Deena sent us her bio:
Hi Ben,
As a newbie, I am not sure how to go about adressing the group and haven’t yet seen fit to reply to anything just yet. I would like to introduce myself and ask some questions so here goes:
My name is Deena and I’ve been teaching Spanish “on the dark side” for the past 15 years. I’ve seen the light and decided to use my knowledge in a more positive way. I’ve been a member of the PLC since the beginning of July and I’ve been trying to read everything I can about TPRS. I’ve been “lurking” for about 2-3 hours a day and trying to get a plan in place. The students that walk into my Intro to Spanish class in a month won’t know what hit them.
I decided to use TPRS in my Spanish classroom this year for a couple of different reasons. I will be teaching 4 sections of Intro to Spanish. I want my students to have a love for language like I do. From what I can tell, this is the way to do it! Many of the posts I’ve read show me that you’re having a really good time with your students. I want that in my classroom. Last year was a really hard year for me in school and my students would look at me like I was a lunatic…I probably was.
I realize that many teachers have already had their first day of school by now. I live in New York State and we don’t start class until after Labor Day. I’m still trying to figure out what my first day should look like. What should be on the walls? What should be on the board or SMARTBoard? How many activities can I successfully accomplish in 40 minutes? Or at least try to accomplish? I’ve read that the first 20 hours, approximately 30 class periods for me, are the most important. I’m still reading…As Ben initially told me, there are 4000+ entries on the PLC…that’s a lot of reading!
I look forward to sharing my experience and I thank you in advance for your advice and support!
Thanks again,
Deena