In Alamitos I met a teacher, L, and we talked about maybe blogging about her experience of what she learned this summer. The link to that first blog about L is:
https://benslavic.com/blog/?p=7686
Now that school has started I have received some emails from L. They express what it is like to really believe in an idea but then how decidedly difficult it is to get it going in the classroom. I will just let her words speak for themselves. They are so honest, and in need of response. I have responded to her privately and may include some of my responses here, but the thing that she has asked for is to get responses to her questions from all of us in this blog community. So, here goes. [I was given permission to edit for clarity and brevity, and made no changes in the author’s intent]:
L email of 9.6.10:
Below is a condensation of my first five days. I did not talk much about my feelings [during this time] but yesterday I almost sent an appel au secours [S.O.S.] to your blog. The problem was that I had too many questions and everything was just a big mess in my head. I felt quite overwhelmed.
My first 5 days:
I have 4 preps for levels 1,2, 3, and 4 AP/IB. My students get good results in the IB test, not in the AP, only about 50% pass. I have 4 preps for levels 1,2, 3, and 4 AP/IB.
This year I decided to switch to TPRS and for the very first time, back to school was an unpleasant experience. Before school, Ben had told me it was not hard, it was new. I say it was very hard. The only workshop I had attended was Los Alamitos. I had seen Linda for one day then I had switched to the French workshops. One week before school started, I ordered Susan’s DVDs because I needed more help and did not feel qualified at all to start TPRS with 4 different levels. I watched her several times and I practiced circling many times. I was still not ready, and I was not sure how to prepare an appropriate story.
French 1. 95 minutes daily. First day: I did some TPR and that went well. I did some circling based on their drawings of an activity they enjoy (we did this with Ben at the conference) but after a while it felt “cold”. Then, I started a story. Big mistake. Since I did not know what to do with beginning students, I used the structures Susan had in her DVD. Il est allé, il était fâché, Il a mangé. I will never do that again. Susan’s students were French and Spanish teachers and she is a master at the technique. In the end, it felt like a very long 95 minute period! That was on Wednesday. On Friday, I did TPR, greetings, alphabet, counting, a song and that helped make a connection with my students. I had always had a great relationship with my students from the very beginning. That year, there was nothing. I was drained and it felt like a failure. I am working on changing this but it’s now taking longer.
French 2. 50 minutes, daily. Only 16 students. Today, after 5 days, it’s getting better. I am starting to get the feel of writing and creating a story and the students had a good time. A 50-minute period was also completely new to me.
French 3. Those kids just know the passé compose and the imparfait. I have one semester, until mid-January, to cover all other tenses, relative pronouns, review possessive etc… and a ton of vocabulary. We did one story so far but it does not feel like it’s going to work. We accomplished more/more interest when we were reading the story than when we were creating it. I may keep the traditional technique with a few changes: more texts, much more reading, no more long grammar exercises.
French 4. First attempt at story felt very awkward. Lasted about 15 minutes. Stories will not work at all here. Zero interest but also no time. We need to be informed about current events in the francophone world and organize speaking activities for the IB program. We’ll watch the French news and start by reading l’Etranger. We need to also prepare the AP (I hate the AP).
I was told today that some teachers do not start stories right away. They wait for a few weeks until students acquire some basic vocabulary. I think I will do that next time. Students arrive in the French class all excited to learn some French and during the 1st week at least, I think they like to learn basics: greetings, numbers, the alphabet, learning how to give basic information about themselves etc…. TPR works well too.
I have made a lot of errors in the past few days and I have learned a lot. I did a lot of planning and un-planning. I wish I could have talked to someone since asking help via email was even too time consuming for me. I am not doing what I had planned to do before school started but I am gradually adapting. With 4 preps (never had more than 3) it’s a challenge. Honestly, I am still worried that my French 1 will not learn enough. Here is an example of my errors: today, as part of the vocabulary, I gave: ses chaussures and I told the students it meant his or her shoes. Huge amount of confusion: how could it be his and her at the same time. That was too advanced for beginning French 1 and I had not anticipated such a reaction. Usually, I laugh with my kids when something is really different/ “weird” and we discuss it but again I do not have the same type of connection with my French 1 this year. We had a boy in the story (which was created from students’ questionnaire) and I should just have said his shoes.
Now I need a workshop that does not teach me a foreign language, unless the presenter tells me why s/he is doing what s/he does (how to create a story, select the vocabulary, length, time, schedule, amount of vocabulary, errors to avoid, etc…) and that is not designed for experienced teachers either.
[to be continued…]