Becoming a Better Teacher

I recently went to the AVID Summer Institute in Dallas.  AVID is (as most things I've encountered since moving to Texas) an acronym, and it stands for "Advancement Via Individual Determination."  It's a great program for those middle-of-the road students who, with adequate support, could be A or B students.  This year marks the 30th year of the program, and it is an achievement worth celebrating.

I must say, in learning more about AVID, I wasn't surprised by any of the activities, really.  I even knew of the research they stemmed from and could see that in how they were structured.  I do, however, think AVID is one of the best systems I've seen for disseminating effective, research-based activities and systems to the population of practicing teachers.  One issue I've noticed, specifically in the field of foreign language education, is the gulf between the body of researchers and those who are actually doing the teaching in our schools.  AVID has expanded to have specific "strands" for subject areas; you learn with other teachers of your subject how to implement AVID strategies in your classroom (i.e., teaching note-taking, levels of questioning, and utilizing graphic organizers, etc.).  Essentially, I spent 4 hours a day for a week with other foreign language teachers learning about these activities and even practicing them as a group.  And what an experience it was to network and discuss with other educators.

I'll be teaching Spanish I again next year, but adding Spanish II to the mix.  I look forward to the coming school year, but I must say I'm getting a little tense about having activities and such ready for the start of term.  As of about July 20, I'm going to be spending a lot of time in my classroom preparing things.  I just have to move and pass a certification test between now and then.  Wonderful.

School Fun

Teaching has some pretty awesome perks, a few of which you'll never find a match for in other fields. My favorite of these is most certainly student doodles. I recall spending an entire class period doodling at times, simply because it actually helped me focus. I even told some of my teachers that because I was afraid they would think I was rude. I have started taking pictures of my students' doodles, and at this point I have accumulated quite a collection...

The Mutant looking octopus :[

The elaborate...anime warrior-ess?

A collection of lyrics:

An elaborate athlete:

A reference to the mustache I sometimes wear while I greet students in the hallway between classes:

And my personal favorite that I would love to have made into a T-shirt, the I ♥ Spanish Octopus:

Awesome.

Hello hello

It has been a while since I posted anything on here, mostly because I've been going at a breakneck pace since school started. Even though I've worked 12 hours in one day on more than one occasion, I must say...

I love teaching high school.

High schoolers are nuts. Think about it, they have exponentially more hormones and energy than they know what to do with, and we're asking them to sit in a classroom for 90 minutes with 25--28 of their peers (who are also nuts) and chill out while they learn. Ha! Right. I teach Spanish I, so in addition to having the normal craziness of high schoolers, I have a lot of students who are there only to fulfill their language requirement, not necessarily because they are dying to learn Spanish. And I have a lot of freshmen/sophomores. Essentially, calling the range of maturity and motivation in my classes broad is an understatement.

But finding a way to make it work is challenging, and I'm always up for a good challenge. My goal for this year is that the ~180 students I teach leave my class prepared for Spanish II--and that their education will not reflect that I am a first year teacher. So far, I have learned quickly and constantly, things like having "sponge" activities ready for when 2nd period inevitably finishes the lesson 15 minutes before all my other classes. Or how much note-taking the kids can take before they zone out. And how much they don't enjoy note-taking in general.

I would have to say the most important lesson I have learned in the classroom is to keep it fun. Especially with the variation of motivation among my students, this is vital. But not only for the sake of their learning, but for the sake of my sanity. When my students have fun, I have fun and giggle with them. When I have more fun, I love my job even more. Friday we played a game with vocabulary, and I actually overheard a student say, "This is the most fun game I have ever played in a class before." My day was made by that comment, and I left school Friday energized, despite my lack of rest. Note-taking and grammar are inevitable parts of learning a language, but there has to be something to keep the kids interested. And it will work for some of them more than others, but it will give them a positive view of your class for the effort. And it will let you have fun with them, which is a great way to build a relationship with students.

I'm a rookie, but learning. I love being a teacher. Just watch out when I have on my sombrero...

