Choice and Consequence

Yesterday evening I gave a three-minute "comment" at my board meeting to try to make a case for protecting students, staff, and faculty, while slowing community spread, by maintaining digital learning until scientific data shows the time is correct for opening schools. It is hard to fit all of that into three minutes. I have embedded and linked a video of my speech below, and beneath that is a full transcript of the speech for the hearing impaired or those who prefer to read.

View on YouTube Here

Thank you for hearing me. My son is a Gwinnett senior this year, and he has worked very hard to create his perfect senior year. Starting in his Freshman year, he has taken extra classes so that he could create a schedule with room for two musical courses, Latin, and an environmental engineering course that he has been excited about since January. Seeing his senior year ruined is enraging. My son has repeatedly made hard choices to arrive here.

You have made choices to arrive here too. Some have made me proud—such as the bus-based food distribution program—and some have shamed me. Throughout the entirety of the summer, you chose not to address the county’s virtual infrastructure so we could teach digitally with success. You chose not to purchase enough chromebooks for students without home devices to provide equal access to digital learning. You chose to sit and hope that instead of increasing, the cases of Covid would decline, and you could simply open the schools.

You chose inaction.

And you chose to justify your inaction with two-month old surveys, outdated research, pandemic advice from an OB/GYN, bully tactics, and an increasingly incredulous obliviousness of the experiments already running in Paulding and Cherokee County.

By opening schools, you are making a new choice. A choice to ignore the current science. A choice to ignore the CDC’s recommendations for—not even the “best-case scenario,” as it is worded in your own reopening plan—but the bare minimum for safely reopening. A choice to put teachers and their families at risk. A choice to put bus drivers and school staff at risk.

But most importantly, and the reason I cannot comprehend how you can claim to care about the well-being of the students you govern, this is a choice to put children at risk. A choice that will result in child illness.

Yes, there is risk in everything. But there is a difference in driving a car with the knowledge I might someday be in an accident and driving a car knowing today is the day.

Statistics are clean. They are faceless. But know that in this room are people who have lost family members to Covid-19. Look at our faces and tell us you choose us as your sacrifice. You choose our families.

You choose our children.

My son’s senior year should have been his best. But I choose his life over his convenience and momentary happiness. I choose people over politics. My hope is you can choose the same.

Thank you.

10 Quick Ideas for a New Year

I thought I'd share some ideas and questions I've been working on this year.

First... some reflective questions for the new year that I have been pondering. I'd love to hear your thoughts on them!

1. How am I going to foster community this year in my classroom?
2. How can I turn my space into our space?
3. How can I encourage play and risk taking with the language?
4. How can I ensure everyone's safety?
5. How can I engage my students' interests in class?
6. What privileges do I enter the room with this year?
7. What struggles are my students facing?
8. How can I create a space where they feel safe and free to explore?
9. How can I make a better pot of coffee?
10. How can I ensure I take care of myself this year?

And, secondly some quick ideas for the new year!

• Put up a graffiti wall for students to decorate (courtesy of Christopher Emdin).
• Share about yourself. Whatever you ask students to do, you should also be willing to do. 
• Try out new ideas (AKA future blog posts ;) )
• Always offer alternatives for students who need more time to process or who have disabilities/are disabled. 
• Bring something you love into the classroom.
• Try the Fly Swatter Game :) 
• Consider adding aspects to games that involve chance. Also, consider allowing students who need extra support or extra time with things to be judges in games. You get to go over the material again with them and they get to feel good about what they know. 
• Research Acceleration (AKA another blog post I'll be writing soon)
• Don't tell your kids they are welcome to your room. Tell them they belong. 
• Go ahead, enjoy that second cup of coffee, or whatever. You deserve it!

What of these topics would you like to see expanded into a blog post or a podcast episode? What about a reflective video? Let me know in the comments below!

#failforward

Sometimes I fail.

I try to keep this secret. Not because I try to portray myself as a superhuman, able to juggle all my balls while balancing on a unicycle and reciting the first 100 numerals in pi. I just really hate failing. I don't like it. It's why I don't play chess.

