Well, the weather just turned cold here in Colorado after five months of perfect mountain weather. It had to happen. I have been going through old files and I found four quotes that might help us deal with another Monday morning in that very strange month in school buildings called October:
The first is from Fred Rogers:
…when I was very young, most of my childhood heroes wore capes, flew through the air, or picked up buildings with one arm. They were spectacular and got a lot of attention. But as I grew, my heroes changed, so that now I can honestly say that anyone who does anything to help a child is a hero to me….
I wrote the second one:
…you can’t learn a language by thinking about it….
Dr. Krashen wrote this one:
…it is very hard to create compelling messages when the hidden agenda is the relative clause….
I wrote this one:
…with stories, teaching a language successfully is very difficult, but it reaches most students. Without stories, success is virtually impossible, and reaches only a few bright kids. You have to pick one of these. If you pick the first, you align with 21st century standards. If you pick the second, you align with nothing. You do, however, convey the illusion to lots of kids that they can’t learn a language. Don’t do that anymore….
Here’s another mental health thing you could do to combat Monday. Listen to this with earphones on and turn it up. Stevie Wonder has always had a way of picking me up off the floor:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wZ3ZG_Wams
CI and the Research (cont.)
Admins don’t actually read the research. They don’t have time. If or when they do read it, they do not really grasp it. How could
