It’s teacher appreciation week! It’s time to celebrate YOU! While I personally believe we should be celebrating you every day, I’ll take advantage to thank each and every teacher, official and unofficial, that dedicate their lives to this calling. Please understand that this emanates from a place of deep gratitude for the teachers who have engaged with my son but also with every other student in Shelby County Schools (SCS) and beyond. I feel deeply connected to our students and want nothing less for these children, and all children, that I want for my own son.

Not every person who serves as a teacher feels called but those of you who relate know the passion and dedication for which I am most grateful. I am grateful for your hard work. I am grateful that you spend countless hours creating awesome lessons and conveying content in a manageable way to our precious students. There are however a number of things for which I am grateful that often go unnoticed.

Thank you for the model you provide.

Yes I am grateful for the content and the instructional modeling you provide, of course! More explicitly however I am grateful for the model you provide our students on how to be a caring human being. Teachers are asked to play many roles to students these days and whether or not those roles are similar to or different form roles a hundred years ago matters not. Every day students enter our classrooms and have the opportunity to engage with educated professionals who sometimes have a bad day, have a lesson implode despite our best planning, who through it all demonstrate resiliency. You most often model the character traits we as parents want for our children: Kindness, Resilience, Tenacity.

I am grateful for the conflicts our students have in class and perhaps with you. These are opportunities for students to build tenacity and resilience while you wrap kindness around the firmness. I am grateful students learn that no one is perfect or has all the answers. I am grateful that you help them learn to make decisions and accept consequences, both good and bad. You teach so much more than content. Thank you for being willing to engage with every fiber of your being to help the generations to come explore, develop, fail, and rise to learn another day.

Thank you for being a constant learner.

I am often the most grateful to those teachers (humans) that are willing to reflect. I mean critically reflect. I am grateful when you do not have all the answers. Our children need examples of what do when they don’t have the answers. I am grateful when you get behind and find ways to do something better the next time. This is life. We are never perfect. Perfect doesn’t exist so thank you for being REAL. It is so easy to get caught up in the faux versions of lives as seen on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and beyond. Rarely is that the full story. When our kids are with you each day they see you as a model. What happens when that lesson goes south? What happens when the teacher makes a mistake? Having the grace to try again, to admit you made a mistake, that you don’t have all the answers and it is ok – THIS is to learn! There is no one method that solves all that ails education. Thank you for spending your free time learning new things, exploring pintrest boards, having coffee (or something stronger) with colleagues to explore how to improve and activity or unit. Thank you for continuing to evolve as a teacher and as a human. Thank you for sharing your learning with our children so they can see learning never ends. There is always another lesson in life sometimes it is about content other times about life.

I am deeply grateful to my teachers, my colleagues, who engage in learning with me. Who push me to think of things from another angle. Who at times follow me down the rabbit hole of a new project because we know that together we can push our students beyond the goals we have set. My heart runs over with gratitude for those who are fulfilled in their classrooms and are in this for the long haul. I am grateful for those of you with whom I’ve spent a decade. At the same time I am thankful for the small influence I may have had in helping a teacher who passed through. My goal is to par forward the kindness and lessons imparted by my mentors throughout my life.

Thank you for being present.

I think we all wake with the goal of making every day a great day! Some days it is and other days not so much. Whether it is the best day ever or the darkest day in a while, thank you for being present. Thank you for getting up everyday – even when every bone in your body screams DON’T DO IT- to be present for my child and all of our children. Thank you for being present when parents are singing your praises or are complaining. Thank you for being there for the faculty meeting, school play, concert, sporting event, field trip, fund-raiser, and everything in between. For any of the magic to happen, we must first show up. And we must keep showing up to build the trust upon which relationships with our students are built. It is through those relationships that the magic happens. THANK YOU for showing up.

At a time when it feels like everything you do is called into question and you are held uber accountable for everything except perhaps breathing, please know we see you. We appreciate you for who you are, what you offer on your best and even your worst days. While we may be on the path to proficiency, we are also all on the path to becoming better humans. Thank you for sharing your journey with our students. Thank you for caring enough to be a model for our students. Thank you for being a constant learner. Thank you for showing up. May you feel this week a fraction of the overwhelming gratitude that should be extended to each and every one of you. Thank you.

