhaps having found a middle ground, or a way to merge the two worlds. Would you mind sharing either in a blog entry, or a response here in this group, of the method to your madness, the thinking/theory behind it? I have my own answer, but I'm *mega*interested in seeing/hearing yours!

Don't mean to put you on the spot, but this really caught my attention.

Of course the article he is referring to is this one where I was interviewed at my school after winning Missouri Foreign Language Teacher of the year.

Here is my lengthy response to Chris. I appreciate his question. I hope that it is understood that I am not telling anyone how they should teach. I am only expressing what informs instruction in MY classroom.
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NTPRS - Day 1 - Confronting Discomfort, New People, and Russian

*this is my attempt to keep track of what happened while I was at my very first NTPRS in Reno, Nevada 

I wake up somewhat groggy due to staying up somewhat late with Mike, chatting about our lives, experiences in the summer, classroom, etc.

Mike has to take care of something and I decide to not be his shadow. So I go downstairs to the opening breakfast ceremony but become really uncomfortable really quickly.

If you are ever around me, you’ll find out very quickly how socially awkward I am.  At times, I even bring up in conversation how socially awkward I am to relieve the tension of social interactions. 

I walk into the giant room where everyone is going to eat breakfast and talking and I freeze. As I scan the room, it occurs to me that I don’t really know anyone in the mass of people to such an extent that I will feel comfortable inviting myself to sit at their tables. And there are no tables that are empty, which is the easy choice for me.

So as quickly as I walked into the giant banquet hall, I just as quickly turned around and walked out. If you were to see me I am sure that it would look humorous to see me walk in, take a look and walk right back out.

Thankfully a colleague at my new school and phenomenal French teacher, Bess Hayles saw me and comes out to ask me to sit at her table.

So I go serve myself (during which some teachers recognized me from my videos and I awkwardly waved to them) and sat down.  While seated I met everyone around the table and felt a lot more at ease, but still out of my element.

It got easier. Then the opening ceremony started.

Katy Paukova spoke about her life experiences (or her story) about being an immigrant and a teacher and how her journey led her to storytelling in Russian via TPRS. Regardless of language, she is a captivating speaker and wonderful storyteller. Of course, I would find that out later as I was going to be in her Russian class during the week.

Shortly thereafter I found myself in said class. I decided that while I had 6 years of TPRS under my belt, a majority of what I did was through reading blogs and trying things out in my classroom. So I didn’t actually know what TPRS looked like 6 years after being trained in it and therefore took the beginner’s track.

It was co-presented by Katya Paukova (who presented the keynote at the opening ceremony) and Donna Tatum-Johns (who I had already seen at workshops 2 times 5 and 6 years ago).

We pretty much jumped into Russian and I loved it!  While I seemed to have a hard time following at times (jet lag?), I found Katya to be a very warm, patient and skilled storyteller.  She told a very simple story in conjunction with comparing and contrasting other people in the crowd.

Something that really struck me in her presentation of beginner’s Russian was how compelling it was for me even if it wasn’t the funniest story in the world. She just told it as if it was interesting and it was interesting. Nevertheless, she did add surprise details that I didn’t expect, which added to the fun of the story.

I also noticed she used various cognates like the words for tarantula, coffee, ferrari, pink (sounded like rose), and some others.

This made it a lot easier for my brain.

It reminded me of the following for my classes:

1. it doesn’t have to be crazy and silly to be interesting. Surprise details are good though
2. cognates really are my friend. I need to come up with a list of go-to cognates this year while I do storytelling just in case
3. using actors did make it more interesting
4. talking about others in class did help with repetitions

There was lunch at some point in the day (but I can’t really remember it at this point) and I returned to my beginner’s class. A lot of the rest of the class that day was practicing skills that I actually felt like I had a grasp on and talking about the theory behind TPRS.

For dinner, Mike and I found out that Bryce Hedstrom and Jim Wooldridge (Señor Wooly) were going to go out to dinner so we tagged along. I couldn’t believe that I was getting to meet two Spanish teachers that I greatly admire at the same time and we were just going to eat Barbecue so nonchalantly. 

Dinner conversation revolved a lot around who we are, our particular projects to help learners and my just getting to know them and vice versa. It was a really nice time.

