Something very coincidental happened today. Admin called a meeting to suggest an idea for scheduling Spanish classes for ’17/’18 academic year. We are being encouraged to let it sink in and to expect further meetings to discuss and share our “expert” opinions. Up until now, my school had only offered Honors level courses at Span 3 and up but the new admin is toying with having Span 1 Honors through Span 5 as well as–and this is going to be important– Span 1 CP through Span 4/5 CP.
During the meeting I began to think this could be great in terms of teaching with CI. So I opined that since everyone was aware which method I prefer, the CP course could perhaps be offered as conversational and the Honors could be more focused on rules and grammar. My colleague who was actually the reason for this meeting to be called, with concerns of his own about our process with incoming 8th graders, commented immediately after with the following: “Of course these CP students would still need to be prepared enough to come up to Honors if they wished”.
Maybe it’s me but I took this to be a passive aggressive attempt at telling me that by teaching holistically they WONT be prepared for Honors, which he and the other grammarian colleague will most likely teach. Is it me?
Anyway, since we will all be sitting together again and soon with this, how do I articulate myself without getting steam-rolled. I’m tired of having these meetings where my research and opinions don’t seem to be taken into account.
Finally, admin wants to hear our ideas.