Teaching Spanish in MO

Human beings are very efficient information share-ers. Take teachers, for example. We do better at sharing information with each other directly and informally than when we are professional about our information sharing.

Translation: we ignore confidentiality.

Unprofessional? Not if no one catches us. (If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?)  Okay, sometimes it’s idle gossip. But usually we’re sharing information that helps us reach and teach that student better. Even if a fellow teacher has never had that student in class, s/he may be able to suggest something that can help me!

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Email is a blessing and a curse.

As a teacher it enables me to communicate with parents when it is convenient for ME. Unfortunately, tone of voice being absent, it is inferior to verbal communication.

On the other hand, writing being a more reflective act, email gives me a chance to re-read and re-word what I want to tell a parent before sending the message.

So then what was it about the email that I sent on Thursday evening that didn’t “connect with” the parent? And then on Friday I could only leave a voice mail (but I also sent an email to let Dad know I was trying to get in touch with him). And so now I’ve been dreading ALL WEEKEND the call that I have to make (or try to make again) on Monday.

Any words of wisdom?

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In a staff development workshop on Friday, I listened to an ESL teacher relay descriptions of conditions in schools around the world as described to her over the years by our immigrant students. The on that caught my attention was an Asian girl describing being smacked with a ruler for every point she missed on a test. Teachers can hit students during class.

Now, I’m not in favor of corporal punishment, per se, however, I begin to see why students in Asian schools are more motivated.

I also heard that the parents who bring their children here may be physically beating their child for poor grades. And to them a poor grade may be an A-.

Is this what we want?????

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Yesterday the Associated Press published an article entitled More School: Obama Would Curtail Summer Vacation.

Now, we all know the joke: “What are the three best things about being a teacher?” “June, July and August”.

The day I believe that joke is the day I should retire from teaching. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE SUMMER BREAK! But I AM a teacher. All year long. (Just ask my husband.)

What would this mean for education in America?

A longer school day might actually *help* parents who are tied to their job for 8 1/2 to 9 hours per day plus commute time.

More days in a school year might actually *help* parents who work year round. As the Education Secretary Arne Duncan is quoted in the AP article (see link above):  “Our school calendar is based upon the agrarian economy and not too many of our kids are working the fields today”.

High school students might miss out on their opportunity to make a few bucks for college/car/spending money during summer months.

And what about family vacations?

If you take the time to read the article, you’ll see that our kids already spend more time in the classroom than the students in the countries with the scores we are trying to compete with.

What do YOU, my fellow educators and fellow parents, feel about President Obama’s proposal?

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I have started reading Clay Shirky’s Here Comes Everybody and it is really resonating with me. The first chapter starts out with a charming story about Evan’s efforts to reclaim his friend’s stolen Sidekick (taken from real life) … in fact, as often as new words pop up in this day and age, you might think the author coined his own word (p. 326 of HCE) to describe websites like Evan’s, but really the word evanecence has existed since 1815 or so. (IMHO the word is almost as cool as quixotic but not quite.)

Anyway, Shirky talks about human beings’ innate sociableness. We form groups (often with their own heirarchy), and we communicate.

Communication is my business!

Shirky encourages his readers to think of our innate sociableness in terms of new technology. Facebook, blogs, and other technologies are just new ways to do what humans already WANT to do … form groups: “The tools are simply a way of channeling existing motivation” (p. 17).

Following Shirky’s line of thinking… how can I use new technology, such as blogs, to I make my kiddos READ and WRITE more in Spanish?  If I give my students a REASON to go online, oh, let’s say reading blogs, they will do more of it.  And If I make it easier for them by giving them the ones I want them to read, they will also do more of it. And it will be a lot easier to “police” their language use (they ALWAYS try to slip in some English here and there behind my back while we’re in class) because they when publish their comments, everyone will know what language they’re using.

And acting as a group–collaborating in the virtual world–they will learn more about a given topic than they could striking out on their own.  Sounds great to me!

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Here is a shout out to my amazing sister, Kate, who does more in a day than I can dream of. Her strength and wisdom keep me inspired to always try to be better than what I am. I was just catching up on her blog and stumbled across this gem from Sept 8, 2009:

“The details that I choose to focus on or ignore are the ones that determine my mindset.”

Thanks, sis, for reminding me how important a positive attitude is.

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We all have them. Priorities. Intentionally or unintentionally we prioritize our time.

Today I started both of my Spanish 2 classes having to say “No, you won’t get your tests back today.” After nine years of teaching, I’m learning to deal with the guilt. There was barely a twinge today. Maybe I had steeled myself to it ahead of time. Maybe it helped to avoid their eyes by shifting papers, looking for the new seating chart while I delivered the bad news. I wasn’t prepared for them to say they had obsessively checked Infinite Campus to see if the grade had been posted.

Why the guilt? Because they took the test on Friday (I started grading them that very evening but then didn’t touch them the rest of the weekend). Because two sections of Spanish 4 took their test yesterday and I graded it that night (but it was MC, T/F and matching!). Because I hate grading.

I love teaching. I hate grading. I always choose the easiest stuff to grade first. I always choose the short stack because I can check it off first. I always procrastinate on the tough-to-grade stuff. WHY?  Poor Spanish 2… low priority, albeit unintentional. But they don’t need to worry. The first time there are Spanish 4 compositions waiting for my attention, their stuff will be at the front of the queue!

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Personal learning networks … it’s where education is heading.

I used to think that technology was isolating us from each other. After all, you are staring at a computer screen instead of a human face, right? But what better way to help humans understand each other than take prejudice out of the formula. When you can’t see skin color or hear regional accent, how can you prejudge based on that? What a great way for students (and teachers as professionals) to make real connections!

Awhile back I decided to embrace new technology. [I CONFESS! I had the urge to text my hubby during class while the kids were watching a video clip. In case you're wondering, no, I didn't.] I think this is going to be great!

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