Last year I spent the first day going over my expectations again. I think I've done a better job this year of being consistent, so I am going to skip that until it needs to be handled in a "pop-up" manner.
So tomorrow, when the kids come back, we are going to talk about what they did over vacation. I figure this will be a great vocab review for my first year students and an easy return to school for my second year students.
If you have any ideas of how to infuse new vocab/structures/grammar points in this past-tense activity, let me know! My second years can do it in their sleep by now...
Monday, January 7, 2013
A new year! Phew!
I am trying to let go of my fear of failure caused by the attack of last semester...
Here is what I know: my second year students are KICKING BUTT! They are using the language spontaneously in and out of class to communicate with each other. They are having AHA moments when the patterns of language are making sense to them. They smile in class. They smile at me in class. They smile at each other in class. It is a good thing. This is the last year that I will teach the second year kids and I'm a little sad, but I also know that it is the last year that I really have to worry about preparing them for the hell that is French 3. I say hell because they review basically every grammar point in the first month and then read the history of France in French. It is a killer! I should also say that I would LOVE to be able to take this class. It sounds really interesting. But I do worry that my non-high-flying kids will get in there and feel like I failed them. But I'm letting go of that fear and moving on. Focus on the positive! And there is soooo much positive.
Here is what I know: my second year students are KICKING BUTT! They are using the language spontaneously in and out of class to communicate with each other. They are having AHA moments when the patterns of language are making sense to them. They smile in class. They smile at me in class. They smile at each other in class. It is a good thing. This is the last year that I will teach the second year kids and I'm a little sad, but I also know that it is the last year that I really have to worry about preparing them for the hell that is French 3. I say hell because they review basically every grammar point in the first month and then read the history of France in French. It is a killer! I should also say that I would LOVE to be able to take this class. It sounds really interesting. But I do worry that my non-high-flying kids will get in there and feel like I failed them. But I'm letting go of that fear and moving on. Focus on the positive! And there is soooo much positive.
Wednesday, November 7, 2012
Harry Potter
Yesterday I tried a story with my kids that really worked. I am running out of things for the circling with balls (especially since we are trying to talk about one kid for an entire hour and there's only so much you can say about playing basketball at this point in the school year), so I have started inventing hobbies for my kids. I don't think they mind (I hope not, at least!).
Yesterday I picked one student out of each class who did not have a story yet and that person can do magic! I wanted to introduce pouvoir while the kids are still super engaged, and since it is such a high frequency word.
Here is an example from one of my classes (please excuse the lack of accents):
Sam peut faire de la magie. Elle utilise un pompom comme baguette. Elle est etudiante a THS. Harry Potter est etudiant a Hogwarts. Harry Potter est le meilleur magicien a Hogwarts parce qu'il a tue Voldemort! (At this point I did a quick time-out to teach them that Voldemort means flight from death in French). Harry Potter utilise la tour Eiffel (I have a small Eiffel Tower) comme baguette. (We follow the same pattern to establish Ron and Hermione as characters...) Un jour, Sam visite Hogwarts. Sam regarde Ron et elle aime Ron. Hermione est jalouse et elle crie "Ron est MON garcon" Sam est fachee et elle crie "Avada cadavra" (or however you spell the killing curse). Hermione tombe et elle est morte. Ron est fache et il crie "Avada..." Harry Potter frappe Ron avec un dragon (another prop in the classroom) et Ron tombe. Harry Potter adore Sam.
I'm really enjoying extending my circling with balls in this way because it feels less forced to me than last year when I tried to only use LICT for my stories. I'm hoping that by the time I'm done with my circling, I will have already taught a large portion of the vocab from LICT and I can skip a ton!
Yesterday I picked one student out of each class who did not have a story yet and that person can do magic! I wanted to introduce pouvoir while the kids are still super engaged, and since it is such a high frequency word.
Here is an example from one of my classes (please excuse the lack of accents):
Sam peut faire de la magie. Elle utilise un pompom comme baguette. Elle est etudiante a THS. Harry Potter est etudiant a Hogwarts. Harry Potter est le meilleur magicien a Hogwarts parce qu'il a tue Voldemort! (At this point I did a quick time-out to teach them that Voldemort means flight from death in French). Harry Potter utilise la tour Eiffel (I have a small Eiffel Tower) comme baguette. (We follow the same pattern to establish Ron and Hermione as characters...) Un jour, Sam visite Hogwarts. Sam regarde Ron et elle aime Ron. Hermione est jalouse et elle crie "Ron est MON garcon" Sam est fachee et elle crie "Avada cadavra" (or however you spell the killing curse). Hermione tombe et elle est morte. Ron est fache et il crie "Avada..." Harry Potter frappe Ron avec un dragon (another prop in the classroom) et Ron tombe. Harry Potter adore Sam.