Wow

I had forgotten what real life was like. --And I don't just quite yet know it either, but I have lately started to feel the relief that it is about to start again. I have had a love/hate relationship with grad school for the past two years, mostly because I have tried to squeeze far too much into too little time. But today I received the email that my graduation application had been approved. And I'm writing the conclusion to the thesis I've been working on all summer. As of August 17, I will officially be a Master of the Arts, as awarded by one of the top-10 graduate programs in education in the country. Thank you, Texas, for a rigorous education.

On top of the relief of finishing a demanding chapter of my academic career, I was offered (and accepted) my first teaching job last week. I am a high school Spanish teacher, and I am flooded with all the excitement and terror that go along with that. I am thrilled by the opportunity to teach. And from what I hear, Cedar Park High School is a great place to work. Jeff bought me roses and we went to The Alamo Drafthouse (our favorite date spot) to watch a movie to celebrate the occasion. We met up with our good friends Christina and Geoff for additional merry-making.

Oh, and I finally legally changed my name today (added my new last name, moved my old one to the middle, effectively giving me four names and the longest name in history), and I will be getting my first out-of-home-state license made tomorrow.

Aaaaand Tanner graduated from puppy school last week.

Isn't he great?

So there. Life is grand.

Thoughts on Culture in Education in America

"When should culture be taught?

Culture should be taught when we have students to teach."

-Ned Seelye, Teaching Culture: Strategies for Intercultural Communication (1974)

In researching for my Master's Report, I'm currently reading the above-quoted book, and I found one of his points necessary to share.

Though Seelye specifically works as a Spanish language teacher and discusses the teaching of culture in a foreign language classroom, he advocates the incorporation of cultural knowledge into all our courses in education and as early as possible.  He acknowledges the teacher's concern with how this can be done (i.e., "How would I even teach that, assuming I had time?"), but emphasizes that teaching culture is about equipping students with skills to study, inquire, and relate with other cultures, rather than with information (trivia-type facts) about other cultures.  "While a convenient place to begin learning about the target culture is in our foreign language classes, culture must be taught systematically in addition to purely linguistic concerns. ...[J]ust as culture cannot be ignored in foreign language classes the role of language in human thought cannot be ignored in social studies classes that aspire to develop intercultural communication skills."

I think Seelye's point about including intercultural skills in all subjects would clearly be an effective change in our schools, but I think editing our views and practices in foreign languages could have drastic and positive effects, as well.

I've spoken with many people who wish their children had the opportunity to study languages in public school as early as kindergarten or elementary school.  It seems that generally people assume that learning languages that early is the "best" way to do it (there's research that indicates advantages to children and others to adults, so whatever your age, you have skills that will help you greatly), and I wonder if we might be able to begin with our children by teaching language with an emphasis on intercultural communication.  In this way, students would progress through their early years of school with this recurring theme of cultural curiosity and understanding that would not only be a healthy social change for us in the U.S., but would also be an amazing way of teaching our students to use critical and independent thinking skills.  Not to mention it would provide us with an opportunity to learn how to use the metric system, which to this day eludes me; I wish I had been taught to think in both Metric and U.S. customary systems.  --That's a personal motive, of course.

But if we seriously considered the benefits that exist for teaching our students foreign languages from primary school through college, we would be astounded.  One problem we have is that our timeline for learning a language is skewed; taking a language for two years does not guarantee that you will be an "intermediate" level learner.  We don't teach English (or any other subject) that way, so why would we teach other languages in such a rushed manner?  Teaching languages long-term throughout school would allow students to reach near-native proficiency by the time they leave public schools.  Multi-lingual, globally conscious, culturally sensitive graduating classes from our high schools would go on to college and the world to make strong, qualified, intelligent leaders.  Why would we not want to seize this opportunity?

I don't foresee these types of changes in the U.S., though they would certainly have positive and lasting effects on future generations.  Other countries recognize the benefits of multilingualism.  I only hope we can someday recognize them, too.