I got this from a colleague today. I publish it here just to remind us that the opposition to what we are doing is not just coming from kids who don’t know how to act in our classrooms, but from our own colleagues. We can’t forget how hard what we are doing is. We can work together on the blog to help each other solve problems and learn how to use comprehension based instruction better, and deal with opposition. We have to stay focused. In the text below I edited out some portions. You know why. Even though we are pretty much safe here now the way the blog is set up, I won’t relax until we have all bios in with names of teachers, their schools and their cities, and please please on the avatars too. Then anyone will be able to easily check the list of the entire group. So just so you know that you are not the only one who may be getting bad vibes from colleagues:
…it’s really hurting me today hearing people talking bad about TPRS/CI. [There is one teacher who is using TPRS] and all I hear in the office is the negative energy. All I hear is how “those kids can’t produce” or “they don’t really know what it means”. I [took] a deep breath and [thought]: “Shit. I’m lucky I’m the only [bleeped out] language teacher here. I don’t have to deal with [people like you]!” But I feel bad for that teacher who has to work with three others who disapprove of what she’s doing….