Thorns: last night after school I had 3 pins that were holding some wrist ligaments together removed. It was an outpatient, fairly minor procedure, but it still hurt (still hurts) and I had a full day of teaching today. I hadn't really counted on the loss of the meager functionality that I had in my wrist this morning, so it was especially frustrating. Socks and zippers are beyond my skill set at the moment, so my husband had to zip me in my jacket and I had to keep wearing it until my morning duty was over. Also, I couldn't put my hair in a bun, so all day, my hair was in my face. Grrr.
Roses: a mother of a former student mentioned that in parent-teacher conferences, her child's Spanish teacher was very complimentary of his preparation and skill. Another student told a much younger kindergarten kiddo "You will love Spanish in middle school, Señora is the best."
Finally, after asking one class to work on a challenging on-line assignment, I asked them to reflect. I have noticed that many of my students, for whatever reason, are so afraid of "getting it wrong", no matter what "it" is, that they can't do anything without step by step hand holding. Throughout this assignment, I kept asking them again and again to persevere and risk writing something down that was incorrect. When I finally called it quits and we were in a circle, the students who had the most difficulty showed a great deal of self-awareness about their need to grow- to take risks, to try, to get it wrong. Other students kindly, sweetly, shared their strategies for succes, and it was a really neat moment.
Nope, it wasn't TPRS, it wasn't comprehensible input. It was a great discussion about our school's essential attributes, and I would argue that there is value in that.
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