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A Cool Department Chair
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5 thoughts on “A Cool Department Chair”
WOW! Oh that all department heads were so enlightened. This is wonderful. With your (and your colleague’s) permission, I would like to copy this and forward it to my district World Language Coordinator.
Robert my colleague just wanted it worded generally bc of the interview process. I will ask him to send you permission. For my part, since this blog belongs to all of us who use it, we should all feel free to use stuff on it freely.
I needed this reminder today. I’ve been way too busy and haven’t read your blog in ages. I’m glad I decided to work my way back through months of missed posts.
I’ve been feeling a little beat up this year, with several cranky students who are certain I am a terrible teacher. Things climaxed yesterday when a former Spanish 1 student who moved out of state at the end of last year returned to visit a second year class. After responding in English to my Spanish greetings she asked, “So are you teaching them anything this year?” Then she went on to say she was retaking Spanish 1 this year because “everything I learned last year was wrong.” I said I’d be happy to talk with her after class and didn’t take issue with her comment. She got up and with a wiser-than-thou smirk sauntered out of the room.
I didn’t even comment to my kids. I hope they saw the obvious–I spoke to her in Spanish and she only spoke English back. Even my Spanish 1’s can do better than that.
Her comments don’t weigh on me too heavily–it’s the constant fear that the grumpy kids are right. Maybe I’m not giving them all they should have. Good grief, my second year students don’t know the difference between direct and indirect object pronouns! They don’t know irregular preterite verbs! I straddle a line between not wanting to beat myself up and not wanting to be in denial. I want to give them the very best class I can, but I don’t want to make them feel overwhelmed either. In a way, it would just be nice to have someone tell me what I have to cover. Instead, I have a wonderfully supportive administration that gives me free rein with my class. Rats!
This is such an ugly thing. I hate that a student can fee that “they didn’t learn anything” because short-term grammar learning is valued so much more in our field than the long-term (often invisible at the lower levels) process of real language acquisition . No student, after only one year of classroom instruction of any kind, will be fluent, so it’s a no win for the first year teacher.
Just as it is difficult to receive a student in a TPRS class who has only had grammar training and appears to “know” very little target language, it is difficult for non-tprs teachers to deal with how much our students “don’t know” when they receive them. Our goals are truly crossed. I don’t see a solution to this.
You know that you “are doing right” by your kids no matter where they end up. We can’t predict, presume to know, or worry about the situations in which they may find themselves after they leave us. The truth is that no teacher, of any kind, can prepare a kid for everything that might encounter after only one year of instruction.
What we must have is clarity about why we have chosen to teach the way that we do and then to be consistent in our actions–doing our best to match those actions with what we say we believe to be true. A never-ending work in progress.
Your example is yet another reminder of the importance of encouraging students and doing our best to make them feel highly able in our classes–no matter how or at what level they arrive. Kids need to believe that their time and energy have been well spent–and not a waste of time. She must have had a pretty rude reception about her knowledge at her new school. It is curious that she chose to visit your class. Maybe she is not as negative as she seems.
Hang in there. Remember the 95% who get it. (I talk a good talk and can ruminate myself into a messy yarn ball at times with worry about their learning. I totally get what you’re talking about.)
Thanks for the encouragement, Jody.
The student visited my class precisely because she IS negative and was waiting for the chance to tell me off in front of the class. She was openly opposed to me in Spanish 1 last year, once flipping me off behind my back, but in front of someone observing my teaching. I can discount her attitude, but unfortunately she has friends in my second year classes who had previously told me they are “way behind” other schools.
I really appreciated your saying: “What we must have is clarity about why we have chosen to teach the way that we do and then to be consistent in our actions–doing our best to match those actions with what we say we believe to be true. A never-ending work in progress.” If I know what I am doing is right, I can have the courage to stand up to adolescents who know nothing about SLA.
This is just my second year in high school. I’m really trying to refine my beliefs what, how and why I teach. I guess I’ve expected to “arrive” at a place of peace, but I suppose you’re right that it’s a never-ending work. I’m glad to have this forum to hammer it out together. Blessings on you all.