Just thought I’d publish, as a post, this silly comment from earlier this week in response to jen. Again, I am reminded about the value of privacy here. Some – many – reading this might think me coo-coo, but here I can write whatever I want:
I sometimes wonder if we aren’t all crazy, as in coo-coo. The kids, through no fault of their own, have been given to understand through the school culture that they need to memorize, and so kind of disappear as people in the process. But, whether they are at fault or not, it still makes them kind of coo-coo.
So, when you try to get them to show up, you are not coo-coo. It just seems coo-coo. It feels coo-coo. But it’s normal. People who thought the world was round were thought to be coo-coo. But it turned out to be round. And I don’t think God wants any more of this cardboard cutout poo-poo, dead person imitations from kids anymore. I think he wants real people in classes and I think that is what this entire thing about the Three Modes is all about.
And then, here we are, thinking that if they get 75 right on the two hour final they pass but only 65 and they fail. What does that mean? It means nothing. Coo-coo kids and coo-coo assessment and coo-coo colleagues and the little coo-coo birds in all the rooms down the hallway flinging traditional poo-poo our way and the big coo-coo bird in the principal’s office poo-pooing on us (bc that’s what they do) and soon, with all that coo-coo poo-poo going on around us in the building, we get some of the birdshit on us, and we feel, well, kind of shitty about ourselves and our ability to teach and we feel kind of coo-coo ourselves.
You might think that that is kind of a coo-coo image, but, in my view, we get shit on every day in this profession. I just talked to a dear friend in the TPRS/CI world this weekend. We have been through so much professional poo-poo together in terms of thinking that we were both, well, coo-coo, especially about four years ago, and in her building right now they might as well just set fire to it bc that is where it is headed, with a really shitty superintendent who, quite frankly, scares the poo-poo out of my friend, who is no dummie, but a really really gifted teacher. But there she is, feeling coo-coo this week, looking for a job for next year, willing to give up CI just to get away from her own Bird House and all the poo-poo on the walls and floors and all like that.
Now, my thinking, jen, is just not real complex on this. We did stories all year, or since October anyway. Shouldn’t the final assessment reflect what we did during the year? And the main thing I did was not teach French as much as try to make contact with more than 10% of them. So, that is what I did on the final. The desk shift to face me was powerful, as I said. I did a story and felt once again the POWER of this stuff when the group actually wants to learn.
If you teach in a suburb and are reading this you should trade places with a colleague who teaches kids who can’t really read and many of whom can’t really speak English. Anyway, rambling here jen but the story, yes, was a true map into their minds. I honestly feel that the grade I chose for the interpersonal grade (not the reading, which is tomorrow) was even more accurate than a little quick quiz. People KNOW when they are being heard and understood. And those absent for the story will fail the reading part tomorrow*. Too bad. But to simplify – I did a weekly story format story with PQA (last Wednesday), story (on Friday), and reading tomorrow.
But, jen, why do we need to get some kahunas to test this way in the first place? That reveals a lot about who is in charge. If I want to do a story and test on the interspersonal skill I will. End of discussion. End of ramble, also.
*(today I bought Mexican ice cream fresas con crema and it rocked and I gave out honest awards, pins, certificates bc some really deserved to be formally recognized – it was a good time to wrap up the year.)