Michael Coxon wrote in a comment this morning:
I had one of the most restful weekends I have had in a long time. The last 4 nights I slept well over 40 hours. This is an accomplishment for me and I went in very refreshed on a Monday morning.
During my morning routine I was thinking about the last 8 days of school year. I have worked at this school for 5 years and started off the first year by following the school’s grammar syllabus. I am fortunate enough to be moving on to a school where TCI/TPRS is being embraced. It is bittersweet to be leaving a school where a lot of changes have been made through the influence of TPRS.
We have TPRS readers in every level of our Spanish and German program. We have some usage readers in French and some CI-based strategies being used in Latin. I believe this has happened partly because of the influence of teaching with the door open for 5 years. I have also endured hours and hours of meetings in order to discuss this stuff. Hours and hours of finding ways to be transparent and friendly with colleagues that have been less than professional with me.
The questions I was asking myself this morning were…
Really? I battled 4 years with my department chair and colleagues for the ability to speak Spanish with my students?
Really? I fought for 4 years for the right to teach TL literacy and read books and short stories?
Really? I endured attacks and fought off other language teachers just to engage my students with topics that interested them?
When you think about it, arguing with teachers that promote TCI and TL usage makes very little sense. TPRS/TCI is not that divergent from learning a second language…it is actually how it is done. What a bunch of nonsense that we all deal with!!!
The Problem with CI
Jeffrey Sachs was asked what the difference between people in Norway and in the U.S. was. He responded that people in Norway are happy and