Seriously. My dad always beat me when we played chess. So I stopped playing.

I've written before about the fact that what I do is hard, that it takes a lot of work to write my own lesson plans, a lot of energy to teach interactively and inventively, and a lot of research to stop using a textbook.

I rarely mention failing. But I do fail.

Sometimes a little.

Sometimes catastrophically.

And I fail in the classroom. Sometimes a little. Sometimes catastrophically.

Sometimes I get an idea and I think it's a really cool idea and I think my students are going to love it and it's going to revolutionize how they think about Latin and I explain it and I'm super energetic and my students are picking up on my energy and I want it to succeed and they want it to succeed because I want it to succeed and it. just. doesn't. It falls flat. In fact, I spend maybe thirty minutes untangling their Latin because instead of improving their understanding, I have instead tied their Latin knowledge into knots rivaling the Gordian knot that stumped all but Alexander the Great.

That is catastrophic failure, and I have known it.

And I usually keep it secret from you.

The wisest Jedi, Yoda is.
(You can get the poster here if you want.)

But here's the catch. When I fail like that, I generally apologize to my students. I explain my intent, and laugh at my result. I show them how to fail gracefully. And then I show them how to get back up and try again. I come up with a new approach, usually much more successful (after all, I definitely know how NOT to teach the subject now), and we try again, and we move on.

We celebrate my failures in class, we celebrate their failures in class, and we learn, and we move on.

I was at a presentation last February, and a woman sitting near the front used the phrase "fail forward." I think that is the perfect life philosophy, and definitely an important teaching philosophy. In developing a classroom culture, it is super important to teach students to value taking risks, and how will they value taking risks if they are afraid of failure?

And in sharing only my successes with all of you, how can I convince you to take risks in your own classes when I won't even trust you with my own risk-taking?

I fail. I fail all the time.

But I try to #failforward every time.

Task-based White Elephant

"Communicative Tasks" is one of those life-changing (or at least curriculum-changing) ideas: since listening to Tea with BVP and attending ACTFL a few months ago, I have been trying to figure out how to create comprehensible, compelling lessons with a purpose for my own classes. I've been working on the first two since I started teaching, but, aside from "to learn Latin," purpose has usually been missing from my curriculum.

But Miriam and I have been doing a book study lately using James F. Lee's Tasks and Communicating in Language Classrooms (hereafter TCLC), which is a textbook on using tasks to build your curriculum. And we read chapter 3. And went over our book study time limit by ten minutes--while trying to rush because we realized we had run out of time.

This chapter clarified the entire concept of tasks and purpose for me. I read it late the night before we recorded and got so excited about what I was reading that I scribbled notes all along the margin and then, after trying to go to sleep, wrote in the dark (after finding my handy-dandy pen and notepad by feel--everyone keeps those by their beds for midnight inspiration, right?) about the next day's assignment and about a much longer-term task-based and game-based unit that my students are almost exactly in the middle of right now (I'll write about it later). Then I still couldn't sleep, so I moved rooms and read about Alexander Hamilton for a couple of hours. And I still woke up functional and excited, because that's how I react to bringing something (relatively) new to my classes.

I have shifted paradigms. It feels like I was looking at a fuzzy picture and then suddenly it auto-focused (digital technology is cool) and everything made sense.

I have to change everything I do. I have to. It's the only way I can be sure I'm not wasting my students' time.

That sounds like a dramatic statement, but it's not as dramatic as it seems. I have spent almost fourteen years exploring the best ways to deliver comprehensible and compelling information to my students, supported in large by the research of Steven Krashen, and I firmly believe in the power of Comprehensible Input to make Latin enjoyable and accessible to my students--it's key to creating the kind of inclusive and low-stress environment I seek in my classroom. CI, at this point, is an assumed foundation of my approach to teaching language.

Tasks just add the blueprint. For example, the activity I had planned the next day was a take on "White Elephant" or "Dirty Santa" by Justin Slocum-Bailey. In short, students would choose stuffed animals, and other students could choose to claim a new stuffed animal or to steal another student's animal. Miriam and I thought this would be a nice way to ease back into using Latin the first couple of days after winter break.