When we got back to the hotel, Mike was hosting something called the “War & Peace Room” which is a throwback to something that Ben Slavic started called, “The War Room”. The idea being people can just practice whatever skill they want and we’ll be encouraging while also learning. It was all about practicing TPRS in some way.  This was probably one of the highlights of my week as we simply played in the languages (German, Mandarin, French, etc).  

The War room reminded me how much fun learning can be when there isn’t necessarily much of a plan other than a few structures on the board, but a compelling story. It’s also neat to see so many different personalities and how they can all create a compelling experience with their respective languages.

Soon thereafter, I went to bed, exhausted! And if I remember correctly, Mike and I had breakfast plans for the next day with someone I wanted to meet!

TPRS year 6 reflection

So I'm currently finishing up year 10 of teaching and year 6 of implementing TPRS and CI strategies in my classroom.

Some things that I experimented with in Spanish 1 (my only level this year) were:

1. bumping up the level of embedded readings
2. finding ways to practice 1st and 2nd person forms with actors
3. varying forms of verbs and popping up the grammar about them
4. using phrases/expressions that I haven't used in Spanish 1 yet
5. trying out New Blaine Ray materials and ditching them after semester 1
6. "hanging out" with my students (easy to do with 90 minute blocks and when students want to  talk even a little bit about their lives)

Here's a brief reflection on each.

Am I too abrasive?

*Disclaimer*To be fair, no one has told me that I am a terrible teacher. Nevertheless I perceive that based on others' expectations in the classroom and what I do instead

I was reading this blog post today:
http://todallycomprehensiblelatin.blogspot.com/2016/04/one-step-at-time.html

And the following quote got me:

There are certain CI/TPRS teachers whom I will deliberately avoid in person or online purely because they come across as intolerant of anyone who supports traditional methodology or textbooks. Although I can understand their zeal, essentially I find them very negative, because there is no middle ground or transition in their worldview. 

Ouch. I've been wondering today if I am one of those people. Do I come off in my blog as the type who shames others for doing what they think is best? Or do I come off as someone who is simply sharing his own successes and failures from his own classes in case anyone is interested?

I guess I'm feeling sensitive because I often feel like I am on the receiving end (due to my own insecurities) and wonder if I am ever really doing what's best for my students by using stories, comprehensible input, and attempting to use the language in context in a repetitive yet fun manner to help get the language in my students' brains.* 

Yet they (my students) will most likely have another teacher sooner or later who will think that they don't know anything because they might not fill out a verb conjugation sheet, but when we are in class and I ask them questions, I can see the language working in their brains as they answer me to the best of their abilities (often times with circumlocution) in their level.  And we negotiate meaning!  

For example, today a Spanish 1 student came in after school and started the conversation by saying, "hola". We proceeded to have a chat for a few minutes completely in Spanish about his family, his parents, his plans for the summer, classes, friends graduating, job ideas, etc and while there were times that he wasn't 100% sure what I was saying, we negotiated and got through it. And it was completely communicative because I wasn't forcing his output, but just wanted to learn about him. I was just asking him about his life (while using words I knew that he would be familiar with or could deduce).

And I can't say in my first few years of teaching we could ever get past "¿Cómo estás?" without the student wanting to go into English.  

Sufficed to say, that's why I use TPRS and Comprehensible Input. And if a person is interested in trying them out, I would agree with the above mentioned blog post that you should take baby steps and see what happens! 

Former student comments

A former student visited me today while seeing my door open as I was getting to leave. She came in with a friend who hasn't taken Spanish yet.

I remember how last year, she did great in class but she one of those faces that looks angry at all times. While I wouldn't have known from her facial expressions last year, we never butted heads or anything. Regardless I wasn't always completely sure how she felt about class. She told me how much she loved class last year and she remembered her seats and various parts of class. Also, she was jealous of another student in the classroom that had my class this year and told him how lucky he is. She went on to tell him that I am the best Spanish 1 teacher that he could have.

Of course I responded that she hasn't had any of the other Spanish 1 teachers so there's no way she could know that. Still, it's nice to hear such high praise from a former student.

She also told me her reaction when she got home from  meet-the-parent night before school had started last year when I had told her that we would be speaking in Spanish 90% of the time in class. She was incredibly excited about it then, during the year while we used it in class and says she misses that this year.

It was a nice visit!

