I have now been teaching for 23 years, and it is still amazing how I feel every year I continue to learn more as I hone my craft. This past school year was no different as there were some new “old” challenges thrown at me that have happened about every 3 years when I teach a certain class. One would think that I would remember how to overcome these challenges, but due to a lack of continuously teaching this course, the ever-changing dynamics with regard to “normal” due to the pandemic, and because of a school building renovation – I seemed to forget reality from the pre-pandemic time of the 2019-20 school year. 

On one hand, I have a lot to say, and on the other hand, I don’t. If you have read any of my blog posts before (I’m even thinking back to 2018-2020) I probably said much of the same that I’m going to say in this series of posts. Some of it goes back to Teaching 101 and more of it goes to Teaching for Acquisition for world language proficiency. Ultimately, these are my reflective thoughts that tie together parts of my school year and some “AHA” moments that I have had this summer. Even though during an academic school year I am always tweaking and redoing and analyzing and reflecting, the summer break provides me the needed respite and time to really reflect on decisions made during the school year and to search out the right resources and materials to help improve for next year.  

For the past 10 years, I have been teaching in a public school with great resources and, like any teacher reading this, we have all endured changes, had teacher struggles, and have watched students change because of technology, school rigor and expectations, a global pandemic, and societal decorum. 

As an educator, I have had great accomplishments along the way, and have helped guide a great number of students toward improving their proficiency in Spanish. Our world language field and expectations are so different from my days in high school when I could be passive in classes; learning grammar and verb conjugations while reading and learning about cultures – it was good exposure that helped me realize the world was bigger than my working-class community, but it was so different from how I teach today and my expectations for students. 

This summer, I am reflecting a lot about teaching and learning; in fact, probably too much. If you saw my post about my attendance at MITTEN CI in April, I was grateful and taken aback by my choice to go see two of Mike Peto’s sessions. For me, as a world language trainer, using ADI / CI / Communicative Comprehension-Based strategies each day in my career, Mike was not teaching me anything new but I walked away from his sessions with something. I am going to work hard to try to articulate that something over the next few months. 

This school year, one class left me perplexed, confused, reflecting a ton, questioning myself, and many days at a loss. And yet, I was still experiencing great classes with my other four classes each day. During the school year, I do not have time to write on this blog and share my thoughts, and frankly, writing publicly is possibly too close for comfort at the time.  But, I have decided to write a bit about the struggle because I know many educators have similar experiences and I frame it all through the lens of the professional development I have sought out this summer.  

As humans and educators, we are all on our own journeys and, in many ways, each class we teach takes a different route or journey. This year one class made so many twists and turns that I got lost in the woods. So after seeing Mike’s sessions, he talked about not letting students change the route of class too much and how we need to hold true to the core values of teaching for language acquisition. He even articulated when he felt classes lose steam during the year and it is easy for us as teachers to veer too much away from the route, and all of  this clicked with me. He helped me diagnose a problem without me telling him there was a problem. Prior to attending his session, I had read that he was going to offer summer video classes teaching Brazilian Portuguese. I thought that this could be a fun way to learn a new language and the on-demand nature of watching the videos and completing some activities could work in my schedule. Then in person at the conference, I had two successful Portuguese lesson demos, and the something aspect from his words struck a chord with me, and at that point I realized how I wanted to spend my professional development hours during the summer.  

I quickly purchased his Master Class CI website subscription for the year. Not only would it give me some great resources but also the Portuguese videos coming out in July. With that subscription came a copy of Mike Peto’s guidebook: The Two Conversations Classroom: A Complete, Student-Centered Approach to Teaching a Second Language – and I was excited to read it. Now, I was not ready to read it in May trying to end the busy and overloaded school year, but I looked forward to reading it. 

In this series of posts, I will write about some “AHA” moments I had from reading his guide and others as I am experiencing his online Brazilian Portuguese classes.