Can I just say, as an aside, that I have been completely spoiled by my current teaching team? I teach with some of the best Latin teachers in the country and we get to meet and plan on a daily basis. I am super grateful.

After reading Chapter 3 of TCLC, I created this worksheet to go along with the White Elephant activity and designed a purpose for the stuffed animals--groups would be claiming an animal that they would then use the next day in a motivational poster. With this in mind, I asked students in groups to classify animals according to which adjectives they felt could describe them. This was followed by a whole-class discussion, and then, in groups, the students were asked to decide which animals they wanted most and why.

Only after all of that did I start the White Elephant game and, with the next day's project in mind, groups were extremely engaged. The important thing was getting and keeping the stuffed animal they had chosen, not just practicing and playing with the language. Latin became a means instead of an end.

The next day they created motivational posters (the instructions are here; we brainstormed about the two new vocabulary words first and then they created posters).

I am excited. I feel empowered. And very motivated :)

Our Latin-inspired senses of humor tend to be morbid.

Becoming a Student Again

"So, Magistra, just how many languages do you speak?"

I probably hear this question at least twice a month if not once a week. I usually respond by asking them to "define speak". Ultimately it boils down the fact that I love languages. I studied Latin, Spanish, and French in high school, German, Latin, Greek, and Arabic in college, and on my own time, I've studied (to varying degrees) Mandarin, Hebrew, Korean, Thai, American Sign Language, Russian, and Irish.

Of all these languages, Latin has become, quite literally, my bread and butter. I love Latin. That being said, I've had reasons through various venues and situations to desire to learn and focus on some new languages: American Sign Language, Mandarin, and Arabic. In all three, I've become a student again learning, mostly, on my own. It has been an interesting journey thus far and one I'd like to share since we as educators so rarely get to experience it.

The Tools

Since I am on my own for much of this, I use a variety of tools (mostly online) to help with this process. Some of these are marketed to teachers as a way of doing homework or sub work if the teacher isn't there. So, I'd like to say a word about each and any thoughts or issues I've had. 

1. Duolingo - (free) I use Duolingo to brush up on my Spanish, and will use it when I need German and French for my doctorate in Latin. As of right now, Duolingo is working on expanding its language options. I am hopeful that advanced courses for Arabic, Mandarin, and ASL will be ready for when I need them. I mostly use this, when I use it, online since I only keep the apps I use regularly. 
2. Memrise - (free with paid options) I used this with Rachel when we were preparing for our Latin proficiency exams for our Masters using Dickinson's frequency list. Now I use it for Korean, Arabic, and Mandarin (although mostly Mandarin). I like this because it has lessons and lets me set goals. Duolingo does as well, but doesn't have Mandarin at this time. Memrise also has memory aids submitted by users. I don't always find them helpful, but they can be to others. I do wish that Memrise would let me speak into the app and compare it to the native speaker, like Duolingo does.
3. Mango Languages - (free for some) I got free access for this through my library. My brother has access through his university. If you don't have access through something, you will need to pay for this. This works almost like, in my opinion, a combo of something like Memrise and a textbook. It takes you through lessons, asking you how to do things, and providing grammar, culture, and pronunciation help. It is by far the least interactive of the three, but it provides notes the others don't. Mango does have Latin, but I will tell you that it is heavily reliant on Caesar and translation. This may be useful for AP work, but I haven't explored it enough to feel confident to recommend it. Mango also includes some culture notes as well and includes things in various phrases, allowing you to practice in contexts that Duolingo and Memrise don't quite. 
4. Youtube - (free) I use this for Thai and Mandarin mostly. I look at Thaipod or Chinese Podcast conversations to listen to tone (which is key in both), and get some in context experience. 
5. Podcasts - (free) I use podcasts the same way I use youtube - in context listening. 
6. Textbook - (free from a friend) I am borrowing an actual Chinese textbook from a friend of mine for practice. I am using this for writing practice with the writing system that Chinese has, vocabulary lists, and reading practice. This particular textbook has short stories and conversations in it along with grammar explanations and practice. 
7. Other communication tools - I am not familiar with many languages' tools, but there are lots of communication apps for languages. I use Line, which is Chinese friendly to communicate, and Kakao is Korean friendly. Line also has "official" accounts which include some language accounts that offer daily words, phrases, etc. I also downloaded Google keyboards to my phone for Spanish, Korean, Chinese, and Arabic. I can quickly switch between them to type messages or look something up. I also greatly recommend doing this through a single service, not separate keyboards. Since I did it through Google, I have a button on the keyboard that allows me to switch quickly, without having to go into settings. 

