"Vacation" and Vacation

I just finished reading Ben's most recent blog post, and I couldn't agree more.  We all need to use our vacations as vacations and quit killing ourselves planning ahead and re-hashing our current situations. 

I have been known to use entire "vacations" to write lessons and plan ahead in order to increase my student's learning.  I am wiser now that I realize that it is unhealthy and quite insane to spend "vacation" time working rather than relaxing. 

So let's celebrate what was good and what we learned from in 2011, and look forward to a happier, healthier and more language friendly 2012. 

Happy holidays!

Processing NTPRS for Success in a New Year

The title makes it sound relatively easy, but as I try to re-read my notes I feel daunted.  I am extremely excited to go into my second year of TPRS and third year of teaching, but I need to focus myself in order to improve my skills for my students.  I feel daunted now because of the copious amounts of knowledge that was shared with me at NTPRS.  It was an invaluable experience because now I know that I am no longer alone.  Last year I clung on to the internet (Laurie's blog, Ben's blog, moreTPRS listserv, etc) in order to feel not alone, but there's something new this year with actually meeting people who are doing this.  I am forever grateful for the TPRS army (credit to mme. Hayles).

My take-aways from NTPRS:

1. SLOW - Thank you Linda Li & Bryce Hedstrom (& Ben Slavic for his recent post on research regarding this)
2. The brain craves novelty - Thank you Carol Gaab & Kristy Placido
1.  Jibjab
2. Stories worth retelling (credit to Bryce Hedstrom)
3. Use news stories and culture stories
4. Use props like my dog uses toys.  Circulate them as the kids loose interest.  Not every story has to have a bunch of props.
3. You don't have to be creative on your feet immediately, write down each sentence of a story on note card with possibilities for each thing (10-15 note cards/story) - Thank you Michelle (not sure of the last name, but she was a French teacher and fantastic coach!)
4. There are other people who are more isolated than me doing this - Thanks roomie Kristin Duncan
5. Organize and Manage the Board - Thank you Carol Gaab & Susan Gross
1. TL and L1 in different colors
2. Don't over-fill the board - have the structures up there and then enrichment vocabulary, not everything needs to be written down
6. Give sts jobs in order to personalize the class - 
1. See Ben Slavic's post (members only)
7. Contrast Grammar in order to fulfill the curriculum - Thank you Susan Gross & Betsy Paskvan! (This was my big break-through in the coaching room too)

My professional goals for August:

1. Check-in with colleagues to see how they are doing (esp. Charlotte, Vicki, Carrie and Laura)
2. Focus on SLOW and personalized input (TPR and Circle with balls)
3. Use Scott Benedict’s textbook to TPRS to help align myself with the curriculum/vocab again and to model to my colleagues that it can be done without abandoning the safety of a textbook.  Focus on having characters DO what the student objectives are for each chapter.
4. Begin using standards-based grading with my sts.
5. Video one class and submit it to Ben.

Lastly, I made slides to print out to help me accomplish my goals in my classroom.  I made them available here.  They're similar to the ones at NTPRS in the coaching rooms. 

World Wise School Update

So last summer, in the midst of my dive into TPRS, I found this because of my continued interest in the Peace Corps.  It is a program in which current classroom teachers are matched up with current Peace Corps Volunteers (PCV) to enhance the classroom experience.  I was excited when we were matched with our PCV because she grew up in the community I teach in.  However last year didn't prove to be the most successful.

Our PCV recently emailed me with some amazing ideas for the coming year, so we have a renewed sense of hope.  It just so happens that I am tinkering with standards-based grading (SBG) this year in order to align myself with the new state and national standards, and these new ideas really hit on the new standards.  We are hoping to facilitate proficiency of the standards through video responses by real Hondurans to my students' questions and through short letters. 

I am totally excited and trying to be as purposeful as possible, even though I was going to take today "off", but now I'm too compelled to stop.  Here's to another year of possibility.  I'm getting excited to get back with my students!

Taking care of yourself should be priority #1.

I don't care what anyone else tells you.  This is probably one of the most difficult things for me to learn and to live by.  But I'm trying.  If I do this, I am more relaxed, level headed, a better teacher, a better human, and better able to handle everything that comes at me in and out of the classroom.

I faltered the last two weeks and violated rule #1.  I paid for it. My fiancé paid for it.  My students paid for it.  And I suffered, and so on and so forth.  Well after a particularly difficult Saturday, I found myself determined to "take back my life".  I went to yoga because that's where I go to become a better person.  I went to yoga again today. 

And guess what?  I had some wonderful PQA with two particularly difficult classes and decent other classes.  I actually did successfully provide CI today, which has been something I haven't been able to do in almost two weeks. 

And guess what else?  The tests didn't get graded.  And no one asked about them.  The students know it's the end of the year too (imagine that right?).

So yea.  Make taking yourself rule #1. It's kind of like when you step in your classroom, and you make your students feel safe they'll play the CI game, but if not, you can forget about it.  It's like that.  If you take care of yourself, you'll be able to lead the CI game, but if not, you can forget about it.

It's a tough time of year, but this too shall pass.

A Saturday of Professional Development

Today I spent my day in then annual technology conference put on by my district.  It was thought-provoking, inspiring, overwhelming and exciting.   Each session lasted about an hour and was jam-packed with information that I'm trying to process, but I'm inspired to write about this day so I'll attempt to do both in one sitting.

Getting started:
This was an exceptional presentation by two younger teachers.  It really addressed my overwhelming feeling about taking on more technology.

Collaborative writing:
This presentation was exploding with great uses for google's platform of presentations, documents, groups, sites, etc.

Flipping your classroom:
Karl Fisch always does a great job of provoking thoughts.  Today he picked my mind about what I can do outside of my classroom.

Gone global:
During this presentation the overwhelming feeling and guilt spread over me.  I had signed up for the Peace Corps' World Wide Schools partnership this year, and typically of me, it was too much.  We haven't done much with it because there just isn't enough time.  Perhaps I can combine this idea with Karl's and have it as an outside of the classroom connection.  I do realize that this is an extremely valuable undertaking, but I get anxious just thinking about attempting it.

Innovative Libraries:
I found myself asking, "What does technology literacy mean?" a lot during this presentation.  Thankfully, our CIO answered - It is determining who a source is from, not where it is from in order to identify it's credibility.

I happily left the conference (we got out a half hour early!) with lots to process.

What I have come up with for next year is that:

1) I would like to explore with making my class more tech-friendly.  I'm looking at developing my teacher page into something to use as more of a resource.  If this is not possible, I'll try to look at google sites or a wiki.

2) I hope to increase the amount of time students have with comprehensible input through the use of technology, especially for my third year students (a 3-day/week class).

3) I want to use google docs/presentations more instead of Microsoft products myself and with my students (in order to stop supporting the "commercialism" of public schooling).

What a wonderfully thought-provoking Saturday.  I just wish I actually had the time to sit down and process it all!