It’s been one of those really busy weeks, where I have been counting the days, hours, and minutes until the weekend. For some reason nothing seemed to work this week and everything was due at once. It’s nice to know though that I wasn’t alone and going through these blog posts reminds me that we are together: a family of educators. Hope you find these posts from “my family” as helpful as I did this week.

• The Empty Desk

  Being a language teacher is so much more than inspiring young learners to acquire a new language and explore new cultures and perspectives. Anyone that has spent some time teaching, knows that the “it’s all about relationships” mantra couldn’t be more true. This certainly hit home in this incredibly raw post by Spanish teacher Jessica Pederson dealing with a sudden loss in her classroom. What Jessica describes just might be the most important task you have as a teacher. While I hope that not every teacher has to experience this, it provides me with comfort to know that our students are in good hands.  Read Jessica’s post –>

• They couldn’t hear the word “no”

  This rich post from Spanish über-Blogger, Sara-Elizabeth Cottrell, is like getting a Buy-One-Get-One-Free post as she is reminded of one of her earlier entries she wrote addressing a level 1 teacher from the perspective of an AP teacher. Now that she is once again teaching level 1 and experiencing some unexpected challenges, those words from her past ring once again true. Sara-Elizabeth’ advice covers everything from using authentic resources, to using real-life contexts, and teaching idiomatic expressions. Read Sara-Elizbeth’ post –>

• A toe in the water

  If you are considering making changes in your teaching and helping your students move along towards higher levels of proficiency but don’t know where to start, then this post from Spanish teacher Brian Riordan might be for you. Sure, the beginning of the school year is often the easiest for big changes, but how about taking the time at the end of the school year to try something new. What do you have to lose? “I announced to the kids in Spanish 3 & 4 that there will be no more (explicitly-taught) vocabulary or grammar quizzes the remainder of the year.  I just couldn’t continue on the old way in good conscience.” Intrigued? Then you should read Brian’s post –>

• From the Path 2 Proficiency: Forge Ahead, Finish Strong

  “This time between Spring Break and the end of the school year may seem like Heartbreak Hill of the Boston Marathon.” If you are on of those teachers, who is counting the days until the end of the school year, then Spanish teacher, Paul Jennemann has an inspirational story that might make you want to make the best of these last few remaining days. Read Paul’s post –>

• From the Path 2 Proficiency: Make sure your students get F.E.D.

  Many of us understand that using rubrics is important and this week’s #langchat discussion brought out many great ideas and suggestions for doing so effectively. World language educator, Alyssa Villarreal, reminds us in her post about the true purpose of a rubric and shares how to close the feedback loop. Read Alyssa’s post –>

• From the Path 2 Proficiency: Finding Time in the Crunch

  The newest author in the P2P family, Spanish teacher Valerie Shull, provides some honest insights into how she tries to incorporate reflection into her planning process despite “a rapid fire class schedule”. In her post, she shares four specific steps that have allowed her to “assess how effective (or ineffective) my unit/lesson/interaction was, and think about what comes next.”  Read Valerie’s post –>

• From the Path 2 Proficiency: Fashion Forward

  Sure you have heard about the importance of using authentic resources. Sure have some lessons that are stale but you don’t know how to change them. Well, Spanish teacher, Rose Rhodes, felts the same and shared some ideas on how she effectively upgraded a lesson from last year using authentic resources.  Read Rose’s post –>

I like having new ideas and providing solutions. I like trying new things. I like changing. And I don’t like hearing excuses. This doesn’t mean I’ve not had my fair share of adversity; rather adversity, in part, has helped me forge ahead and maneuver through the situation to find a solution.

In my senior year of college, I only applied to two graduate schools, so when one rejected me and the other accepted me, I was on my way to Spain to study. Yet, halfway through my year-long stint abroad, I became extremely ill and had to withdraw from my program and move in with my parents because I had Guillain-Barré Syndrome and, subsequently, couldn’t walk for about a year and a half. I was in a wheelchair during that time and had to relearn to walk while using forearm crutches. (Can you imagine having to learn to walk at age 23?) Not one to sit by and let life happen, I re-enrolled in my undergraduate university–the one I had just left six months prior–and worked on an additional degree during the next three semesters, then returned to my graduate program during the summers.