Alma - revisited

Something really neat about teaching from year to year is to see how things evolve. Also, how I can use the same resource to suit different needs depending on when I can throw it in, because we're always using the language.

Back in my 3rd year of TPRS, I showed my classes the Alma video, and Movietalk it.  I might have had a reading or so. And then I started experimenting with embedded readings (multiple scaffolded versions).

Last year, I used Alma as a sort of mini-unit, which continues to evolve.

This year, my kids had different language needs. And I even continue to re-conceptualize the movie's utility in my class.

For example, this year, I added in some additional words to the TPR phase so we could describe a few minor details about climbing, the window, and turning around. It just clicked this year that that would be good since we've already hit "looks exactly like", "can't" and "I need help" a lot!

TPRS year 3 - review

Well the school year ended a week or two ago and it was my third year of using TPRS and CI.

As far as the year, I would say it was a success.  It was probably the most intense year I have ever gone through with ups and downs and the variety of activities.

I worked hard in making sure things stayed fresh while at the same time maintaining the general consistency of class.

In first quarter in my Spanish 1 classes, we did PQA about the students, their loves, their interests.  They picked up some basic conversational words and a lot of the third person forms of verbs that interested them.  Then we finished up with TPR of the body parts and some other concrete action words that we could act out.

By the time we got to second quarter, I introduced the routine of class:

Monday - Trending Tweets and Weekend chat

Tuesday - Joke and Oral Story (past tense)

Wednesday - Miáucoles and finishing Oral story

Thursday - song 

Friday - Fail and written story

We continued to prep the Spanish students' understanding of words that would appear in the first book Agentes Secretos y el mural de Picasso.  

Then by the time we read the book, we still did a little storytelling and the usual warm up activities and by the time second quarter had ended, my Spanish 1 students felt a sense of success.  A couple of the kids weren't doing as well as the rest for various reasons, but they were still learning.  Some did hate the book.

Third quarter, we started off with a PQA activity because of a structure common to Spanish 1 students and in the next book to be read, ir + a + infinitive.  So I had the students talk about a goal they had for the new year.  We talked about those for a few weeks and I tried something new out….

I wanted to try to get some of the first and second forms into the verb paradigm.  In my first two years of TPRS, I noticed students didn't do much more than the 3rd person singular of the verbs.  This is the most easily acquired form in language, which is why children speak in 3rd person at first.  

But I still figured we should try to introduce those other forms little by little in the year.  So I had the question written on the board, "¿Qué vas a hacer?" (What are you going to do?) and then underneath I wrote "Voy a ____r" (I'm going to…) and "va a ____r" (s/he is going to __).  

Then I asked kids to own their phrase so that when I asked them, they could respond, "Voy a _____."  It was a great attempt.  Some kids didn't seem to get it as well.  Perhaps to have butcher paper on the wall for different classes so that the words stayed on the wall until the unit was over might be nice.  Maybe next year we can do that.  Otherwise, I thought it went well.  The complete conjugation of verbs is something that not even traditional Spanish students completely get the hang of.  So I figured I was doing a better job.  They had a pretty good understanding of the "n" at the end meaning "They" from second quarter.

So long story short, I think we managed to get the other forms hit during the year.  

After the PQA activity, we started storytelling and further prepping the kids to be able to read the second book Piratas del Caribe y el maps secreto.   While reading, we continued doing the other activities (storytelling, jokes, songs, etc).  

By the final test on Pirates, I was able to see that my students were learning this year and were learning to write sentences to express their understanding of the book. 

All in all, I would say the year was a success.  Many of the kids retrospectively appreciated the books because they realized how much Spanish they had learned this year.

I would say that this year has further reinforced my love for TPRS and CI teaching.  Throughout the year, I was able to converse with my Spanish 1 students daily.  I was never able to converse with my Spanish 1, 2 or 3 students as well before when we "covered" grammar and vocabulary.

I look forward to the coming years!

TPRS year 3 - Piratas(book) - assessment and reflection

My Spanish 1 classes and I read through Piratas del Caribe y el mapa secreto by Mira Canion this last quarter for our final book of the year.

