One of my favorite experiences in the classroom is when I get to tell a story.
The story I told involved a student and Will Smith. They both like ducks. They both want to start a duck zoo, but they do not know where the ducks are. They are not in Detroit... or Amsterdam... or Quebec... or Chile. Nope. They are found in Russia.
The best part about this story: I actually had rubber duckies hidden in the room. I mean, who wouldn't want to get up in French class and help to find the ducks?
I was puzzled, though. My supervisor came in to observe me during one of the class periods where I was telling this story in French... And she asked me after wards: "What is the point of telling a story? Is it just for listening? They don't participate very much..."
I was stunned. Just listening? Anyone who has taken a foreign language knows that you can memorize vocabulary lists out the wazoo... The most difficult part is stringing your ideas together to make coherent and relevant phrases in the target language. What am I doing all period when I'm telling a story and circle-questioning? Teaching structure without the students realizing that they are learning it. By the end of the period, the students are using the vocabulary and the structure when they answer questions. I think that is one of the most valuable experiences a student can have in the classroom. Maybe I'm just brainwashed from going to the TPRS conference, but I think there is value in this method...
So, how do I convince other people that it's valuable? As an emerging teacher, I have to be able to defend this method to administrators... How in the world can I do that? How do I prove that the students are participating more this way than if I called on them one by one when going through exercises in a book? With TPRS, students are answering 5 to 8 questions per minute. The MAJORITY of the students spend half of the period speaking French. Would they be speaking that much if I was forcing them to do exercises out of the book or workbook exercises? C'mon. Let's get real. NO. Everyone knows that when the teacher does that, the students zone out until the teacher calls on them. I know. I've done that and I do that.
What student doesn't want to listen to a bizarre story about a zoo of ducks? What student doesn't want to look for ducks around the room? What student doesn't want to laugh instead of falling asleep in his or her desk?
Look at these questions and tell me that you think that telling a story is only good for listening. I dare you.
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Friday, November 19, 2010
Fail. What do you do with failure?
Profound thoughts seem to come in quick succession when I'm driving to school in the morning. Passing by the Upland cemetery, the rising sun reflected off of the granite headstones, creating flashes of pink that caught my eye. This visual stimulant brought the thought that those flashes are just like our lives. You would think, "Wow. That's kind of depressing to realize at 7 in the morning!" That's actually not the sentiment I felt. There is something amazing in that flash; something brilliant and mesmerizing. Everyone has one, but that doesn't make it less beautiful. The cool thing is: this analogy falls short of the preciousness of life. The headstones reflected one color and all the flashes were relatively the same. Our flashes of life aren't the same. Everyone's is different. Cool, huh?
I wish that I could say that the profound moment settled into my head and I looked at every person with wonder and awe, with appreciation at the handiwork of God, but this post is titled "Fail" for a reason. That's right. Humanity strikes again.
In past posts, I have mentioned technology: the highs and lows, the excitement and the frustration that I have encountered thus far as a student teacher. Today tops all of these. Today, I tried to use technology in the classroom. Today, I failed. In the excitement of using "Voki," I went to the tech people at the high school and started asking about the language lab equipment. Unfortunately, the computers did not have microphones for the students to record themselves. The head tech guy said, though, that he could try and get a laptop cart from the science department. So-very-ever thankful, I bounced out of the tech room, feeling like this was going to work after all. The tech guy comes and finds me and says that the science department agreed to share the other laptop carts and that I could have a cart for Friday.
We tried logging onto the program, but the version of Adobe on the laptops wasn't new enough... So, they had to unfreeze the computers, download the new Adobe, refreeze the computers and then make sure that the website worked. Then, we encountered another problem. The program didn't register the internal microphones. We found our way around that and I practiced and practiced so that I could fix any problems that arose with the microphones. This was all on Wednesday. Thursday, I abducted the laptop cart and told the tech guys what they needed to do for me to use the laptops (because the head tech guy was gone for the day)... that felt oxymoronic... me? telling techies what to do? No way.
