I attended a conference yesterday hoping that I would feel refreshed and rejuvenated so that I would start feeling better about work. I was not disappointed and the story written above is proof of that. After about 60 minutes of instruction, I was able to tell a story out loud, in HEBREW! Not only that, this morning, without looking at notes or anything, I wrote that 95 word story in HEBREW! HEBREW! Pretty amazing.
What's more, I'm confident that my story makes perfect sense and is free of grammatical and/or spelling errors. Pretty good for 60 minutes, if I do say so myself.
I already knew that the teaching method I use is powerful and the very best thing for my students, but I love coming back from a conference feeling so validated. And motivated. And excited to return to school to do my very best.
Some other important information I got from my workshop:
1. It takes more cognitive ability to process mathematical functions than it does to process language. Yet when adults say casually, "I took Spanish for 3 years in high school and I don't remember any of it", no one bats an eye. Would it be okay if that same adult said "I took math for 3 years and I can't add or subtract"? I think not. Yet many language teachers continue to use the same methods that don't work.
2. Laughing oxygenates the brain. A good chuckle can relieve you from DBS. Deflated Brain Syndrome.
3. No one teaches their children with direct grammar instruction. Yet children grow up and speak with near perfect grammar.
4. The affective filter correlates directly to success in second language acquisition. In other words, the better a student feels, the better the chances the student will acquire language in a classroom. Encourage success. Set them up to feel successful. Celebrate success. They will learn.
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