I couldn’t just stay where I was–in my wheelchair at home alone during the day while my parents were at work–but I reflected on what I could do, what I wanted to do, and decided to forge ahead with what I had. Thanks to the love and support from my parents, friends, and classmates, I was able to finish both programs strong and recover.

Because of my own story, I don’t like to maintain the status quo in my classroom, nor do I accept many excuses from my students about not wanting to stretch beyond what they currently do. We never know what we can do until we try, but so often, students are discouraged from trying new things because teachers say it might not fit exactly with the curriculum or the students themselves might even fail. What I want to do in my classes is reflect on what has worked well in order to maintain those tasks or procedures, but also reflect on what I could do to improve in order to ensure my students are not only making gains in their proficiency levels, but also able to learn.

To that end, I’ve taken more time this year to reflect on my practice with my students, which can be a raw experience because teenagers will tell it like it is no matter what, but in creating an open space for my students to share how they felt about the assignments without judgement, they freely spoke about how they did plus what they needed from me in order to improve. As I took some time to do this and reflect on my lessons, I felt like I could double back and work with my students to build into the instruction and practice time in order for them to yield greater results.

In taking more time to reflect with my students, they feel empowered to try new things in the language because they feel like they have more of a stake in their own learning. But if I open myself up to students’ opinions, how can I tell if the students’ feedback is valuable or not? How can I ensure my students feel like I’ve listened to them? How will they feel if I don’t do what they suggest?

• Take notes. I need my students to see that I care about what they have to say. Plus it serves as a record where I can go back and track things that are repeated–either in the section for what worked well or the section where I can improve.
• Ask questions. Just like any interpersonal speaking task, I ask follow up questions: What do you mean? What would that look like? How could you connect this to what we’ve learned before? What else might interest you?
• Find your top 2 things you’d like to change. Sometimes I feel like a new teacher because I feel like I need to scrap everything and start over. But, just focus on the two things you’d like to improve on and start there. You can always add in more things as you feel more comfortable, but only after you have a good handle on what you chose to focus on initially.
• Track your changes. Use the TELL Framework for Planning to help you as you plan the next task or assignment. Match that with your goal of what you wanted to change, and see how it worked. Did it work the way you wanted it to? Did your students achieve the learning objective? How can you tell your students are progressing even further?
• Continue to reflect. Just like we give our students feedback to help them grow, let the students continue to give you feedback on your lessons. They are the experts at what is most relevant to them and can tell you how to best reach them. Merge their opinions with your best teaching methods, and you’ll find your students are more engaged.

This time between Spring Break and the end of the school year may seem like Heartbreak Hill of the Boston Marathon, where we almost reach the end, but it just seems impossible to continue one more step. However, just put one foot in front of the other, gather your supporting friends and colleagues, and forge ahead to finish strong!

Image Credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/jayneandd/4450623309/

It was a busy week on the Path to Proficiency blog that took a very reflective turn. Four new posts, including a new author, that shared some vulnerabilities and reminded me of the human side of teachers. I’ve been saying for years, I often know how effective a teacher is by their reflections. Many of the most effective teachers are often also the most reflective teachers. Blogging certainly is one way of reflecting on your practice and perhaps even processing your own reflections. I’m thankful for teachers who have chosen to share that important process with us publicly.  Here are the reflections that caught my attention this week.

• EPIC Telenovela PBL Unit & Final Exam

  Spanish teacher, Laura Sexton, recently attended the TELL Collab Nashville and shares how the EPIC Growth Plan model is now playing out in her classroom as she prepares to close the school year on a high note, developing a PBL Unit for her students. Read Laura’s post –> 

• The “Level Up” Writing Workshop Class…

  Allowing students to provide peer feedback on their work can be a daunting task that requires a carefully designed structure to ensure it truly supports the performance & feedback process. Japanese teacher, Colleen Lee-Hayes, shares how she is facilitating this process so that her students can become better writers.  Read Colleen’s post –> 

• You’re not a jar of Nutella

  In line with many of the reflective posts of this week, Spanish teacher, Jessica Pederson (aka Señora Upton), provides some words of encouragement to teachers who may be questioning if they are a good teacher or not.  Read Jessica’s post –>

• From the Path 2 Proficiency: Why Not Now?