Issues and Concerns

I am not normal. I am learning these on my own time because I want to. Not everyone enjoys what I do. The same goes for our students. In order for many of these to be useful, students will need to have the desire to go further or to learn what these offer. I find them useful, but I also know how to use them, given that I've had training in this area. Most of our kids won't. If I offer these resources to a student it's because they've asked for them. I've offered Duolingo to a student who wanted to stay in Latin, but also wanted to learn French to speak to his family. I've offered Mango to a student who is learning Arabic for a trip. I cannot say whether these are useful for a whole group, but if you can find your language on them, you may find some individual uses for them. 

The Language Experience

Each of these three languages is different for me. I am using them in various situations and so each experience is different.

Arabic

I actually already speak Arabic. I learned it in college as my minor for my degree. My brother is now taking it in college, also as his minor. I help him with vocabulary and grammar and I've had the honour to attend his class as a visitor. What is unique about this experience is that while I learned Modern Standard and Egyptian in school, my brother is now learning Levantine Arabic. And so, in a desire to communicate with him, I have taken to learning this new dialect so that I can help and communicate with him. Most of my actual learning is on my own, using Mango and occasionally Memrise, but I get to communicate with my brother via text and actual conversations. Some of them are dictated by his course, so we can practise thematic vocabulary. 

Conclusions

I do wish I was getting more CI in Arabic. Right now I mostly get words and phrases that I then figure out what to do with. The grammar is mostly indirect which is helpful as my brain gets to work it out on its own, recalling and remembering things I learned years ago. I would like to read more Arabic script, but I've had trouble finding CI things to read in Arabic. 

All that being said, I do find the presence of my brother incredibly helpful as I learn this new dialect. It has also inspired me to seek a higher degree in Arabic, but, again, I'm not normal. 

American Sign Language

I've been learning this on and off since I was little. My mother signed for her travelling choir and once when my kindergarten teacher lost her voice and switched to sign language, we learned basics as well. Since then I've had few opportunities to use it. I've signed some songs, taught vocabulary, and had a couple of conversations, but I have not had much of an opportunity to practice. This is a big hindrance in my learning of this language, especially given my desire to become certified in ASL. That being said, I continue to learn using Memrise and as a member of a Facebook group for ASL learners. They post videos, hold chat sessions (which I often cannot attend during the week), and share resources. 

This experience has been interesting because, given the lack of communication for me, there has been a lack of CI. I will readily admit that I am not aware of all the resources, but as an example of what our students may struggle with, the lack of CI makes retaining this language difficult for me -- even as a "not normal" learner. The best I can do in the form of notes is descriptions of hand signs or pictures, which are not always helpful. That being said, Life Print University has recently come out with some CI type conversations, and there is a series on youtube of conversations and lessons which I am beginning to use. 

Conclusions

This language is one where the importance of CI has been made even clearer to me. I am not a normal learner. I thrive on learning new languages and figuring out the puzzle. Our students are normal. If I struggle, and I do, acquiring a language like ASL, then our students most certainly struggle if we don't give them comprehensible messages in the language.

Mandarin Chinese

Speaking honestly, I never thought I'd have a desire to learn this language. I had wanted to learn Korean, but Mandarin was not high on my list. It is now and it occupies the highest spot on my list and I love learning it. 

I have more help for this language than for any other through colleagues (Diane Neubauer @DuYanzi) who provided excellent starting places for me and key hints on learning this new writing system, a former student who meets with me once a week to chat and practice, and my own personal experiences. I use Memrise to learn words and am familiarising myself with the script this way as well. I have a textbook borrowed from my friend that has thematic vocabulary and even little stories and scripts that are CI-friendly (although I have not spent enough time with them yet to say more). I also have, mostly, experiences with food and food culture that have helped me retain more of this language, although my comfort level in speaking is very low. 