Each week we would read a chapter (or two).  As needed we would do a spoken story that might practice some of the structures that we would later find in the chapter.  The driving force behind reading the books this year in class was to make sure that the students could find success.  While I could have chosen books that would have been much more challenging to them, I think it was crucial to make sure that the books were mostly comprehensible by the time we read them with maybe a few words or things that weren't.  I find this important because when I first started reading in Spanish, it was way too difficult in classes because my teachers had an inflated sense of "the students should know this by this point."  I was one of the better students and found reading way too difficult in Spanish 4.  As teachers we should be helping our kids to find success so they might find more fulfillment in the future.

In addition to pre-teaching the necessary structures and vocabulary, I also would create animated PowerPoints of certain scenes in the book while we were reading it.  I also created backgrounds and we would act out the chapters a day or so after reading them.  This was also to create an additional pass of the material, and to make sure students would be able to visualize some of the action in the book.

By the time we finished the book, I wanted to assess my kids.  The test that Joe and I came up with was a bit of a beast.  I think we jokingly referred to it as the "Kraken" at some point while writing it.  When my kids took it, although they told me it was reasonable and not necessarily difficult, it was simply longer than many could do within one class.

What I liked about it was we tried to incorporate many different types of questions on the test to make sure our students understood it.

In my favorite section, I made animated slides of scenes from the book and the students had to write a sentence or more explaining the scene in Spanish.  It was neat.  It also helped me see deficiencies in their acquisition of certain structures.

Another section was multiple choice of the basic plot points of the book (all in Spanish).  There was a section of quotes from the book from the main characters, true / false, and some short answer questions.

The neatest part about the whole test (and the previous test about the book Agentes Secretos y el mural de Picasso) was that the questions were in Spanish.  My students had to understand enough Spanish to be able to perform on the test and answer the questions.  Most kids did quite well!  Maybe two of all of my students did very poorly (60%).  There were many interruptions during this book though due to track, baseball, field trips, etc.

Reflection 
    The Good (went well)

• I thought the book was a success for the first year trying it
• I was able to do things in this book that I didn't do with the first one; my students responded more favorably to this one
• I was very proud of the test
• the fact that many of my students came to class and were ok with reading once/twice a week IN SPANISH was great
• the Hollywood days were some of the kids favorite days (they told me later)
• my kids were learning Spanish this year to be successful enough to be able to read most of the book
• I felt like I was more creative with this unit than I have been in awhile in my teaching; I was able to use many of my talents to make the book/characters more accessible to my students
• I had the Native Speakers and Heritage Speakers read the chapters while the class translated.  This was great since sometimes I have to ask my Native Speakers and Heritage speakers to not answer questions or count to 5 before answering in Spanish.  I think it helped them feel more useful and special!

    The Bad (needs improvement)

• the 10 week unit seemed a bit daunting at times.  I am not sure how some TPRS teachers can squeeze in 3-4 books a year.
• some kids didn't like how long the book took as a result of the 10 week unit
• I would like to do some pirate-based stuff in addition like I saw from a FLAM presentation this last fall (examples were in German though)
• didn't create a lot of opportunities for higher thinking questions
• I do a lot of comprehension checks/questions.  I don't do a lot of "what would you do"
• some kids hated the first pass (translation);
• could we break up in reading groups sometimes too

If you would like to see any of the activities I used for this unit, please let me know (jeremy(at)senorjordan.com)!

TPRS year 2 - Reflection

I thought I would offer a bit of a reflection on this past year at school.  So I just finished my second year of TPRS with Spanish in High School (and a middle school class).  I really did notice more students speaking Spanish in these past two years in the hallways than before.  This was my first year at a new school and the teachers would often tell me that they would hear the non-Native speaking kids speaking more Spanish in their classes than previous years.

That's encouraging.  The more circling I do, the more it will just slip out in a contextualized way, right? That is, naturally.

Some things this year that were harder though were that the school environment was a bit different from my previous school.  There seemed to in general be more apathy to learning.  And I was the new guy too.  So that might not have helped.  By my fifth year in my previous school, my students generally knew who I was and what I was about.  Hopefully this second year will be easier in the new school.

I thought I would break down some of the lessons I have learned this year into sections.

