Bonjour! Salve! Hola! Ciao!
My name is Cheryl Bennett and I am starting a new endeavor. I am a French teacher from Indiana and have been teaching for 20 years. In that time, I have learned A LOT about teaching, about my students, and about myself.
For the first 15 years, I taught from a traditional textbook. I was glued to it and afraid of trying anything else. I would fight to keep this textbook. It was 15 years old! The pictures were outdated, the cultural information was outdated, and on and on. However, I knew that the word for "to have" was the same as it had been for centuries. I thought, "If it's not broke, don't fix it!"
The crazy thing was, I was MISERABLE, and so were my students. This process was definitely "broke." But trying something new is scary. I was afraid of the workload, I think, more than anything.
But then...
A friend of mine asked if I would like to attend a TPRS workshop over the summer. I thought, "Why not?" I can always add resources to my textbook. I'm down for some creativity. And the school was paying."
I had NO IDEA how life-changing this would be. I went from the conference to my superintendent's office to ask for new curriculum. Praise God (literally) for a good curriculum director. She was on board and willing to let me try. If you teach a World Language and are unfamiliar with TPRS, I highly recommend checking out Blaine Ray's site, the inventor, to learn more. The man is amazing! He has a sense of humor, is very creative, and...had walked in my shoes! He understood my struggles. He had been depressed and discouraged. He had seen students drop his class. He had had "the talk" with the principal. I benefited from his difficult experiences.
Maybe it's your cup of tea or maybe not. I can only speak about my personal experience.
So, what happened?
My students went from bored to engaged immediately. When things went a little dry, I could look in Facebook groups and find a new spin on TPRS pretty quickly. For the first time, we were laughing AND learning, at the same time. Maybe teachers shouldn't have to put on a show to keep kids' attention. The fact is, we all like to be entertained. When we are engaged, we are learning. And that part IS my responsibility.
I will never forget my poster child. We still talk about it. He came to class every day and slept. He was a good kid. I talked to his mom, and we tried to figure out a solution. I mean I really loved to talking to this kid, when he was awake. And quite frankly, I was pretty bored, too. I couldn't get frustrated with him. I was frustrated with myself.
When I changed processes between his French I and French II, I met a brand new kid. He LOVED it. He started to love French class. His humor came through while we were all learning. He caught on fast and even thought of French when he wasn't at school. I will never forget the day he walked into my classroom and said, "Ms. Bennett, how do you say 'think' in French? I was in my deer stand this weekend trying to make up a story in my head and I didn't have that word." When he was in French I, I never would have thought this conversation could happen.
So, where does that leave me today?
Well, now I want to create more materials for my class. Many materials for TRPS and comprehensible input have been created for Spanish. They are often translated to other languages as time and translators are available but French has been behind. We are starting to catch up. So I have found that this is a good opportunity to create on my own and to share what I have found.
I am passionate about using research to learn about the brain and how it acquires language. I am thrilled that I can tell you why these lessons and methods work.
So, join me in my journey. Share your resources and what you've learned with me. Maybe I can even help you!
-Cheryl, language learning lover
www.iheartlanguagelearning.com
cheryl@iheartlanguagelearning.com
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