I started by listening to a recommended podcast, even though it was above my level (remember: not normal). I would listen in the morning on the way to school and again on the way home, making mental notes. By listening to the same podcast twice in one day, I started to retain the basics (and quickly learned to recognise things like hello, goodbye, my name is, how are you, etc.). Then, I started with Memrise and meeting weekly. I picked up some answers to the "how are you" question and started to put together pronouns and build my own sentences. Through these meetings, I've begun to connect Cantonese with Mandarin as well. When I compare how one person says one word with another, it creates more connections in my head as well. 

I remember one particular instance when an Asian street food type restaurant opened near my house. I had just learned the word for "steamed meat bun" earlier that day and the restaurant bears that name. I think I nearly jumped out of my car when I saw it and it quickly became one of my favourite words (and places to eat). 

 Conclusions

I have been told that when I study Mandarin I look like a two year old discovering things for the first time and that it is quite amusing. I don't doubt it. I have, by far, the most CI in this arena, even if through unconventional methods, and this language is incredibly compelling for me. I am terrified, however, of making mistakes and probably impede my own learning a bit in that way. That being said, I have certainly acquired a lot in the few months I've been working on it and I look forward to learning more, even if I don't have as much CI as I might, but, then again, I am not normal. :)

Overall Conclusions and Thoughts

From the outside, these experiences may seem relatively unimportant or relevant to our students, but from my perspective, I have learned a lot about what my kids need. I hope to have more lessons to share. 

• Students NEED CI - Heck, I need CI. I am the kind of learner who has chosen to spend her free time learning languages on the side. I revel in colour coordinated notes and I absolutely love charts. I need CI. My kids need CI. 
• Technology is not a fail safe or replacement for real life communication -- Technology is great and without it, this whole experience would be much more difficult for me. That being said, if my experiences are examples, I excel when I have real life experiences (like in Mandarin or Arabic), so do our students. Reading is one of the quickest ways to get CI to our kids, and it is one of the easiest ways for me to intake information, but language is about connection, ultimately, to people.
• Learning a second language is not like learning a first, and yet... -- Before I started learning these languages, I already spoke three and had studied many more. But nothing compares to that moment when you make a real connection and acquire something without realising it. That is true when you are two and realise what a cookie is. It is true when you fall in love with an author. It is true when you learn a second, third, fourth, etc. language. In SLA we can use our other language as a connection, but we still have those moments in the new language that we thrive in. Those moments, I am more and more convinced, are the same we thrived in with a first language - first being understood, speaking without panicking, responding without thinking, reading. 

An Open Letter on Testing and Education

Dear Congressman or Congresswoman; Dear Mr. President; Dear Bill and Melinda Gates; Dear Arne Duncan; Dear Anyone Who Has Touched and Impacted Education in the Last Decade:

I'd like to try an exercise with you. Close your eyes, block out all outside distractions, and think about your favorite teacher. I want you to picture that influential man or woman, and remember why that teacher was your favorite. Was he especially good at creating connections to you emotionally? Did she encourage you to explore your interests, even when they diverged from her lesson plan?

Or did that teacher, your favorite, win your heart because he or she got great results on standardized tests? Do you remember this person because he was especially good at following the prescribed curriculum?

I have several teachers that stand out in my past. Ms. Jeanne "D" DeVilliers gave up night after night of her own time to meet with us and work with us on competitive speeches, student congress, and our debate cases. To meet the demands of a subject area that requires creativity, intense research, and heavy practice, she led an unusually-structured class, with students moving between her room and the library, hall, and theater, to conduct their own personal research and rehearse until each gesture had been refined into perfection. We did not cram for standardized tests, and she did not employ traditional assessments, yet there was no question whether she was one of the best teachers in the school and the state.