1. Native / Heritage Speakers
    I was nervous about having kids in my classes who spoke Spanish as a first language at home.  I was nervous mainly because I thought that these kids might call me out on my not knowing their language or they would get bored and cause problems in class.  I found very few cases of either thing.  I combatted the first one by always asking how they would say something at home (if I was unsure or simply wanting to see if they would help me) and I would remind them, "Hey guys. I'm not as blessed with the language as you guys.  If you notice I make a mistake, please let me know! I don't want to teach something incorrectly."  I think this helped the kids see that I considered them as allies.
   The second concern wasn't really an issue because through storytelling, the Native / Heritage speaking students were sometimes even more entertained than the non-natives.  They enjoyed being silly in the language.
   I did have some opt to read every day and write summaries.  My school was considering doing a Native / Heritage Speaker Spanish class in the future.  It could be neat.  I fear it might require lots of planning though.


2. Student success and less than success
   I had a few students this year who didn't do well with the storytelling.  I asked around about one and he was a senior who didn't want to take my class to begin with.  He also never looked at the board.  He did come in after school once or twice to work with me.  To be fair, in the class that he was in, I had to teach with [outdated] technology.  So I was stuck near the front of the classroom at a computer with a touch panel monitor to switch to different places.  And in order for the other kids to see me pointing in the other school, I had to stand next to the laptop and couldn't stand in front of the TV and point.  As a result, he had a hard time in class but said outside of class that it was a lot easier.

  I also had a student or two sleep during class.  I REALLY need to get into the habit of calling home and checking up on the students.

  Also my policy on cheating next year will be that students will have to come in after school and do the same or a similar assignment to make up their zero.  I seemed to have problems with a few not doing the readings (or even trying) when I had subs.  They would even write the same short answers as someone else (word for word with the same spelling mistakes).


3. Homework
I didn't do it all year and I didn't regret that decision.  My students once in awhile thanked me.  I also heard comments from students that I was a "tough" teacher because I really did my best to make them learn in class, but they knew I did it for their benefit and they liked that.  They also appreciated how we didn't have homework because some classes really load it on.  I watched Alfie Kohn's talk about the second shift.  It's the idea that we give kids a "second job" by giving them all the homework that they must do when it's time to explore other avenues and simply be kids.

My idea for this last year was actually to give kids 3-4 assignments per 3 week period and give them options (enrichment type activities).  Some were cultural while others were retelling the story, making flashcards of the structures, etc.  I never ended up using them though and don't feel to bad about it.  My kids still learned quite a bit!  I'm not sure if they really would have learned more if I would have assigned homework.  It would just have been something that they would have rushed through and done superficially (for the most part).


4. Decorations
I feel like my room was too unorganized in the decorations.  I would like to add a word wall of some sort with verb conjugations and some high frequency vocabulary that I can go and point to when necessary.  I would like to group some of the items together like my pictures of places.  Then I could have the term, "los lugares" (places) above them.

I would also like to do something involving a wall of awesome where I just have things to praise the students and classes for.  Or another idea might be kind of like what my lab in physics class did.  We had the name of the groups who did the best in the lab activities get up on the wall and other classes could even see who the winning group was.  I thought that was a really neat way to get us to buy into physics class a lot more.   So maybe we could have something like that and I could think of a system for groups to get points and they could decorate a little placard that I could hang up on the wall.  Then we would periodically change groups.


5. Storytelling
My first year was a little easier in storytelling.  This year I started out much more confident, but burned out much sooner.  It might have had something to do with my having to miss about two weeks in January / February due to my daughter being born and also getting a bad case of strep for a week.  I'm sure it didn't help since when I was finally back, my students had missed out on the structure for a few weeks.

I did notice about halfway through the year, my kids were getting bored with the monotony of the Blaine Ray stories in Look I can Talk!  This is meant as no disrespect to Mr. Ray and his storytelling abilities.  But many of the stories seem to be the same story, only with a few new words and/or a different character.  My kids were craving novelty.  It might have been my fault for trying to work into a story that fit the structures like the Blaine stories.  For whatever reason, I found myself experimenting and looking for structures that I could make up my own stories with and found success.

I'll do a later post on this, but next year I have decided to not use the Blaine stories as much as make up my own and conspire with a fellow TPRS Spanish teacher that lives nearby.

All in all, the second year for TPRS was tougher, but there were a lot of lessons I hope to learn from to continue to make a myself better educator.

last day

So I think I got to know my students better than ever with this whole TPRS thing.  And I was able to establish connections with them that I hadn't been able to do as easily before.