I'm really enjoying extending my circling with balls in this way because it feels less forced to me than last year when I tried to only use LICT for my stories. I'm hoping that by the time I'm done with my circling, I will have already taught a large portion of the vocab from LICT and I can skip a ton!
The stress of the last month
I have been trying to think of how to compose this blog and avoiding it because it just makes me feel bad...
About a month ago, we had a district-wide meeting of all the language teachers. We were talking about common core and how to support the ELA and math teachers in our classes. Great stuff. The problem came when we got together with our languages to talk about how things have been going. My TPRS colleague and I were attacked by our non-TPRS (and upper-level) colleagues. We were told that we aren't teaching our students anything (okay, I can kind of ignore that because I know what my kids can do), that we have to use the book (again, I can ignore that because there is nothing that says I have to use a textbook), and that the parents and students are complaining that they weren't prepared by us to continue to the next level (this is the one that stung). They complained and attacked for around 45 minutes while my colleague and I answered their attacks.
"Do your kids ever see a verb chart?" "No." "Well, I think they are a very handy tool because, once they have seen a verb chart, they can conjugate almost any verb that they find in a dictionary."
"Can your kids count and say the alphabet?" (this one was just ridiculous)
"It's October: have your kids learned avoir?" "They have learned how to say I have, you have, and he/she has" "Well, if they haven't learned the other forms, what else are you teaching them in that time?" "My kids know reads, listens to, plays, is, writes, sleeps, knows, etc etc" "But they only know the singular forms of those..."
This went on forever. Finally, as we were running out of time, an administrator came to check in with us and the "leader" (who has no power over us besides that she teaches the highest level) said that we needed more time to collaborate and could we have the afternoon together.
And so it continued... Although I do have to say that the afternoon was much more productive since we actually talked about what we teach in each level and what the high school teachers consider essential and what they consider extra. Turns out that we agree on most of it. The difference is that the high school teachers teach songs to help them conjugate all the forms, while we teach our kids to actually use the language. But it was actually productive and I felt good after that.
But now I don't feel good anymore. I am constantly questioning myself. "Am I really teaching them anything?" "But in their free writes, they are making so many spelling and conjugation errors!" "Man, they are supposed to learn imparfait, passe compose and conditionnel in one year?! How am I going to make sure that they can fill out those boxes?"
I don't want to think like this. I want to point out that Stephen Krashen sent an email to moreTPRS saying that what I'm doing in the classroom is right. I want to print off the new ACTFL guidelines and show them how I'm meeting them. I want them to at least spend an HOUR in my classroom before they attack me. They have NO CLUE what I do down here!!! But instead, I can't get out of my head. I keep envisioning my awesome students from last year, whom I led, taught, and loved, sitting in a classroom and taking a test that they fail because I didn't teach them to fill in boxes last year. It breaks my heart. I feel like I can't look my students in the eyes because I know what they are going to have to do next year. And I don't want them to blame me for failing them.
Help. I need help. I'm better than this. I am a damn good teacher. I know it. But the little voice in my head is confused. Do I take a week/month at the end of the year and work through the textbook so they won't be unprepared? I will NOT stop teaching this way because I LOVE it and my students love it. I am reaching students every day who are failing other classes and hate school.
Phew! That was a lot to dump on you, dear reader (if you exist), but I had to get my thoughts out so that I can hopefully feel better. If you have any ideas (particularly with those tricky conditional endings), let me know...
About a month ago, we had a district-wide meeting of all the language teachers. We were talking about common core and how to support the ELA and math teachers in our classes. Great stuff. The problem came when we got together with our languages to talk about how things have been going. My TPRS colleague and I were attacked by our non-TPRS (and upper-level) colleagues. We were told that we aren't teaching our students anything (okay, I can kind of ignore that because I know what my kids can do), that we have to use the book (again, I can ignore that because there is nothing that says I have to use a textbook), and that the parents and students are complaining that they weren't prepared by us to continue to the next level (this is the one that stung). They complained and attacked for around 45 minutes while my colleague and I answered their attacks.
"Do your kids ever see a verb chart?" "No." "Well, I think they are a very handy tool because, once they have seen a verb chart, they can conjugate almost any verb that they find in a dictionary."
"Can your kids count and say the alphabet?" (this one was just ridiculous)
"It's October: have your kids learned avoir?" "They have learned how to say I have, you have, and he/she has" "Well, if they haven't learned the other forms, what else are you teaching them in that time?" "My kids know reads, listens to, plays, is, writes, sleeps, knows, etc etc" "But they only know the singular forms of those..."
This went on forever. Finally, as we were running out of time, an administrator came to check in with us and the "leader" (who has no power over us besides that she teaches the highest level) said that we needed more time to collaborate and could we have the afternoon together.
And so it continued... Although I do have to say that the afternoon was much more productive since we actually talked about what we teach in each level and what the high school teachers consider essential and what they consider extra. Turns out that we agree on most of it. The difference is that the high school teachers teach songs to help them conjugate all the forms, while we teach our kids to actually use the language. But it was actually productive and I felt good after that.
