I was just thinking how we should get into a more positive mindset re: all the fighting of the past 20 years with traditional teachers. We have certainly done some major growth in that area this past year, especially, ever since Eric and Robert and others went into the ACTFL Language Educators lair in Oct.Nov. of last year and cleaned house. We learned from that one-sided engagement that that stuff is just over. It occurred to me that if we crafted a kind of generic mission statement for our work with CI people could read it and realize that we are not in conflict with anybody at all, which is really true – we are no more in conflict with traditional teachers than NASA is with the Ford Motor Company of the 1920s.
Just thinking out loud as usual here. Suggestions welcome. I don’t even know where we would use this – maybe on our own school websites. When I read the last paragraph I think of John Bracey:
PLC Mission Statement
Are you ready to re-engage youth in their own foreign language education?
The members of this PLC, all practicing classroom teachers, are at the same time school change consultants. By using comprehensible input in our classrooms and by incorporating students and stories into our curriculum, we change the culture of foreign language departments in this country’s schools into high functioning centers of visible engagement and learning.
Through our unique way of using stories and personalized communication, we authentically engage students in another language. We strive to bring more happiness, and thus learning, into foreign language classrooms by the implementation of engaging practices that foster each students’ unique potential with languages and help young people use their minds well in the process.
The teachers in this learning community work within schools and school districts across the United States and the world by helping those entities create healthy, high-functioning language learning environments with the aim to vastly improve student engagement as well as the happiness of language teachers.
Ed. note: the above text is partially borrowed from this website:
http://eaglerockschool.org/