So, Thursday continues. I tell my students that I'm thrilled to have them work with a website where they can record themselves speaking French and use an avatar. They are excited. I try logging into my account and it doesn't work. I try not to panic because it's probably just a glitch. I come home and I even set up a new account and none of the possibilities are working out. Perfect.
Friday morning: I get to the high school and move the laptop cart into the room and start to look at the laptops. Of course, the one laptop I decide to use as a run-through doesn't have the recent version of Adobe on it. Panicking, I pull out two more laptops, log on and try out the website. Those are working. Ok. I couldn't help but feel cool that I was working on three computers, side-by-side, all at the same time! Panic doesn't go away when I realize that I have to go through and manually turn on all the internal microphones before my fourth period class starts. Needless to say, I didn't get that done in time. My class came in and I had to act like all of this was meant to happen and that things were under control.
24 students, countless recordings, repetitions of instructions, and a handful unprepared students later, it's almost lunchtime and the last thing I want to do is to do that again and again... for three more periods. I have no other choice, though. Who knows when I will have the laptops again... the science department can be pretty stingy with "their" stuff. During lunch, I wanted to throw in the towel. My brilliant idea of having students save their Vokis failed. My brilliant idea of using the language lab failed. My "brilliance" failed. I realized, though, that I couldn't transfer all that onto my students. That isn't fair.
Long sad story short, I hit a new low at school and I was stuck. I had to try and get myself out of the depths of teacher despair in order to keep going. It's like wanting to call your mom because you're sick, but you're stuck at college so there's really no point in calling because she can't do anything. I don't know if I'll be brave enough to try using technology like that in this classroom again, so I won't make a projection. I do know that I'm thankful for the weekend... because it's been a week.
I wish that I could say that the profound moment settled into my head and I looked at every person with wonder and awe, with appreciation at the handiwork of God, but this post is titled "Fail" for a reason. That's right. Humanity strikes again.
In past posts, I have mentioned technology: the highs and lows, the excitement and the frustration that I have encountered thus far as a student teacher. Today tops all of these. Today, I tried to use technology in the classroom. Today, I failed. In the excitement of using "Voki," I went to the tech people at the high school and started asking about the language lab equipment. Unfortunately, the computers did not have microphones for the students to record themselves. The head tech guy said, though, that he could try and get a laptop cart from the science department. So-very-ever thankful, I bounced out of the tech room, feeling like this was going to work after all. The tech guy comes and finds me and says that the science department agreed to share the other laptop carts and that I could have a cart for Friday.
We tried logging onto the program, but the version of Adobe on the laptops wasn't new enough... So, they had to unfreeze the computers, download the new Adobe, refreeze the computers and then make sure that the website worked. Then, we encountered another problem. The program didn't register the internal microphones. We found our way around that and I practiced and practiced so that I could fix any problems that arose with the microphones. This was all on Wednesday. Thursday, I abducted the laptop cart and told the tech guys what they needed to do for me to use the laptops (because the head tech guy was gone for the day)... that felt oxymoronic... me? telling techies what to do? No way.
So, Thursday continues. I tell my students that I'm thrilled to have them work with a website where they can record themselves speaking French and use an avatar. They are excited. I try logging into my account and it doesn't work. I try not to panic because it's probably just a glitch. I come home and I even set up a new account and none of the possibilities are working out. Perfect.
Friday morning: I get to the high school and move the laptop cart into the room and start to look at the laptops. Of course, the one laptop I decide to use as a run-through doesn't have the recent version of Adobe on it. Panicking, I pull out two more laptops, log on and try out the website. Those are working. Ok. I couldn't help but feel cool that I was working on three computers, side-by-side, all at the same time! Panic doesn't go away when I realize that I have to go through and manually turn on all the internal microphones before my fourth period class starts. Needless to say, I didn't get that done in time. My class came in and I had to act like all of this was meant to happen and that things were under control.
24 students, countless recordings, repetitions of instructions, and a handful unprepared students later, it's almost lunchtime and the last thing I want to do is to do that again and again... for three more periods. I have no other choice, though. Who knows when I will have the laptops again... the science department can be pretty stingy with "their" stuff. During lunch, I wanted to throw in the towel. My brilliant idea of having students save their Vokis failed. My brilliant idea of using the language lab failed. My "brilliance" failed. I realized, though, that I couldn't transfer all that onto my students. That isn't fair.