But now I don't feel good anymore. I am constantly questioning myself. "Am I really teaching them anything?" "But in their free writes, they are making so many spelling and conjugation errors!" "Man, they are supposed to learn imparfait, passe compose and conditionnel in one year?! How am I going to make sure that they can fill out those boxes?"
I don't want to think like this. I want to point out that Stephen Krashen sent an email to moreTPRS saying that what I'm doing in the classroom is right. I want to print off the new ACTFL guidelines and show them how I'm meeting them. I want them to at least spend an HOUR in my classroom before they attack me. They have NO CLUE what I do down here!!! But instead, I can't get out of my head. I keep envisioning my awesome students from last year, whom I led, taught, and loved, sitting in a classroom and taking a test that they fail because I didn't teach them to fill in boxes last year. It breaks my heart. I feel like I can't look my students in the eyes because I know what they are going to have to do next year. And I don't want them to blame me for failing them.
Help. I need help. I'm better than this. I am a damn good teacher. I know it. But the little voice in my head is confused. Do I take a week/month at the end of the year and work through the textbook so they won't be unprepared? I will NOT stop teaching this way because I LOVE it and my students love it. I am reaching students every day who are failing other classes and hate school.
Phew! That was a lot to dump on you, dear reader (if you exist), but I had to get my thoughts out so that I can hopefully feel better. If you have any ideas (particularly with those tricky conditional endings), let me know...
Monday, October 8, 2012
Circling with balls
This year I am really trying to spend more time talking about what the students do. I have one class of 30, and I'm only about halfway through talking about them. I'm trying not to get impatient... My brain is telling me to start in on the "book" and get going on the "curriculum," but when I sit down and think about it, my kids are getting SO MUCH good vocabulary and SO MUCH great repetition because we can review the information every day or every other day, so whatever vocabulary we talk about now should be so stuck in their brain that they remember it for the rest of their lives. So I need to take a deep breath, think of some new way to insert common vocabulary (connait anyone??), and keep on keeping on. My kids won't know I'm bored with it unless I act like I'm bored. I just need to use the acting skills I'm learning in my improv class to make believe that my class is the most fascinating class in the world and my students are the best kids in the universe. C'est vrai, n'est-ce pas?
P.A.T. follow-up
My colleague and I have had over a month to try out our different ideas for P.A.T. and the verdict is in! Our students are really enjoying it! Even my students who experienced the old, loosy-goosy way last year say that they prefer the way we are doing it this year!
So, this is what we have done so far...
So, this is what we have done so far...
- French music videos (I tried to pick videos with a story to keep them interested like Adieu by Coeur de Pirate, J'aimerais trop by Keen'V, U.S. Boy by Jena Lee)
- Games (Pictionary, flyswatter, basketball...all the Fred Jones stand-bys)
- Kindergarten craft
- So far, we have done this once and it worked really well...I did a mini-lesson on Van Gogh and how he was influenced by impressionism and the landscape in France. Then I had them do a baby-ish craft. They cut out a sunflower on card stock and used tissue paper to "color" the flower and then glued sunflower seeds to the middle. I made a big bulletin board in the middle of school with facts about Van Gogh and France and displayed their art for the whole school to see. I called it CYA so that I wouldn't get in "trouble" for having my kids to baby crafts in a French 1 and 2 classroom.
- We are planning our next kindergarten craft to be a stereotypical French guy toilet paper roll craft. I found a template somewhere online and we are going to talk about stereotypes and compare French and American stereotypes. I'm planning on showing a couple of comedy clips of people to bring the point home.
- Tastings
- We did a beverage tasting the first time and taught them some restaurant vocabulary and I showed them a sample menu with the beverage choices. We tasted Orangina, Evian, and Perrier.
- This last week we did a biscuit tasting and they got to taste Petit Ecolier, les gaufres, les madeleines and Biscoff. We reviewed the restaurant vocabulary and talked about Belgium since the Biscoff and gaufres came from there.
I'm drowning!
I keep hoping that I am going to get into a rhythm and I will have plenty of time to blog regularly. Oh man, do I really want that to happen. Unfortunately, it is not happening. I am trying to get my stuff together, get my ducks in a row, etc...
The good news is that I don't think I'm letting my kids down. I feel like I am still a good teacher to them 95% of the time, even when I'm tired or grumpy or unprepared (because of outside forces, of course...I would never be unprepared...gasp!). So it's really just my real and virtual collaborators that I'm letting down. Sigh.
The good news is that I don't think I'm letting my kids down. I feel like I am still a good teacher to them 95% of the time, even when I'm tired or grumpy or unprepared (because of outside forces, of course...I would never be unprepared...gasp!). So it's really just my real and virtual collaborators that I'm letting down. Sigh.
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