It's Elementary!

I got this reason to celebrate today:
Hi Ben!
I am one super lucky language teacher. I get to teach the elementary level and I get to teach them every day. I get the kids in 3rd, 4th, and 5th grades. Anyway, a 6th grader who had me last year was telling me in our bus line yesterday that her Spanish teacher this year asked them to take out a piece of paper, write as many words as they could think of in Spanish, and draw a picture. This student was so excited to tell me that most kids in the class filled two sheets of paper with words and phrases they remembered and instead of drawing a picture, they wrote a STORY!!! She told me that one of her classmates (who is in Special Ed and has always had a hard being “successful” in school) wrote a revised version of a story that we told in class last year and had everyone in stitches laughing. Apparently the class was bursting with pride at what they could do, even after months of being away from school. I was SO PROUD to hear this! Proud of them (they were a really tough group and there were times that I despaired of them ever learning anything besides how to line up and come in the room quietly) and proud of the method and proud of myself. What a moment. Had to share.
Kate Marquez
My comment: that teacher just inherited a treasure chest filled with about 25 diamonds. She must be wondering what is going on. I mean, this kind of thing – this kind of field generated support of the method – is hard to ignore unless one is an idiot.