Mr. Charlie Dugan, world history teacher and track coach, inspired students with his enthusiasm and passion for ancient cultures. He loaned students books from his own library when they sought to learn more about world religions and cultures. He drew comics for every handout and used science fiction to help us understand the impact of history on the modern day. It was his assignment to interview an older relative or friend about his life that gave me access to one of the most meaningful and impactful moments of my life and taught me the true meaning of living well.

I've had teachers who weren't afraid to be goofy--some of whose antics I use in my own classes because they were so effective for my learning. I've had teachers who weren't afraid to find out why I was withdrawing to the corner of the room and teachers who allowed me to work ahead when I was inspired.

These teachers built a foundation in education for me which remains with me, woven into my identity, and I remember them all because they were great teachers.

I don't remember the name of my reading teacher in the fourth and fifth grades, who had us complete innumerable practice readers to prepare for the Iowa State tests. In fact, the readers are the only thing I remember about that class--which became a problem when I changed schools a year later and was expected to know how to analyze literature. I couldn't explain the theme of a story, but I got top marks--99th percentile--on the Iowa test.

To tell the truth, I don't remember the names of any of my teachers in that school, a school that was known throughout the area for its outstanding test scores. We spent weeks every year preparing for standardized testing, and I got very good at multiple-choice tests.

But I didn't know the material on a deeper level; I hadn't learned to use information well, how to analyze ideas and evaluate them myself. And I did not form any lasting relationships with the teachers there. I was never inspired.

When I enter my classroom and greet my students, when I read brain research to learn how students' minds learn language best, when I ask my students about their lives and really listen, when I show I care in the lessons I create and the relationships I build, I am not following a prescribed curriculum. I am not working to improve students' test scores.

I am working to improve students' lives.

I want my students to know I care and I want my students to care, not just about Latin, but about learning. I want my students to embrace and love education. I want them to feel safe being themselves in my room and to pay that safety forward by standing up for each other's rights. I want my students to know that every inch of curiosity pays rich dividends of information and I want them to learn how to find that information.

I want my students to be healthy, happy, and lifelong learners.

How can that happen in a nation where the discourse about teachers is so negative that the legislators have decided it would benefit their future campaigns to dictate to teachers what and how they should teach in their classes, without one year of experience or one experienced consultant? How can students learn to love school when a billionaire turns his ambivalent feelings into bitter rhetoric that has no source in research?

When did accountability begin to mean micromanagement? Teachers are told when to test and how to test and what they should teach on the way and how to train students to produce the correct form of the correct answer and there is no space left in this crowded syllabus for teachers to innovate, create, or personalize learning.

"No Child Left Behind" became "Race to the Top" but the baseline is the same: test scores for money. So schools put teachers in boxes and punish them for stepping outside them.

No matter that students learn to hate school. No matter that there is a nation-wide epidemic of teen anxiety that is endangering young lives. This has never been about what is best for students. This is about appearances and votes and seeming like you're doing something. No matter that it's the wrong thing.

No matter that you're strangling education.

Reflections on being a first year teacher.. again!

While this was my 6th full year (7th including all teaching time) teaching, this was my first year in a new school. Not only was the location different, but the school population, size of my department, and school atmosphere was different.

• This was my first year working with another Latin teacher in the building (okay, well 3 other Latin teachers)
• This was my first year having less than four preps (5 classes of Latin I and 1 class of Latin II)
• This was the first time I proctored an AP exam. 
• This was my first year without a window in my room. 
• This was my first year sharing a door with another teacher. 
• This was the first time I did not know every single Latin student in my school.
• This was my first time, in a number of years, being in the same building with fellow foreign language teachers. 

There are a lot of lessons and firsts that I experienced this year and I thought I'd write this post to reflect on those and maybe, if it is useful, pass on some things to those who have yet to experience their "second first year". 

