Jason and Alina set this up that Alina taught us in Romanian and Jason would stop her every so often to de-brief what we had just witnessed.
Jason started class with an upbeat awesome song with beach balls bouncing through the room. It really set the mood for our week and was welcome in the early morning.
One thing that Jason would do throughout is ask "How much time do we need?" before breaking us out into groups or breaks. Then, he would GONG us back to whole group instruction. It was a great attention grabber (I bought the most obnoxious noise maker at the Mercado in San Antonio...Mira Canion literally begged the saleswoman not to sell it to me) and I will be using this more in class.
The purpose of our track was to show how to seamlessly weave TPR, PQA, Storyasking, re-tells, and reading together so that it seems absolutely effortless. Alina does a fabulous job of embedding TPR. She uses the word a few times in context (with PQA) before she asks us to gesture. Then, she has the room divided into Transylvania and Moldova for TPR purposes (ie Transylvania drinks. Moldova wants. Romania laughs.) It's a great way to break up the room, make sure kids are listening and teach a bit of geography at the same time. Also, it leads to kids guiding the story to take place in one of those places, allowing for more in depth culture discussions in a way that seems very natural.
PAUSE: I have to tell you here that I am ONLY blogging what hit me as new information this year. I have blogged about Jason and Alina before, so I will not talk to you about how amazing Alina's classroom management is...because you can just go here to read my post from last year.
RESUME: Alina also conducted the class to laugh louder, longer, faster, etc by changing the way she said the command and by gesturing as a conductor of a symphony would. It was great...and she only sprinkled it throughout the day when we needed something more.
Something that I really noticed this year is how Alina sprinkles numbers throughout the day. One way she does that is when she is happy with a student. She says (in Spanish) "Give me five # times" and then everyone in the class claps their hands as she gives that student their high fives (and she makes sure that everyone does it in unison to ensure that everyone is paying attention). So much of what Alina does it to make sure that it feels like we are all in this (class) together and that it requires ALL of us to make class work. I would come back from the bathroom or from tweeting and feel like I had to "catch up" so I didn't let anyone down. Brilliant. I've said it before and I'll say it again...I want to be Alina when I grow up.
I'm sure that this was in my last blog post, but I forgot to do it last year, so I'll blog it again. Alina will ask a question for the whole class and then hold up her hands to indicate that she wants you to wait before answering. When she's ready for a choral answer, she will lean forward and listen to the answers. What a great way to allow for processing time and make sure that EVERYONE understands and not just the quickest or loudest students.
I also love how she uses her students to create dialogue with the class. That's not a great explanation, so I'll offer an example. Throughout the day, Alina would be on one side of the class and a student would blurt something out in Romanian. She would then laugh and turn to the whole class and say "Class, Andrea says How Romantic!" And how did Andrea know how to say How romantic in Romanian???? Because they are on little posters that Alina gives to students to hold up throughout the class. Love it! (Some ideas for posters are: It's ridiculous, I can't believe it, How sad, How romantic, Of course)
And now is when I come to the part in my notes where I remind myself of the power of gestures. I haven't used gestured because I am not "good" at the traditional TPR commands (Stand up, jump, sit down, throw, laugh...and on and on until I and my kids are bored to death). But Alina is truly a master. As I said before, she doesn't give you the gesture until you have already heard the word in context, she's pointed and paused several times, and THEN she asks you to do the gesture with her. The next time she says the word, she finds a kid that is gesturing and she says "Thank you so much, Eric, for doing the gestures with me. It really shows me that you understand and that makes me a better teacher." The student who wasn't gesturing (usually me) jumps to attention and next time, makes sure to gesture. But this NEVER becomes a classroom management issue because if a kid chooses not to do the gesture, it is not a do or die event. I really liked that because I can see myself forcing every student to gesture and having conflict in the classroom.
Alina asks her comprehension checks so that her kids answer in English (if necessary) and she stays in the TL by asking "How do you say _ in English?" It just prevents the teacher from getting used to speaking in English in the classroom.
I noted that I need to use butcher paper in class instead of the white board so that I will be able to have the same structures up day after day. Jason uses King Markers from Sharpie because they are THICK and easy to see. He underlines the TL to make it easier to focus on when kids are bouncing around the posters finding meaning.
Jason uses a document camera to allow him to show kids' work, use books, etc without typing or writing things on the board. LOVE IT
Some brain breaks we used this morning:
tap your breastbone because there is a gland behind your breastbone that will give you energy
Put your thumb in front of you and watch it as you move it in an infinity symbol for creativity
Hold your ear with the opposite hand and then do # squats (another way to practice numbers)
LOVED IT! Four hours flew by and I did not zone out.
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