The Big Payoff-Literally

Okay, this is going to sound bad in the beginning, but hear me out! Yesterday, I got physical proof that my love for my students is evident and that they are reciprocating. Three of my students brought me a gift yesterday. I've gotten Christmas gifts from students before, but they have always been the very generic, my mom bought this and made me bring it to you, kind. These three students went together and found me a necklace with different charms, including the Eiffel Tower! This is the first time that a student has actually bought me a personal gift, using what they know about my style and likes to buy me something! I was super excited not for the gift, but for the feelings behind the gesture. Call me naive, but I feel like I'm succeeding in creating a classroom where students feel loved and validated.

Getting the hang of expanding a story

Finally today I feel like I have a feel for expanding a story. I took a story from chapter 2 of Look I Can Talk about a rich fat cow and a poor monkey. I started off trying to review some vocab that I knew that they already knew, so we talked a ton about the cow. Why was she rich? What color was she? Why was she fat? My students really added some amazing details to this puny little story about a cow and a monkey. In 40 minutes, we just created a back-story for the cow. Now tomorrow we'll introduce the second character and build his back-story...and finally we'll try to get around to the plot.

I honestly feel like I get better at TPRS every day. I'm learning more, getting more comfortable...and I don't dread a class or going to school ever. Even now that we are winding down for Christmas...I've got something that I can do and teach my kids and entertain them!

Oh, and I haven't even talked about Susie Gross's ideas to stick in culture. So far, we've done a story that takes place at the Louvre...so I took a quick break and showed some pictures of the museum and we talked (in English) about why the Mona Lisa is so famous...which really helped the story along. Tomorrow maybe we'll get to the Moulin Rouge and the can-can!!