What is more important?
(a) maximizing instructional minutes in favor of CI, or
(b) just having fun hanging out with the kids?
My answer used to be (a). And it was an intense (a). I thought that I could duplicate first learning language conditions in my classroom. That was nuts. Now it is (b). I do tons of CI, but I don’t sweat if I teach a little grammar here and there, or other stuff that in the past as a CI radical I would have considered lame output.
Now it turns out, having listened to Eric Herman (who knew that he was dealing with some pretty radical people here because it takes one to know one) for the past few years gently arguing in favor of some output in support of CI and even some discreet grammar every now and then, I have changed my tune. (Krashen was never clear on it but Herman is.)
Annemarie Orth’s comment here earlier today only supports my belief in the need for us to take better care of ourselves, to build relationships (James Hosler started going this way about a year as I sense it) and to generally chill out on the CI-at-all-costs kamikaze approach:
…I have been doing TCI for 5 years now, almost exclusively, and I feel BURNT and TIRED and I think sometimes doing something a little different is refreshing for everyone, especially me….
The “something a little different” in my view includes a disregard for driving the CI car 100 miles an hour in favor of just wasting time with the kids if it’s fun.
I never thought I would arrive at the point where I would say that self care and just being happy and less intense about my teaching are more important to me than language gains. I guess I was a pretty sick puppy for all those years, trying to change the world for CI at my own mental and physical expense and the expense of my bewildered students (bewildered in the sense that they alway get less than we think they do in our CI classes when our focus is on the CI and not on them).
It was like, “Hey guys! We need over 10,000 hours of CI to learn French but we only have 400 or so over the next four years so let’s go!” vs.”Hey guys! We need over 10,000 hours to learn French but we only have 400 or so over the next four years so let’s not get to wiggy about it and try to relax and enjoy our time together because some day it will be gone!”
I really was shooting myself in the foot in terms of self care. I had forgotten that the key to good gains in language learning lies in slow pacing and a sense of fun and relaxation, and how can I do that from the top of a horse in a cowboys and indians movie? In my defense, I had never learned self care in my own educational experience. It was always about knowing the most. Sheesh! I’m glad that dream is over!
We’re just here for awhile.
(I’m making a new category for Self Care here. I think we need it.)
Related: https://benslavic.com/blog/amelia-earhardt/