  In her first post on the Path 2 Proficiency blog, Montana German teacher, Lisa Werner, provides the perspectives of a veteran teacher who is trying forge her own path and asking herself: “why do I, the veteran teacher, feel less confident to share? Why does the simplicity of proficiency continue to seem so complex to me?” Her post also introduces the fascinating term of “proficiency natives” and in my mind is a must read this week. ‪Read Lisa’s post –>

• From the Path 2 Proficiency: Oh, the Places They Will Go …

  World Language educator, Alyssa Villarreal, shares an inspirational experience about student empowerment from her life and provides an important reminder that “We do not know what the future holds for our students”. Implications for what that means for our role as language teacher are part of this empowering reflection.  ‪Read Alyssa’s post –>

• From the Path 2 Proficiency: Spark Forgiveness

  Spanish teacher, Paul Jennemann shares his reflections after attending the TELL Collab in Nashville earlier this month,where he realized that “it becomes really easy for us teachers to start to feel bad about everything we haven’t done for our students–not given enough corrections, not given them enough authentic resources, not taught them all new vocabulary in context.” Always an optimist however, Paul also provides readers with some important advice in response to his thoughts. ‪Read Paul’s post –>

• From the Path 2 Proficiency: The Struggle of Teaching Level 1

  No one said the Path 2 Proficiency would be easy, so in her latest courageous post, Spanish teacher Jaime Basham, reflects on her struggles as a Level 1 teacher. Read Jaime’s post –>

Disclaimer: I’m going to share a very vulnerable confession, which as a teacher is extremely dangerous because it puts me in a perceived “weak” position.  Although I confess that I struggle teaching Spanish 1, I choose to view it as a strength because it helps me evaluate what I’m doing, how I’m doing it, and what I can do to improve.  For any other educator out there, I would encourage you to do the same.

During my first few years of teaching, my mentor teacher created my schedule so that I taught only Spanish 2.  Being that I was fresh out of college, I appreciated that she wanted to help me hone my teaching skills and classroom management.  As I became more comfortable teaching Spanish 2 and the proficiency targets and descriptors, Spanish 1 was added to my plate.  I was so excited.  The growth in Spanish 1 is magical.  They literally start with nothing and you get to see their growth.  As an educator this is very empowering.  It is also very empowering for the students to think about their metacognition.  For the past few years, I have drawn some conclusions about Spanish 1.  Somedays, I feel like I am the most effective teacher in the universe and others, I feel like an epic failure.  It is hard to pinpoint exactly why my classes are or are not successful, but these are my humble observations thus far:

• The Student: Spanish 1 students are unique.  Some want to be there to learn.  Some are there because their parents are forcing them into a language because it is their one regret from their teenage years.  Some are forced into the class by the counselor, mostly because there is no other appropriate place for them.  Some have already decided that they are linguaphiles and want to add yet another language to their repertoire.  All the varied learning styles and IEPs is exhausting.  I find that I spend way more energy on my Spanish 1s than I do my other classes.  Why?  I have my lessons planned out to an exact T, because otherwise the slightest distraction takes them far, far away from our learning objective for the day.
• The Curriculum: Perhaps, some of the reason why I feel so exhausted and that a tornado has gone through my room is because of the curriculum.  Are they challenged enough?  Is their behavior a direct correlation to the lack of rigor in the curriculum?  Do we “dumb it down” for the Spanish 1 students because we are afraid we’ll scare them away?  This is why thematic units are so important, as is connect the content to prior knowledge of the students.  Spending 6 weeks on numbers is completely inappropriate.  Change the task to make it more authentic, but still incorporate the numbers.  To test this theory I bought this program from Priscilla Russel, Eugenia Porello and Paris Granville from Language Shaping Solutions called Mitos del mundo azteca.  I collected data and anecdotal observations about how well my students performed and how they could recount the entire legend of El sol y la luna.  It was a challenge, in addition to words in Spanish, it contains Nahuatl words. Like most language teachers I knew that in theory, thematic units were good for students, but in actual practice the evidence was glaring.  Sometimes, we pay lip-service to strategies and pedagogical practices without actually using them in our own classrooms and this was my “Ah-ha!” moment as an educator.  Since this revelation, I have strived to write thematically themed units with my colleagues.  We still struggle to incorporate this pedagogy in all of the Spanish 1 curriculum, and I find that my students are more complacent and/or misbehave more in the lessons that aren’t linked to thematic units.
• The Teacher:  Maybe it’s me? Perhaps, I become too impatient with them when they aren’t able to infer meaning with as much ease as my upper level students.  Perhaps, I need to be better about the behaviorism part of class; teaching them commands in the target language and how the general flow of the classroom works.  I feel as though I repeat it a lot, but I could always improve this.  I think I do a good job outlining the expectations, but perhaps I need to be even more explicit.  Also, I become discouraged and maybe my inner perfectionist gets too loud.

