Day 3

Okay, so today didn't start off so great. I had in mind that I wanted to work with my second year students on avoir, recycling some vocab from last year over family, classroom objects and avoir phrases. My first class of the day is loud, rambunctious, and funny, so I thought TPRS would be perfect for them. Unfortunately, they didn't understand that we were working together to learn something, even though I was doing most of the talking. I had students having a full-blown conversation on the side...students zoned out or reading a book...and students who just blurted out totally random facts about what they did this weekend. It was mass chaos and I was completely overwhelmed. So I did the unthinkable! I stopped, told them to get out their workbooks, and assigned some stupid pencil and paper assignment that had NOTHING to do with what we were supposed to be learning. Yikes!! That absolutely goes against my teaching style and what I believe about teaching. Afterwards, I decided that maybe I could get that class on board if I started off with my own story and had them act it out or do a response to the story instead of guiding them in creating a story. So...I guess that's what I'm going to do tomorrow.

I thought of giving up for my second class of the day, but I decided to go through with my plans, after giving the students a caveat that we could learn through this fun new method or we could learn the boring way. They were a little hesitant at first, but then really warmed to it. By the end, one student was Barney, the fat purple dinosaur who eats children. Another student was Miley Cyrus and she and her dad own Barney...he eats Miley's stalker fans so that she can sleep. They were laughing and having a great time. They understood everything, which I guess is the point...now I need to know where to go with that comprehension. I sure do wish my new tprs book and dvds would get here PRONTO!

This afternoon, with my first year students, I had them act out some different verbs with commands, such as stand up, sit down, jump, hit, turn around, touch this, etc. I think they enjoyed it, but we'll have to spend some more time working on that. Also, I found a great resource on youtube called Telefrancais. It was a show on public access in the 80's and does a really good job offering comprehensible input for beginning students. Plus, it's pretty cheesy, so I think the kids will really like it. No idea yet what I'll be doing tomorrow...help!