Heart surgeons in the Northeast started working together via the internet some years ago to improve techniques and deaths went down dramatically. In DPS, teachers are doing active collaboration to improve how they teach kids languages.
Young teachers and teachers new to the district are trained by Diana heavily all year. Gains and changes are expected from teachers who receive TCI training over time, and Diana visits classrooms regularly.
Some teachers cry. They say how much they want to do it but just can’t. It must be awful. I’m sure that Diana feels badly about her unwavering honesty with these teachers, but what is she to do? Think of the heart surgeons – if they don’t get up to speed with current best practices, people die.
In the same way, we cause a kind of mental language death (because limited to the conscious mind where languages cannot be learned) in our kids when we teach them using techniques and materials that exist only because of the power and influence of a few who feel entitled to power and influence.
In medicine, I am certain that the bad surgeons are dumped back into general practice. Can we make that happen in teaching or are we going to allow what has been happening for many long decades to continue unchecked?
If you are new and drowning in this work, call out. We send life rafts every day. Look at some of the discussion here over recent years. Is there a better, more devoted and frankly super-intelligent collection of teachers in any profession these days?
I don’t think so. I think that this group, though small, is, well, how should I say it? The only word that comes into mind is badass.