To Blog, or Not to Blog?-that is the question. Yes, this has been my question for many years. I certainly did not join this train early in the blogosphere world but now “I’m ready” to join the great company of all of the world language bloggers from whom I have learned so much. This new professional goal is going to challenge me to allow myself the time to sit down and write.
I really love to reflect and for all that know me, you know I enjoy engaging in discussions about teaching, acquiring and learning languages, and searching for the best and better ways to help and reach students. For those of you who have leant a kind ear to my process (and rambling) in the past, thank you – and now everyone can experience it – just in written form.
I have been so fortunate to have amazing professional communities that have all helped me develop as a teacher. These communities and fellow educators have all provided support, wisdom, guidance, and new ideas that have helped me put together my “Mosaic of World Language Teaching.”
As I have thought about my process and my way – my way of life and teaching – I am (and have always been since I was a child) a collector. I have many collections and together these collections represent who I am, what I’ve seen, and where I’ve been. My “Mosaic of World Language Teaching” is no different. I have been teaching Spanish since I was in high school. During the summer of my Jr. year, I was hired by a family to re-teach Spanish I to their student who struggled all year. For a daily $6 stipend for six weeks, I quickly learned what it meant to be a language teacher in 1998. We translated, conjugated, and worked through vocabulary lists (all generated by me on my fancy Pentium computer). My goal was to help him learn enough to not sink in Spanish II (and he did) but at the time I really did not think about communication. I also tutored at my college alma mater, Miami University. Soon after that as a 21-year-old teacher, I was given a great opportunity to teach mid-year at a small, all-girl college prep school. My time at the Andrews School and now, Andrews Osborne Academy was a 12-year job or frankly, way of life, which provided me the space to grow and flourish as both a person and an educator.
I had so many growth opportunities in that environment that have all become a part of my “Mosaic:” teaching three iterations of AP Spanish Language and Culture, teaching five preps a day, developing courses around Spanish/Hispanic Film and Civilization, learning about social justice education, running diversity and anti-oppression workshops for students, traveling around the world with students, putting together International Days, and so many countless others.
Within all of these new opportunities, I was able to do two important things I feel were crucial to my overall sentiment as a fulfilled teacher. First, I was able to incorporate many of my own passions and interests into my daily world, and with regard to curriculum and teaching methods. Second, I was able to make changes and do what I needed to do in order to meet the needs of each group of students. Now I will say that at times my job was quite overwhelming and sometimes it was too much, but from it, I know I grew quickly, and I am the teacher I am today because of it. The whole experience (and the past three years in my public school) has provided the pieces of my mosaic and together these pieces have all defined “My Mosaic of World Language Teaching.”
I do not believe that there should be a one-size fits all approach to any educational program, method, or curricular sequence. I believe teachers should have a solid understanding of standards and their content, a yearly allotment of time and money for professional development, and a reflective mind-set that will challenge them to teach in ways that will meet the needs of all of their students.
As an educator, this is what I have done and it has led me to where I am today. Yes, I am a teacher who uses lots of Comprehensible Input and TPRS in my classes because it is what I found has allowed me to stay in the target language as much as possible and what has proven to help students communicate while showing long-term retention of Spanish. In 2006, I was sent to the Learning and the Brain Conference (https://www.learningandthebrain.com/) and although the conference was not about world language teaching, the concepts and brain-research jogged my memory about my prior knowledge of TPRS. In 2007, I took a leap of faith with TPRS and worked through great and some not-so-great lessons but in the end I was seeing results with ALL my students, many of whom in the past were not having success.
And even though I can be associated with many of the titles under my name, I feel most importantly I am a 21st Century World Language Teacher who works to help students acquire language and build student proficiency. I understand and like working with ACTFL’s five C’s and I enjoy the process of designing units with themes and essential questions. Plus as a collector, of ideas, realia, and resources, I know that my three filing cabinets worth of files, hundreds of books, and all of my TCI/TPR/TPRS trainings have all played a part in creating “My Mosaic of World Language Teaching” and more importantly my ART as a teacher.
As I begin my journey on this blog amongst such great company of other world language bloggers, I have a personal goal of one post per month. I hope you are able to take an idea from a post or possibly a resource I’ve shared and use it as a piece of your teaching mosaic or to inspire a new one. Thanks for spending a Sunday in the Park with Gary as bit by bit, I’m putting it together.