Whatever the factors may be, I do know that my students are learning and they are able to express it in their own individual ways.  For now, I am happy with that and I will continue to soul search and work on being a better me.  Do you have any solutions to teaching level 1 successfully?

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Image Credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/anjan58/4894219427/

I am so excited I attended the TELL Collab Nashville, held at Lipscomb University’s Spark Center! It was an energizing way to connect with passionate language teachers, to enjoy some of Nashville’s great local music, and to reflect on my own teaching over this school year. We’ve come a long way.

In the midst of stretching our minds and growing our students and reflecting on our practice, it becomes really easy for us teachers to start to feel bad about everything we haven’t done for our students–not given enough corrections, not given them enough authentic resources, not taught them all new vocabulary in context. In addition, it is just as easy to think about all the methods we’ve done that we are having challenged–teaching grammar explicitly, giving heaps of vocabulary lists, having students memorize so many verb tenses. Because we teachers are often over-achievers, this kind of thinking can really put a damper on our end of the year, so instead of feeling invigorated at the end of the year, our classes turn more into babysitting with the hopes of starting afresh in the fall.

Forgive yourself.

We teachers are good at sharing ideas, so the TELL Collab was such an igniting way to spark new ideas and fresh thinking. We had several Hot Seat sessions where there were some really challenging questions about our teaching methods look so different, and we even pioneered live videos on the TELL Project Facebook page! So, after an inspiring weekend of learning and sharing, the temptation may be to return to class the next Monday and want to turn over the desk in frustration because you have to start all from scratch with everything you’ve learned.

Stop. Forgive yourself.

We all have worked tremendously hard this year at making sure our students knew more of the target language than they did when they started in the fall. We all have worked tremendously hard this year at ensuring our students were prepared to speak more and engage more with other target language speakers. We all have worked tremendously hard this year with all of the tools we had, and thanks to the open sharing of the TELL Collab, we have even more tools at our disposal. But remember, we must choose the right tool for the right job.

One thought that was floating around the TELL Collab Nashville to help us remember this idea of forgiveness and forging ahead was that expert chefs start with perfecting one plate at a time, then move on to another. They don’t try to perfect everything at once. With that in mind, there were several suggestions to start piloting something new in one class, then try another class, and then another. One thing I’ve done this week–a full week after the TELL Collab–was to ask my classes what worked well and what I could do to improve. This was a profoundly rewarding experience because as hard as I have been on myself this year, my students recognized great personal growth, and they really understood that they were working towards greater proficiency in Spanish. But not stopping there, I know that there are some things that would make their learning experience better, so I want to improve. I know I won’t be able to implement everything they suggest, but I can work one making some things better to add to my toolbox. I like to pilot some things in the last term of the school year in order to iron out some kinks before rolling out a new procedure or using a new tool in the fall.

