Last year, on the first day of the Maine conference, which starts again today almost exactly a year later, I looked out at the 70 teachers attending, and there was a big guy, a Patriots fan, clearly an athlete, but also, as it turned out, a great German teacher and one of the finest human beings I’ve yet met. I quickly threw him a football as I began modeling the Circling with Balls technique, and we quickly got to work. Due to budget cuts, Mike is not attending this year, but his school did get some Obama money to send one new teacher. Anyway, I just wanted to send a shout out to Mike from the group – as we get to work today, we will miss you and send you all the best and maybe we will be able to get together next year!
Also, Mike sent me a quote a few weeks back.
Ben,
I saw this quote today:
“Devotees of grammatical studies have not been distinguished for any very remarkable felicities of expression.”
Amos Bronson Alcott
Bis bald!
Mike
(To me, this quote suggests that human verbal expression evolves toward levels of beauty perhaps in direct relationship to the time we spend verbally interacting in beauty in our classrooms. We can “walk in sound beauty” in our classrooms. It reminds me of something that Susie Gross once told me, that we should let the language fall from our lips as pearls. It is this pursuit of beautiful sound in our classrooms, done consciously, that adds du coeur (heart) to our jobs. I know from working with Mike last year that he teaches the German language in this way – for the joy of it – 36 years worth and counting in Mike’s case. When we see Dr. Krashen we should offer him hugs because he has offered us a way to teach in beauty. So thank you Dr. Krashen. Your work reminds us that we can be more than just teachers in our classrooms.