An interesting drama is unfolding with one of our group members. It’s one of those stories kind of like Angie’s last year, where the rudeness of children shakes the novice teacher into reconsidering the field of teaching even when the teacher has great talent. In this case it is a teacher in her first year but who has had lots of training in TPRS/CI.
Here is the first email I got from her:
Ben!
I send this message to your personal account because I am just too embarrassed to post it to the group. This is the deal: I hate my 5th period class. They never shut up. They don’t listen and I feel like an idiot trying to get them to play along with me. I fantasize about walking out and never coming back. How do I rewind this class and get them to show up like human beings?
So that was on Monday at which point I immediately called this teacher with a specific plan of action kind of like last year’s springtime work with Greg Stout in Durham that many of us followed where he did so much growth so fast, for those who remember. After a long talk, talking this teacher off the ledge, so to speak, I got this email today:
Administration got involved so I was pressured to appeal to their (non-existent) higher natures and so spent 5th period talking about respect & what does that mean?
However – your suggestions worked great with another class. Seating made a huge difference. I circled for 25 minutes on tiene with concrete objects, only in Spanish. They were reluctant and only participating in a lame-ass way until they saw that I would not stop until they got on board. Finally, we picked up speed (though I tried really hard to stay SLOW) and I could see that they were getting it. It certainly worked to shut them up. At last, when nearly every student was sitting up & looking me in the eyes and listening – really listening – I saw a dim flicker of hope. When the slowest processor in the class said to me: “Senora! We get it!” I asked “Do you mean you have understood EVERYTHING I have been saying?” they all said YES! I said “Fantastico! Get out un lapiz o una pluma, tenemos un quiz.” They all got 100.
Today I will assign jobs to the Quiz Writer, 2 structure counters and 2 clapper kids. Then I will hand out JGR & remind them about Daily Participation & how that gets scored and grade them.
Then we will dive in again to circling. Will update you on results.
Can’t thank you enough for talking me off the ledge on Monday!
(hopefully) to be continued….