I mean, before, I would be able to ask them how they were and make artificial conversations with them about things.  With TPRS, since it's a conversation, it's more natural and even though often times it can be fictional, they're playing along with you and sometimes a student will allow a real event to pop in while you might change what happens to them.

This year was about trying out as much as I could of TPRS and I found that although some students (from my lack of reading their eyes) got left behind, the abilities in the language and the confidence levels were much higher because you're constantly conversing in the language and students slowly will create sentences for you.  Also, some students found themselves saying things in Spanish outside of class (and I'm not talking about random vocabulary).  Instead, they have sentences going around, possible descriptions of things going on.

After this year, I am more than ever convinced that TPRS is the way to go for me in the future of teaching Spanish.

However, sadly, I will miss the students that I have experimented the method on this year.  I have been teaching at this small rural school for 5 years now (starting off originally as an interim Spanish teacher / warm body).  Since then I have gotten my master's in teaching Spanish as well as my certification in teaching.

Next year I will be teaching in a new school and will have to build new connections.  I will be able to see the effectiveness of TPRS in a mixed classroom with students who already have fluency in spoken Spanish or partial fluency because the town is a mixture of white-Missourian students and Mexican and Central American students.

I'm excited about the change but I will miss my students dearly.  I hope to only further improve my TPRS teaching next year and do much better at assessing my students as well as not leaving them behind.

Día 33 - Crawling out of my shell

As a person I am incredibly socially awkward and I prefer to not be in crowds of people.  When possible, I don't mind staying in my classroom.  I tend to withdraw from the world.

A lot of my co-workers tell me that they rarely see me.  Well for me, strangely enough, that is not a bad thing.  The older that I get, the more antisocial I become.  I wonder if this is part of my persona because when students come into my classroom I force myself to be happy and interested in them and it drains all of my social energy to invest it into them.

As a result, I have a difficult time walking through the hallways.  I have always been bad about walking from point A to point B without wanting to divert my attention.  I usually have my head down.  My students often make fun of me and point out how much of a different person I am in the hallway.  They see me as aloof and so serious while in my class, I don't have any missions to solve like outside of class.

I've been really trying to be outgoing.  I have been forcing myself to stand outside of my door and greet people as they walk by.  Even if they are not in my class, I try to smile at everyone.  In previous years, I would sit at my teacher's desk and wait for students to come in.

But I have found in the days that I stand at the door and greet students with a smile, there tend to be less classroom management problems.  It's almost as if that small validation of me welcoming the students has that much of an impact of their expectations of class.  It's still not a perfect world, but I am trying to instill in them that I do care about them as individuals.  That's an important starting point for us instructors with our students.

I'm still learning.

Día 32 - Criticism

In his book Fluency Through TPR Storytelling, Blaine Ray recommends reading How to Win Friends and Influence People.

In the first chapter, the author talked a lot about criticism.  Whether it be obvious or not, most people don't really like criticism.  As a result, we tend to just tear down the walls of a relationship for nothing.  I was thinking about this the other day in my interactions with my wife.  I found that there were times when I would word something and would be quick to point something out that didn't really need to be said.  It came off as criticism and she didn't respond well to it.  I noticed she drew away fro me as the day progressed.

This helped me to further see the validity in what the author was writing about.  My wife is not a child by any means.  Nevertheless, my criticizing her is something that causes a tension in our relationship.  Her response is to withdraw emotionally and physically.  She walks away and ignores me.

As a teacher, so many people are quick to criticize one another.  I have found on my YouTube videos that people filter themselves much less and are so quick to point out mistakes and less quick to point out positive statements.  That's human nature though.  We know what standard things should measure up to in our minds.  Then we try to impose that set of rules on someone else based on our observations and contextualized understanding of the way the world works.

Nevertheless, what is the point in criticism?  It seems to me that more than anything else, it is to humiliate a person and build the ego of the critic.  As a teacher, my students are just humans with flaws.  All of them are insecure in one way or another.  I hope to foster a warm caring and nurturing environment in my classroom so that they can feel safe enough to have fun with the Spanish language in class.  Our storytelling relies on them feeling comfortable enough to shout out goofy suggestions.

But when I criticize them, they aren't going to want to do much of anything.  I must break this habit.  Not just as a teacher but as a person.  I must make sure to remind myself of people's different perspectives and to not criticize anymore.

