I recently asked K for an update on what is happening in her French class. This is the first response I received since that request.
It actually comes from her teacher, the person who has allowed this unfoldment of input based methods in her classroom, and who has actively encouraged K’s work with same in the lunchroom. My own personal reaction to what this teacher says below is one of wonder and of deep personal and professional respect.
K starts off:
Mr. Slavic,
My French teacher gave this to me yesterday as part of the project that the lunch group is working on. I’ll send you some of those stories as part of my report. My teacher asked me to share this, so I will. I’m not sure if you want to post it. Here it is.
And now this is from her teacher:
In my thirteen years as a high school French teacher, I have had literally thousands of students. I’ve taught AP classes, IB classes, and regular classes too. Some classes are better than others. Yet, as good as some classes have been, I don’t think that any of them have had such an impact on my teaching, and my life as this year’s class has.
I love French and I love teaching French. I have my teaching degree and up until this year I thought that I was a pretty good teacher. The majority of my students did fairly well on my exams, and because of this, I thought that they knew French. My job was done. I told those few students who didn’t pass my exams that it was their fault. Their problem was that they needed an attitude adjustment, not that my teaching method was faulty. That was how I continued to teach for 12 years. Then, this year, I got a major attitude adjustment. I have asked K to share this with all of you because, quite frankly, I would be a coward if I didn’t.
There’s a girl standing across from my classroom. It’s the first day of school, about two minutes before my first PIB French I class is about to begin. I like these classes, French I is the most difficult to teach, but can also be pretty fun. I start to wonder what my class will be like. How much French will they know? How many of them will need attitude adjustments? I look up at the girl again. She’s looking at her schedule. Then she looks up, sees me, and smiles.
I could never teach a girl like that, I think to myself. She’s a special education student, I can tell. Her legs are fixed in a weird position, her hands are closed into fists, and she looks very innocent. The bell rings, and I open the door and start to greet students. The girl comes over to my door and holds out her hand, for me to shake. “Bonjour, Madame. Je m’appelle K. ” she says. I’m surprised that she knows French. I respond “Hello, sweetie. How are you? I think you may have the wrong room.” “Je vais bien, et vous?” She waits for me to respond. I don’t.
She then says “May you please direct me to the correct room?” I say yes and she thanks me. I take her down to the special education room. She smiles at the teacher, like she’s been here before, but says nothing. A few minutes later, she’s back at my door smiling. The teacher shows me her schedule and I let her in. Looking back on it, it’s pretty ridiculous that I didn’t let her in. She was speaking French and I still didn’t let her in. I am very stupid sometimes. She has every right to be angry with me, but she isn’t. I don’t know what to say, so I give her a questionnaire to fill out.
After class, I read the questionnaires and see that she comes from a TPRS classroom and is feeling worried about the transition to a grammar question. I write her a note saying that we teach grammar because it’s a proven fact that people like to know the rules. After that we don’t have much interaction for a few months. She’s quiet.
At first, I think it’s because she doesn’t understand. Then, I look at her tests. She has gotten over 100% on every test. I ask her why she doesn’t talk, and her response is very unusual. “How honest do you want me to be?” she asks “100% honest”, I answer. “Are you sure? You might not like my answer.” She says. I nod. She then says something very weird. “I don’t talk in your class because I don’t like it when people feel stupid or inferior. Their effort is the best that they can do, and yet if I talk, I know that they will think that their effort is not enough.” She explains.
I decide to do a speaking test to prove her wrong. Of course this test only proves her right and makes me more of a jerk to my students. There’s one boy who is so defeated by this test and my talk afterwards, that K says “Please don’t compliment me in class again.” I ask her why and our talk is very interesting. She says that I don’t know my students very well and am unaware of the damage that this method is doing to them. She asks me questions and proves her point. Then she asks me some questions about me:
1. Name
2. How long have you been teaching? (13)
3. Number of years teaching (8)
4. Why did you want to teach? (I love French and wanted to spread that love to others)
5. What is your number 1 goal while teaching? (To allow kids to learn and love French)
6. Have you met that goal? (Yes, well, no, not at all)
7. Why? (It takes me a while to realize why, probably because the reason causes me pain. I have been too focused on exams and trying to cover up my failures as a teacher by blaming students)
8. What are you going to do about that? (I don’t know, honestly)
She then says, “You are going to do everything you can to meet your goal.”
I think about this conversation for several days and then decide a course of action. I give every student a questionnaire addressing the questions that I couldn’t give K answers to.
Then, I let her try the TPRS method. It was like magic. The kids were involved, listening, interacting, learning, and loving French. I do stories a lot now, and every day I learn something new. It’s wonderful.
There are still times when I am worried about my credibility as a teacher. What will my colleagues think? This is when K says “What they think doesn’t matter. There has to be a starting point, and oftentimes when you are the person who starts a movement is frowned upon. It doesn’t matter though; you must persist if you want things to change. As for credibility, there’s nothing more credible than having students who know and love the language.” I feel better then and continue, trying to remember another statement that K told me, “Don’t think, and just do.”
I like to watch K teach. She loves it. What she is able to do with kids both academically and socially is amazing. She is a very compassionate human being and that is can be seen by the number of people who rely on her as a friend, and how their lives have been changed by knowing her. She has certainly changed my world for the better. The power of one can change the world. K has certainly started to change her world. I can’t wait to see what she does next and can only hope that I can be part of it.
Sincerely,
Mrs. S