I am totally getting into reading these bios. I feel so much trust in them, and lots of honesty. Here is another gem of honesty, this one from Louisa:
Hi Ben,
First of all, I want to thank you for all of the time and energy you have put into making the blog a truly open forum for us to learn and share about our experiences with TPRS/CI in the classroom. I came to teaching as a second career, having done a stint in the Navy and having raised two boys to high school age. Since then I have been teaching Spanish at the largest high school district in San Diego County for the past 10 years. I started at a wonderful school with a forward thinking principal who let me do what I knew needed to be done. Somehow I intuitively knew that the way I had learned Spanish, by being a 4%er in college, was not the way I wanted to teach it. The Spanish department was old-school and grammar based all the way!
I decided to go back to school in the evenings and find all I could on how to teach languages. I ended up getting a Ph.D in language acquisition and Krashen became my hero. The problem was that no one else at my school had heard much of him…guess some people just stop learning after they become the teacher! I paid my own way to a Blaine Ray workshop and also to one by Carol Gaab. I knew that TPRS was the answer I had been searching for, but as a newer teacher in a district that was tied to old ways (we also adopted the Realidades textbooks 6 years ago) and a teacher who is not a native Spanish speaker, my voice carried little volume.
Not surprisingly, I was transferred to another school to teach ELD (English Language Development) [I think mainly because my first language is English and I had an English credential at the time and our district admin thinks Spanish should be taught by Spanish speakers, hmmmm. That’s a whole other topic} Anyway, I got to keep teaching 3 sections of 3rd year Spanish and 2 of ELD. Wow, was that a year! Third year students who were used to the textbook and grammar-based learning were not willing to try TPRS. I had the worse year ever. Kids hated my classes, I hated going to school and then…the next year they gave me 2 sections of AP Spanish and 3 sections of first-year Spanish. Now remember, my school district is next to the Mexican border so we have a huge population of native Spanish speakers in our AP classes…not many non-native speakers attempt AP, very sad. But, that year, I had 42+ students in each class of AP until they realized that they had to produce written work to pass! I also nurtured 15 non-natives through the course and they all passed the exam 🙂
So, the very next year the principal changes my schedule to 5 sections of ENGLISH! I was devastated! I had spent years studying Spanish, going to Oaxaca and Ensenada during the summer to study; taking conversation classes at a local private school on the weekends, etc.
To make an already looooooooooooong post shorter, I wrote the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing and dropped my English Credential so now all I can teach is Spanish! I was able to jump over to a brand new high school in the district, with some help from some colleagues already hired there, the day before school started for the 2009 year. Not wanting to “rock the boat” or “upset my apple cart” I towed the company line and bit my lip in department meetings. That is until this past school opening in July.
This year I am the only Spanish 1 teacher with 4 sections and 1 section of second year. I have a total of 182 students…40 in my first year classes and 22 in the 2nd year. I am overwhelmed by the immaturity of the large groups who for the most part, are not into grammar based lessons. So, I decided to chuck it all and go for broke! I am jumping in with both feet with TPRS! I am heading to Chicago for a Blaine Ray training in October. I have been devouring the blog and reading your books and watching webinars. (I am on a 2-week Fall Break, it’s that year ’round school thing) so I am taking full advantage of the free time.
My biggest fear is not being able to control the 40 students who are already very very talkative. I am concerned that they won’t see the TPRS class as rigorous. (key word used by admin when classroom management is a problem). Any help in this area would be greatly appreciated.
I love watching your videos and will post mine when we get back to class, after they sign the permission forms. My principal is on board with my approach as long as the parents are happy 🙂
Sorry for the long email. Guess I had a lot to get off of my chest. Thanks for allowing us to use your blog to continue to grow and learn.
Louisa
Louise Walker, PhD
Spanish Teacher
www.FortheLoveofSpanishandScones.com