“AHA” Moment #1 from Mike Peto’s Guidebook: the Golden Rule

After reading Mike Peto’s guide The Two Conversations Classroom: A Complete, Student-Centered Approach to Teaching a Second Language, I am ready to take a few of his strategies to heart as an educator. In truth, I am a successful teacher and my students are both acquiring and learning Spanish everyday on their journeys toward proficiency (again something so different from my high school Spanish days). But there is a reality and stress ridden task that I have had to endure for 4 non-consecutive years of my last 10: teaching level 1 Spanish at the high school level. From an acquisition standpoint, I love starting students from the ground up incorporating everything I train other educators to do, but the reality is that this class is tough and often includes many students who struggle academically. At any moment in a given class multiple students can have issues of focus, attention, reaction, decision making with regard to maturity, and any host of needs – somedays it feels like anything goes. Having only taught this class sporadically over the past 10 years, it really puts blinders on me as an educator, and I forget what it takes to make it work. Mike Peto’s book reminds me that how I want to be and how I have to be as an educator might not align. Even though I feel every year I’m incorporating so many “best practices and strategies” to help my students there are some fundamental core aspects that I am not doing to help all students. I typically start the school year trying to ensure that my students are enjoying class while reinforcing the rules but unfortunately that is not enough. As I sit back and reflect on this year’s Spanish I class, I think overall the year was okay but in no way was it a good experience for me or many students – everyday was a struggle. Mike articulates so well that “Classroom management requires strength of will.” Again, I don’t want it to sound like my students had a wasteful year but it was a struggle, and I do think there are some changes I can put into practice to help alleviate some of my concerns from this year. One thing that has resonated with me is that Mike recommends that “teachers start the school year with a very controlled, decidedly low-energy classroom. Don’t aim to be their most fun teacher; aim to be a respected adult who firmly enforces boundaries.” Even though I have read and heard similar ideas, it is hitting me now in a different way and I am ready to embrace or reembrace the notion.   

I am posting one of Mike Peto’s essays on his blog about Classroom Management. He details many of the ways he conducts a class for success in the ADI classroom. I will say the first thing that I will include in my practice will be using and posting his Golden Rule: “One Person Speaks, Everyone Listens.” I will also add fellow educator Brett Chonko’s “Raise your hand to speak” and “Look at the speaker.” It is typical practice in my class to raise your hand to speak but I see the value in the “look at the speaker” demand, which I have never included. As a teacher, I also have different ways that I require students to respond during class, and giving credit to Cécile Lainé, they have articulated three ways for student responses that I too would like to include with a better cue system via teacher gesturing and posters: “raise your hand to answer,” “choral answer (all students respond),” and “blurt out the answer.” These are all ways that I require and want students to respond in my classes too but am I direct enough? So through direct training and cues, these are all pieces that will help students do what is expected from me as the teacher in our communicative classroom.      

Of course, these rules do not change and/or fix a classroom community. It will take my consistency as a teacher to stop and point at these rules that will be displayed on my wall whenever one of them is not being done and to not accept anything but following the rule. I know consistency is key and I’ve even written about it on this blog before. Going back to my list of changes in students because of technology, school rigor and expectations, a global pandemic, and societal decorum – I think I have made excuses for my students over the past few years and justified some of their behaviors. In fact, students’ reactions, demeanor, and apathy, especially in Spanish 1/I, alway have me second guessing my approach. As Mike states, “Don’t let students choose their paths; allow only the path of acquisition.” Seeing him in April and reading his book have now provided me much insight even as a veteran teacher because feelings and student reactions can and have swayed me in the wrong direction. 

In order to continue loving my job, I think I need a shift in my novice level I and II classes. I need to reprioritize my expectations for my novice students as well as myself as an educator. In some ways, this might not be how I want to be as a teacher, but it is what my students need me to be and what they need me to do. In fact, it is possible that even reading reflection posts from 2018 and 2019 I may have included some of the same strategies but I feel my practice changed due to the crazy reality during and post-pandemic, and I am not sure I ever modified back to what I was trying to accomplish prior. 

I cannot write every piece of great insight in Mike’s guide but this was my first “AHA” moment that continues to define that something I felt in April.

Look out for my second post later this week.

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