Long sad story short, I hit a new low at school and I was stuck. I had to try and get myself out of the depths of teacher despair in order to keep going. It's like wanting to call your mom because you're sick, but you're stuck at college so there's really no point in calling because she can't do anything. I don't know if I'll be brave enough to try using technology like that in this classroom again, so I won't make a projection. I do know that I'm thankful for the weekend... because it's been a week.
Monday, November 15, 2010
Somebody put squirrels in my desks
Visiting the great state of Colorado was wonderful but I think it took me out of the teacher world for a little too long. I stepped into the classroom this morning and I realized that the students were buzzing with energy... not the "Let's get to work and learn French" kind of energy, either. No. This energy possesses students into thinking that their voice is at a frequency where the teacher will not hear it. False. I may be becoming deaf, but I'm not there yet.
With this bucket of cold water, I'm looking at my students and wondering how to get us all through to Thanksgiving break. It is a dangerous mission that could fail at the slightest false wind.
The first plan of action: create another seating chart. I sat down this evening to draft some more charts and ended up becoming more frustrated than I was in the beginning. I will attribute that to the memories of the day. Don't get me wrong. The day was decent, it is just more decent when you let yourself forget all the students you had to keep in line.
The second plan of action: find activities that they will have to move for. I have never claimed to be the world's most creative person, but now more than ever, I'm realizing that I am definitely not that person. If I could parallel this feeling to anything, it would be if you were backed up against a wall and the person doing the cornering was demanding you to do a cartwheel. Yeah right.
The third plan of action (and most certainly not the least): Pray more than I think I need to. Patience doesn't come from the fallible composition of dust that we like to call the superior being. Nah. It comes from another source and we often suppress it. During this time, when patience is running low and students are not paying attention, there is no way that I can keep smiling at the squirrels. All I want to do is catch them with a net and release them into someone else's cage.
I hope that I'll be able to find a solution, otherwise this next week is going to be so long.
With this bucket of cold water, I'm looking at my students and wondering how to get us all through to Thanksgiving break. It is a dangerous mission that could fail at the slightest false wind.
The first plan of action: create another seating chart. I sat down this evening to draft some more charts and ended up becoming more frustrated than I was in the beginning. I will attribute that to the memories of the day. Don't get me wrong. The day was decent, it is just more decent when you let yourself forget all the students you had to keep in line.
The second plan of action: find activities that they will have to move for. I have never claimed to be the world's most creative person, but now more than ever, I'm realizing that I am definitely not that person. If I could parallel this feeling to anything, it would be if you were backed up against a wall and the person doing the cornering was demanding you to do a cartwheel. Yeah right.
The third plan of action (and most certainly not the least): Pray more than I think I need to. Patience doesn't come from the fallible composition of dust that we like to call the superior being. Nah. It comes from another source and we often suppress it. During this time, when patience is running low and students are not paying attention, there is no way that I can keep smiling at the squirrels. All I want to do is catch them with a net and release them into someone else's cage.
I hope that I'll be able to find a solution, otherwise this next week is going to be so long.
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Why we need technology
In the past week, I have learned more about my patience level than I have in the past four years. Let's take a simple example, such as trying to download something onto a droid. What takes people 5 minutes has yet to happen on my phone. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for repetitiveness. After all, I'm trying to become a foreign language teacher. What else do we do but repeat all day? I'm not asking for a lot, I'm merely requesting that it looks like some progress is being made. So, since it is just a phone, I've put that issue on the back burner. At least I have a phone.
The next incident I can list is one that hits even closer to home. It's the ongoing quarrel between my laptop and the media carts at the high school. One would think that hooking up a computer and a projector is simple. It is... when you have the right cord. If only I had gone with my instincts and mentioned that nothing was hooked up to the "computer" section on the projector. This little incident lasted through my fourth period class so I couldn't do what I wanted to do. Even plan B failed. I almost failed the patience test when the students kept me asking me questions that I had already answered, but God provided a tongue to bite... He's such a thinker. Looking back on today, I have to laugh. If technology were a person, I feel like he/she would jump from behind a corner and yell "November Fools!" and then start laughing like a possessed mummy.
