Lance requests advice from the group:
Back in April I applied to a school expanding their language courses to 7th grade, and they hadn’t settled on whether to teach Latin, French, or Spanish. They went with Spanish. It turns out that things haven’t been working out this year for them, and I have an interview next week to teach 7th grade Spanish. I don’t know Spanish. Help.
Even though I tell people that I’m into SLA, and teach languages, I feel guilty about even considering this. Incidentally, I feel the same guilt about not knowing Italian, which is the main reason I don’t have dual citizenship…yet. Right now I know Latin and English. On the other hand, I have been learning Spanish on my own, reading TPRS novels and listening to the radio, etc., but am not very proficient. Even with that guilt, I learned that this middle school is going to kill the program and turn it into a study hall if they don’t find someone to step in. This is considered a “hardship,” so the school can get a waiver to have someone, me, teach despite not have the content certification. The principal has expressed that he needs a warm body in that room, and was initially impressed with my resume when they were tossing around which language to teach, so I am not the worst person for the job. It’d be possible to be 1 day ahead of the students with a traditional textbook program, but I think I can do better.
My plea, to you and the PLC, is both to ask for advice whether or not to pursue this, as well as help me process everything. I want to go into that interview with a solid plan. Here are some details:
Situation:
– The principal pushed the “reset button” and has decided that 7th grade Spanish will “begin” at the start of November…clean slate, no unrealistic expectations.
– The school has a solid 8th grade Spanish program; one teacher.
– I live 45min. from the school.
Resources:
– Wife is fluent in Spanish, lived in Spain, and travels to Spanish-speaking countries for work…I’m gonna spend 10 days with her in Mexico City in a few weeks.
– I own 5 TPRS novels in Spanish.
– I own the New Mini Stories for LICT (how this differs from LICT, I don’t know) from a 2014 Workshop.
Thoughts:
– Can I even #&$*ing do this?
– 90min (2x 45min commute) is a decent amount of time I could devote to Spanish. Are there audio materials I could snag up?
– I am more qualified and motivated than just a warm body…and I know TPRS. Could I follow scripts closely, and use frequency lists? When my brain is fried, and I can’t improvise due to my own lack of language, could I fall back on some worksheet stuff in their existing curriculum in prep for that 8th grade class? If I can hang, and this is remotely successful, could this prove how awesome the TPRS method it is?
Lance Piantaggini
magisterp.com (Latin)
lpvisual.com (Marching Artistry)