Day 22 – My PLN. This is a new term for me that I cannot believe I missed out on all of this time. Right now I have been using Twitter to search for new ideas. I have been blogging, also new, but I was hoping for some more advice. That’s ok though. I am interested in contributing to the #langchat discussions, however, I am not always familiar with the topic. Somehow, I have missed some important concepts and tools of teaching these past four years as a teacher. I am excited though to use these networks to grow and become a more proficient Spanish teacher so that I can get my students to reach proficient fluency as well.
Day 23 – I would love to meaningfully involve my school’s community in the learning of my classroom but I am not doing this currently. Last year I did have a website, but my students barely knew it existed even though it was on the board all year and I mentioned it every single day. Therefore, I have not started up a new classroom website just yet. I would like to try google classroom for my students though or another site. I am not sure which is best and will meet all of my and my students needs. I was using google sites last year. Any ideas for best class site?
Day 24 – I have been hearing more and more TCI and TPRS. While I thought these were strategies that I learned about in my foreign language education courses, apparently it encompasses more than what I already know. I work in a school where I think my students’ access to technology outside of school is limited, so right now I would rather focus on something with which I can see the results working in front of me. Flipped classroom sounds great but in this setting I know the students would never do the work outside of school unfortunately.
Day 25 – I want to see my students helping one another more in their interactions. I want them to only speak Spanish. When someone doesn’t know an answer, I want someone to give hints in Spanish to help their peer. I want them to use more circumlocution and not get discouraged and complain when they don’t understand every single word that is presented to them. I want them to be more positive and patient and QUIET so that they are receptive to instruction and learning. I still haven’t gotten the classroom management underway and it has been very very hard. I am not a brand new teacher, but I believe this is the worst I have experienced. I have been very discouraged. I want to use all of these new ideas to teach my students but I can barely teach some classes anything without them acting up and being disrespectful. I have gone over rules and procedures many times but it hasn’t helped. I spend each day staying a couple hours over calling parents and writing referrals. I really don’t know what to do, but I hope to make some improvements and it better be soon.
conexionesporcultura 
I hope things are looking better since you wrote this blog post… it is soooo hard to change districts and be dropped into a brand new educational culture. I can identify with some of what you wrote; seven years into my career I switched from a tech-rich school outside of Boston to a very tech deficient school outside of LA. I learned how to drink whisky that year… I think yoga is more healthy. 🙂
Anyways, TPRS saved my sanity. Personally I think it is very good for all students, but it is IDEAL for tech-deficient systems. I hope you can convince your school to send you to a training, the workshops are essential for learning the skills. Here is a link to Blaine Ray workshops, I noticed there is one in Pittsburgh (but not until February). There is one in Newark earlier. https://www.blaineraytprs.com/upcoming-workshops
LikeLike
Thanks for the comment. This school has technology, however, outside of school I don’t believe that all the kids have reliable access. I’m really struggling mainly with the classroom management here. It’s been extremely difficult. I was moved from a school that was in one of the richest neighborhoods in the city to one of the poorest. That’s not to say that where I was last year didn’t have any students from low income backgrounds, because it did.
As for the seminar, I’m definitely planning on going. I’ve gotten approval from my principal. I just hope I can make it until February. I’ve been looking at Ben Slavic’s blog which is where I saw your name mentioned. There’s just so much info so it’s a bit overwhelming. I’ve exchanged a few emails with him and decided to start slow, but if I can’t even get my kids to pay attention for 2 minutes it’s hard to move forward.
LikeLike