This is why we need technology. It always keeps us guessing what will actually happen. I bet Sir Isaac Newton, Blaise Pascal, and Albert Einstein laugh (if they could) when their points about theories and laws are proven to be fallible. In theory, technology is reliable and it makes things faster... False. If there's a tech issue (which happens), there are no acceptable alternatives. It's called dependency. If I wasn't dependent on technology to show videos to the students, I could have avoided this exercise in patience.
I might be a less patient person if it weren't for technology... With that realization, I guess I should also point out that, thanks to technology, I'm writing a blog post from a laptop. So, thank you, Technology, for being the laughing mummy in my dreams and the enabler of so many healthy and unhealthy things. Our relationship will forever be bittersweet until you become perfect.
The next incident I can list is one that hits even closer to home. It's the ongoing quarrel between my laptop and the media carts at the high school. One would think that hooking up a computer and a projector is simple. It is... when you have the right cord. If only I had gone with my instincts and mentioned that nothing was hooked up to the "computer" section on the projector. This little incident lasted through my fourth period class so I couldn't do what I wanted to do. Even plan B failed. I almost failed the patience test when the students kept me asking me questions that I had already answered, but God provided a tongue to bite... He's such a thinker. Looking back on today, I have to laugh. If technology were a person, I feel like he/she would jump from behind a corner and yell "November Fools!" and then start laughing like a possessed mummy.
This is why we need technology. It always keeps us guessing what will actually happen. I bet Sir Isaac Newton, Blaise Pascal, and Albert Einstein laugh (if they could) when their points about theories and laws are proven to be fallible. In theory, technology is reliable and it makes things faster... False. If there's a tech issue (which happens), there are no acceptable alternatives. It's called dependency. If I wasn't dependent on technology to show videos to the students, I could have avoided this exercise in patience.
I might be a less patient person if it weren't for technology... With that realization, I guess I should also point out that, thanks to technology, I'm writing a blog post from a laptop. So, thank you, Technology, for being the laughing mummy in my dreams and the enabler of so many healthy and unhealthy things. Our relationship will forever be bittersweet until you become perfect.
Saturday, November 6, 2010
Jack Frost brought his friends
Mornings are darker and the windshield is covered with a tenacious dust when I walk out of the apartment. It feels so early and maybe that is because I've stayed up later than I should have, but it's too late to fix that. There are students and papers and futures to deal with. I can't complain about the early hour anymore though, because, after 12 weeks of leaving my apartment at 6:45am, I can now leave at 7:20am. The prompted change is a long story so let's just leave it at that.
Yesterday, I didn't get to sleep in until 6. I got up at the old normal 5:35am becuase I had the privilege to go to a Foreign Language Teacher conference in Indianapolis with my supervising teacher. It was a great experience: it was as encouraging as much as it was intimidating. I was able to go to the session by Toni Theisen, the ACTFL teacher of 2009. Admittedly, one of the reasons I looked at the session more closely was because I saw she's from Loveland, Colorado. I am so glad that I went, though, because I had wanted ideas and guidance for using technology in the classroom. She had tons of stuff and I felt rather lost when she started throwing jargon around like "voki" or "toondoo." I always knew that I wasn't that technology savvy, but I didn't think I was that bad. Determined to prove myself capable, I came home and spent 8pm to 1:30am trying to figure out the voki tool. It shouldn't be that hard, but apparently I have a ways to go before I can use these great resources in the classroom.
One of the best experiences during the conference was being treated like a teacher. When people find out that you are a student teacher, they immediately treat you differently. It makes sense, but it gets old after a while... at least treat me like a first year teacher, please. This hierarchy is ridiculous. Anyways, I was paired with a Latin teacher in the technology session and it felt really good to be the creative one. Don't worry... I won't get a big head. I haven't taught Latin, but I took it and being creative with vocabulary and translations has got to be one of the biggest challenges a teacher can face.
