I love not knowing where a class is when it comes in. I love not planning. The students walk in and I ask them where they are in the story/reading process. It is either a story, new or in progress, or a reading.
If it is a reading I need to have it ready so I guess there is a little planning but I don’t think of it as such because it is fun to write up stories as readings. Plus if I don’t write up a reading, then we just don’t read that story.
It’s either stories or a reading. That is so freeing to be able to say that, to know that I don’t have to plan, plan, plan. It’s so freeing to know that what I thought good teaching wasn’t. Too much planning made me nervous and irritable because no matter how much I tried and prepared as an AP teacher they wouldn’t learn it.
So when a class comes in, we kind of negotiate where we are, which builds class buy-in. Like this minute a student walked in (6th grade class) and said, “Hey, Mr. Slavic, can we use Clove today?” I tell her we will decide together when class starts in a few minutes.
Hmmm. Classroom CI instruction in foreign languages as an organically emerging process and not as a planned thing. I like it. It’s so easy, and so good for my mental health. It’s all about my mental health. And that’s a good thing for the kids!