Día 13 - planning

My first year of teaching, I would wing lessons quite a bit.  I did not plan as often as I should have and I would say that my classes did ok, but not exceptionally.  Nevertheless, my personality helped the students enjoy class for the most part.  Last year, I became an over-planner.  I got home and would plan each class for hours at a time.  When I wasn't doing homework for college, I was designing new worksheets and PowerPoints for my classes.

I think the beauty of the TPRS method is that you really do not have to plan as much.  Provided that you know the language enough to tell stories with your class, you just get better by practicing it with your class.  I am by no means an expert.  But I have really been enjoying this method with my classes so far this year and they are also.

Part of the lack of planning does make me nervous.  I feel like I might just lose control and the class will be a complete disaster.  I just hate the idea of something going wrong because I didn't plan enough.  In college they taught us that your lesson plan must be indepth and you should make sure to have differentiation planned in.

TPRS is such a simple method on paper but much more complex in the classroom.  The reason that it requires less planning is because the students have to help deliver the lesson to the class.  I do not know what the lesson will look like at the end of class until it happens.

Each class can take three or four structures and do completely different things with them.

That's what makes it fun.  The class isn't about my perceptions of Spanish anymore.  It's not about my expertise of the Spanish language.  Instead, it is about what the students want to get out of the class.  They're in control and I facilitate the learning.

What a beautiful model.

Get things rolling

I've been learning that a good teacher reflects on past experiences in order to better him or herself as an educator. If we do not reflect on our past successes/failures, we are doomed to repeat them.

So this is to help me reflect.

Final activity for classes (Start, stop, continue):
On a piece of paper, help me (the teacher) by answering the following:
1) What should I start doing?
2) What should I stop doing?
3) What should I continue doing?

8th grade answers: (13 students; 12 answered)
1) start
more games / doing fine / more 'regular' words to create sentences / pay more attention to students in case we talk about you / studying cultures / no homework / games / class was pretty good / IDK / practice telekinesis /more about culture

2) stop
flash cards / throwing markers at students / abusing the students / like the tests / nothing, this class is great / tests / tests / nothing comes to mind / cheating at 'caramba'; jk, all is good / nothing; I think your methods of teaching are effective and fun / tests / tests, quizzes, any study guide

3) continue
games / games /using games and interactive things to teach. That method seems to have helped a lot / the games are REALLY helpful and make it easier to remember. Kudos to you for being so creative / word search / games / reviewing terms, colors, etc / liked activities / being flipping awesome / everything else / powerpoints / 'I liked how we started out with conversations. Then when we learned new things, we played games to remember them. I liked the fly swatter game! Not to mention we're actually learning something the way you're teaching. Actually understanding it. That type of thing.'

Spanish I (10 students)
1) start
more review games / more food days / more parties and food / projects on the computer / go over verb words more / more movies / there isn't that much that you didn't do in class. I really liked it! ¡Gracias! / ¡Por favor tocar la guitarra más! / I think we should have as culture day like Sept 16. / salsa dancing

2) stop
the rants / game: ¡Caramba! / TEST!!! / listening activities / videos we had to watch / translating / I didn't like the audio activities, but they did help me / song: El Pollo / I didn't like the listening activities because I couldn't ever get anything out of it / listening worksheets

3) continue
how easy it was to learn / I like the way you teach and everything / me gusta your sense of humor y fiestas / games & talking time / review games / learning Spanish / I really liked the way you taught it was great & I am excited for Spanish II. / me gusta ¡Caramba! / I liked the whol class and the games. I felt like it helped me learn better and remember things. / fiestas, all games, caroling

Spanish II (8 students)
1) start
no sé / more projects to help, like the movies / more detail on eso, esa, esto, esta / we should make flash cards in class / hands on examples, more time on reflexives / being more strict on things and when people don't turn in homework show them you're not worried about your grade and doc points / more worksheets to drill the concept in your head / more games that apply to the lesson

2) stop
no sé / nothing / nothing / playing 'Lotería' / ---- / IDK / nothing / nothing

3) continue
videos and powerpoints. The city project was fun! Asking about our weekend. / teaching the way you do / games and fun learning / continue making videos / using pictures and other examples that make it easy for people to visualize / redo test mistakes when you get it back because it helps out / showing powerpoints, they really help / movies and gimp projects

Food for thought...