Here are some scribblings from my classes today:
I’ve Never Felt Like This
Knowing that I am retiring in 4 months has made me very free. I only have one big observation coming up Feb. 4 for Diana and district teachers, I truly don’t care what anybody thinks, I just go into the CI with the kids, I don’t try to think about all the technical details in my books, I don’t worry about if it is good or bad, and it is in this very freedom that I am finding the best teaching. I told that to Annick today (we share a common planning period) and she agreed that the best teaching is done when we don’t have other responsibilities, all the paperwork, the planning of Chinese New Year activities at Lincoln, the planning of a trip to a French restaurant, the obsessive planning for end of year exams. I am free of all that and it is making a difference. I just teach. Perhaps it is a radical thing to say, but maybe if we really want to teach well using CI, we must be happy and free and not burdened with emotions brought on by too much of a burden at school and by the time constraints that come with them. When we are free to focus just on teaching, it is so much better. I’ve never felt like this in my teaching. I talked to a teacher in another state today and as we were talking she was getting out of her car to go into her second half time school job and she said she looked like a bag lady, with lunch and all of the stuff that she had to drag with her in between schools. That can’t be fun. I was rude and laughed, but I couldn’t help it. The image of this master teacher looking like a bag lady just cracked me up. It’s like, how much more topsy turvey can this world get, to make a GREAT TEACHER LOOK LIKE A BAG LADY.
Just Give Me Some Kind of Sign, Class!
It seems as if I am always wanting more information from them. The kids never seem to be able to fully communicate to me whether they got what I said or not. So I have lately started singing this song by Brenton Wood to them during class in those moments when I need to know:
I change the words a little:
Just give me some kind of sign class, oh my babies! Show me that you’re with me! All right!
Just give me some kind of sign class, oh my babies! Show me that you get it! All right!
The kids like it when I sing because I’m a good singer.
Jammed Queue
If you have sent me something for the blog, to share with the group, please understand that the queue is more jammed than ever. I don’t want to publish too many articles at once – I want them all to be read – so your patience is requested, and please accept my apologies if your article is still in the queue.
I think that the jammed queue is a sign of the great and true and exciting growth we are all experiencing. It is that way with great changes – we get overwhelmed. There is a Bach flower essence for that – Oak (according to Dr. Bach, oak essence “allows the naturally strong to take a break rather than struggle on without rest.”) We are learning so much and we are so excited by what we are seeing in our classrooms – miracles given with both hands by a loving God, in my opinion – that we want to share it with others and the queue here gets jammed. So please, keep sending me your insights and articles, and I will get the queue moving as fast as I can (not very fast).
An Observer
A student who is a friend of one of my students but not in the class wanted to come in and hang out today. I told her I was going to try to make myself clear to her so she could learn some French today and not be bored in class.
She did a great job. And guess what? My class was better. Why was that? Because the presence of this barometer SLOWED ME DOWN. True, the barometer spoke Spanish, but it still is a good point to make: we can never go slowly enough for our kids.
Exponential Upswing
I have noticed that in my French 3 class on those rare occasions when I stay in French the entire period, that by the end of the class the value of one rep is greater. That is to say, one rep in the first five minutes of class, when the kids haven’t yet heard the structure enough times, becomes, at the end of class, worth about five reps or more. One rep at the end of class could be worth fifty reps at the beginning of class.
This reflects the importance of our getting as many reps as possible. I think that many of us, and I certainly used to do this, are prone to flit around from structure to structure. I am thinking these days, however, that the best thing is to focus on one structure for the entire period. That would in my opinion be the best thing to do. It’s a bodacious idea, but it’s where I’m personally heading. It’s nice, when I repeat the structure the next day in a very fast and difficult sentence, to see them get it immediately.
Laser Pointer
Don’t forget to point with the laser pointer to anything you say if it is in some form on the wall on some poster. And gesture whenever you think of it. (I have an article from John Piazza coming up on that topic of gesturing.)