Over a lunchtime conversation last week, I put my head in my hands and sighed. “Man, TELL Collab. Why you gotta open my mind so much?” because Laura Sexton (@sraspanglish) was pushing my thinking about homework choice, digital badges, and student portfolios, so I began thinking of all the things I could do to push my students to track their growth. (Laura got to seat in the Hot Seat during one session, by the way.) That’s the kind of inspiration and free-thinking that comes out of a space devoted to sharing new ideas and pushing professionals in their work. It is probably just as much work to reflect on what we do as teachers as it is to plan a lesson and implement it. And that reflection is definitely hard work. But it’s worth it. And rewarding.

Remember, forgive yourself, and push forward.

I could wait another day to write this. It’s an incredibly beautiful day outside, a truly beautiful spring day in Montana. I could wait until I’ve read those essays, typed up that report, found those fantastic resources for my unit that have until now been evading my most clever googling. After I’ve accomplished all that -or not- I could effortlessly justify waiting until tomorrow or next weekend. There’s always going to be enough time next weekend, right?

But now is good. More than good.

The past few days were filled with great professional development. Scratch that. The past few days were filled with professional inspiration. One day was spent with our district’s fifteen middle and high school language teachers and Thomas Sauer. Not his first visit, hopefully not his last, and such a valuable opportunity to continue our conversation with him on our collective and individual paths to proficiency. Add to that an additional day and a half that he shared with our state organization, taking teachers from each end of this expansive state on their first steps of the path. Invaluable.

And so I’m taking the challenge (thank you, Thomas) to put down my own words as an opportunity to explore why I’ve been so reticent for so long to do.

Here goes: I haven’t felt like I was good enough yet.

Funny thing is, I don’t think that would have been as true during my first 15 years or so of teaching. I felt fairly confident at that time that I was on track, that I was doing all I could for my students and doing it the right way. And then some four years ago our department was encouraged and given permission by our administration to become “pockets of innovation”, to implement, if it existed, performance-based, proficiency oriented language instruction in our district. Boy, did it exist, but what a journey. But that’s for another blog post.

Four years down the road, I feel so much more empowered as a language educator. What I see my students doing with the language thrills me.

So why do I, the veteran teacher, feel less confident to share? Why does the simplicity of proficiency continue to seem so complex to me? Are my years of experience a part of my insecurity?

I observe the younger colleagues in my department, the “proficiency natives”, step into the classroom without having to translate their approaches to teaching from the well-worn, well-meant yet ineffective practices of the past into an approach that is so obviously superior. I envy their ability not to get lost in the translation of then and now and be native speakers in the language of proficiency. Proficiency is the only goal they’ve known as a teacher, and I’m jealous. I want that energy, that abundance of ideas, that youthful courage to try, succeed, maybe crash and burn sometimes but always have the ability, smiling, hopeful, to get back up and try it another way.

So I’ll start by identifying the single thing I have that they don’t, what I know to be the thing that’s holding me back most of all. It’s my challenge, not theirs, and one I need to face… the ability to fall back on the “old way” in those moments of panic and lack-of-planning. I can always pull a grammar lesson or a filler activity out of the air. And that becomes my crash and burn moment, the one that leaves me feeling discouraged and remorseful. I know better. I know that more careful planning can prevent it. It happens less often now than a year ago, less often this semester than last and realizing that helps me feel more hopeful. I guess I just didn’t think I’d still be learning how to teach so late in my career. I’m not proud of it, but sometimes I resent it. Veteran teachers are supposed to have the answers, have it figured out. But I feel like I have just as many questions, just as many things to figure out -if not more – than the youngest members of my department. Something’s up with the natural order here. It shouldn’t be this way.

But I’m so thankful that it is, thankful that I’m still learning and growing as an educator. And, when I finally get over myself, I’ll likely find that my perspectives and lessons learned are as valuable as anyone’s.

I may never feel like I’m good enough at all this.

I may always feel like I’m behind the “proficiency natives” in my department.

But for today, knowing that I’m doing all I know how to do at this time to give my students the opportunity of walking out of my classroom able do something with German they were unable to do when they walked in is enough. Doing my best. Not perfectly. But now, at least, willing to share that journey, even if I am the veteran teacher who’s still trying to figure it out.

The  sun is a little lower in the sky. It’s still a beautiful spring day. Now’s a good time for that report and those essays, but I think I’ll take a walk first.