So as we move forward into the 2017-2018 academic year let’s focus primarily on what we can do to keep our mental health strong. To me this means figuring out ways to do far less planning than we have in the past.
We will also study and go narrower and deeper on the great new idea of making non-targeted input work for us in our classrooms. It is a topic that we first brought to the discussion here in early 2016 with the Invisibles but it has wide ramifications and unlimited possibilities in how we communicate with our kids in the TL. And it virtually eliminates planning.
Another good thing is that there is a lot of delegation of work in the form of the 14 student jobs that are one of the big cogs in the Invisible engine system, jobs that the kids embrace with visible passion and interest. The less we plan and work and the more they work, I figure, the better. Distribution of labor in the classroom via non-targeted input – a good new thing for 2017-2018.
Then the third thing is to avoid bashing people simply for doing the best they can.
Those are the three wheels on the tricycle that I, at least, am riding into next year: mental health, non-targeted input/division of labor and not bashing people when they attack on the internet.