I am so excited to try some of my new ideas out (as soon as I figure out the system that is educational technology, which will be a while considering my experience last night) but now it's starting to register with me... I won't be teaching these students for much longer. After this coming week, I have maybe two weeks before I start removing myself from the classroom. It's painful to think about. For over 10 weeks, I have been pouring myself into these students and I have grown to love every single one of them... even the ones who make me want to pull out my hair. I'm not looking forward to leaving them. I'm not looking forward to being a student in the classroom again. I failed at sitting still in the conference sessions yesterday. That never was a problem until I became a student teacher. Moving around the classroom and making large arm movements is what I do every day. That will look so different 3 months from now.
So, along with the frost and dark mornings, the season has brought nostalgia, the desire to curl up in blankets and watch Psych all day, and the desire to spend ridiculous amounts of money on cardigans and Pumpkin Spice lattes. Thankfully, student teaching makes me do something with my life, although I have found time for all of the above. It's kind of like my own magic trick. Just like backing the 18 passenger Post Office van up the library delivery dock driveway. One magic trick I have yet to master is the concept of time. The senior Education electronic portfolio is due at the beginning of December. I'm going to put myself out there and say I am no where near ready for this. To be fair, not many people probably are, they're just better at looking like they are. Kudos to them. I'll continue panicking, wasting hours of my life alternating between my new wikispace and the piclit and the other ideas that kick my butt. Thank goodness for an extra hour in my life tonight!
Yesterday, I didn't get to sleep in until 6. I got up at the old normal 5:35am becuase I had the privilege to go to a Foreign Language Teacher conference in Indianapolis with my supervising teacher. It was a great experience: it was as encouraging as much as it was intimidating. I was able to go to the session by Toni Theisen, the ACTFL teacher of 2009. Admittedly, one of the reasons I looked at the session more closely was because I saw she's from Loveland, Colorado. I am so glad that I went, though, because I had wanted ideas and guidance for using technology in the classroom. She had tons of stuff and I felt rather lost when she started throwing jargon around like "voki" or "toondoo." I always knew that I wasn't that technology savvy, but I didn't think I was that bad. Determined to prove myself capable, I came home and spent 8pm to 1:30am trying to figure out the voki tool. It shouldn't be that hard, but apparently I have a ways to go before I can use these great resources in the classroom.
One of the best experiences during the conference was being treated like a teacher. When people find out that you are a student teacher, they immediately treat you differently. It makes sense, but it gets old after a while... at least treat me like a first year teacher, please. This hierarchy is ridiculous. Anyways, I was paired with a Latin teacher in the technology session and it felt really good to be the creative one. Don't worry... I won't get a big head. I haven't taught Latin, but I took it and being creative with vocabulary and translations has got to be one of the biggest challenges a teacher can face.
I am so excited to try some of my new ideas out (as soon as I figure out the system that is educational technology, which will be a while considering my experience last night) but now it's starting to register with me... I won't be teaching these students for much longer. After this coming week, I have maybe two weeks before I start removing myself from the classroom. It's painful to think about. For over 10 weeks, I have been pouring myself into these students and I have grown to love every single one of them... even the ones who make me want to pull out my hair. I'm not looking forward to leaving them. I'm not looking forward to being a student in the classroom again. I failed at sitting still in the conference sessions yesterday. That never was a problem until I became a student teacher. Moving around the classroom and making large arm movements is what I do every day. That will look so different 3 months from now.
So, along with the frost and dark mornings, the season has brought nostalgia, the desire to curl up in blankets and watch Psych all day, and the desire to spend ridiculous amounts of money on cardigans and Pumpkin Spice lattes. Thankfully, student teaching makes me do something with my life, although I have found time for all of the above. It's kind of like my own magic trick. Just like backing the 18 passenger Post Office van up the library delivery dock driveway. One magic trick I have yet to master is the concept of time. The senior Education electronic portfolio is due at the beginning of December. I'm going to put myself out there and say I am no where near ready for this. To be fair, not many people probably are, they're just better at looking like they are. Kudos to them. I'll continue panicking, wasting hours of my life alternating between my new wikispace and the piclit and the other ideas that kick my butt. Thank goodness for an extra hour in my life tonight!
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