I did make a couple comments on your post today, but I thought I would send you a few other thoughts I had after day two.
First, the number of sessions available at the conference that had something to do with technology was astounding! Teachers (not only FL teachers) truly believe that if you use some “new” and “innovative” piece of technology in a lesson, then your students will somehow learn more. This is such a joke that so many educators buy into. Instead of recognizing that sticking kids in front of screens actually makes them more passive and less likely to engage in thinking, they believe that we need more technology in our students’ hands. In his book, The End of Education, Neil Postman talks about the “god of technology” among educators. He says, “I am not arguing against using computers in school. I am arguing against our sleepwalking attitudes toward it, against allowing it to distract us from more important things, against making a god of it.” Today I watched hundreds of language teachers sleepwalk in and out of sessions that convinced them that they must use more technology in their classroom.
On the other hand, I was so thankful for some TPRS presence at the conference! I learned some great stuff, particularly after hearing Bryce and Kristy. Bryce presented on the use of legends, and Kristy talked about using authentic texts. What struck me about both was the value of exposing our students to culture through CI – and personalizing it too. I have often thought that all of the time I spend helping kids work toward proficiency is going to be in vain if they don’t at least know a little about the people who speak the language that they are learning. I want them to be able to communicate with real people. Speaking in English and teaching students about every Mexican holiday and artist under the sun certainly doesn’t seem to be the answer. But Bryce and Kristy seemed to present some interesting alternatives. If you have a chance, look through Kristy’s presentation (under “My Handouts”) and see how she uses a lot of authentic and semi-authentic texts and resources in her classroom. I would love to hear more thoughts from you all about the culture topic. It seems to me that the people who speak the target language have to be at least as important as the language itself.
Kelly