1. Collaboration is key. This was true last year for me as well - since we untextbooked. But, it continues to be true. Even though we are all in the same building and we teach a variety of things, collaboration is key. I don't say this to say something like, "you have to follow every lesson plan to the letter and be on the same day every day." I say it to say things like:
   * A fresh pair of eyes can be helpful.
   * Sometimes you are tired and need an alternate plan.
   * Hearing someone else's perspective might give you new ideas.
   * Stealing your colleagues ideas is okay! 
   I can't tell you how many times this year my colleague Bob Patrick (and my father) would take my lesson plan and tweak it and then we'd collaborate briefly at the end of the day and I liked so much of what he did that I did it myself the next day. Similarly, he'd tweak a plan and then see what I'd done with it and do it himself that way the next day. This made light work for both of us and gave us many new ideas. Similarly, we collaborate across levels. I would watch things Rachel did and steal them for Latin I or hear about what Caroline did in Latin III and adapt it for my kids to read. 
2. Communication is bread and butter. I came from a school where I was an individual Latin teacher. I worked well with my colleagues, but there was much in the Latin world that I was on my own to do. It is important, whether you are going or coming from a place with more than one teacher, to communicate. There was so much I had to learn (and am still learning) about how things are done here. It can be frustrating because I am used to trying to figure it out on my own and I don't always remember I have a group with me now who knows what it is I am dong. I am so thankful for how kind and understanding they've been with me! 
3. The stuffed animals may remain the same, but their personas will not! I took my stuffed animals with me and I've added to my collection since then. The animals that were my previous students' favourites are no longer sitting on a golden throne. The kangaroo has been traded for the llama; the koala for the grizzly bear; the sheep for the hippo. Similarly, the stories we tell aren't the same. This has been an adjustment for me, but it has been fun. I have had to forget 6 years of names and back stories only to discover new ones. 
   On a side note: I am more convinced than ever of the healing and therapeutic effect stuffed animals have. Students who are allowed to hold one are often calmer than without and they can be a quick and easy way to tell which students are feeling down or need a break. 
4. Learning a new campus is STILL hard. I have gotten lost so many times (and this is with a guided tour)... I've been late to meetings, ended up on the wrong side of campus, and even exited a building only to re-enter from another door and not realise what I'd done. This is one of my biggest learning curves, but it has given me something to bond with my youngest students over and we laugh about it. 
5. Duties, Drive-ins, and Dues. Chances are, no matter the school, district, etc. that the way duties, parking, and various "dues" are done is different everywhere you go. There will be things you like and things you don't. What I've found is that, even with the things I wasn't fond of, they work for this school. They wouldn't work for my old school, and so I am glad they are done this way here. Even as I adjusted to this way of doing thing, and grew tired of it, I still remember being glad of the change: having an assigned parking space, having my new duty station, proctoring the AP exam (yes, I enjoyed it!). Ya, I still groan sometimes, but what would school be without them?
6. It's okay to occasionally enjoy the cave that is your classroom. I will be the first to admit that I am not the biggest fan of change. Even change I initiate (and I am always looking to be better), has to sit with me for a bit before I'll take the chance. I am also a fairly strong introvert and I recede into my brain as often as possible; not because I hate people, but it is how I think best and recharge. Yes, making friends is important. Yes, being a presence in the school is key. But, also taking time to become comfortable and to make your space feel like your own is important. My first few days here were spent in and out of meetings, but we were also given a good bit of classroom time. I put my headphones in and took my time setting up my space. I didn't have it completely ready by day 1, but I enjoyed getting to know my space and make good use of it. I still put in my headphones during lunch and after school while I grade, or plan, or whatever. The school is new, my colleagues are new, but my cave is mine. There are some things, if you are like me, and find change and new people daunting that you can do to ease into it:
   * Meet one new person a day/a week.
   * Have a mentor of your choosing: someone you already know or are already comfortable with.
   * Make a 10-20 minute time of day, especially in the new year, where you don't check email. Get up and clean or decorate something. Read an article or catch up on teaching posts.
   * Leave early/on time (depending on your school's rules) one day a week. You can stay late, get caught up in work, plan far ahead all the other days. 

New schools, rules, people, and students can all be overwhelming, and they certainly were for me. There were days when I arrived, went into my room, and locked the door to prepare. I still get lost going to a new room or lab and I feel my students' frustration when I don't have the answer of where the lab is or how to get to a testing room. But, in all of this, I've learned a few things and come to enjoy a few things:

• I have great colleagues! 
• I have supportive administrators! 
• I have hilarious students! 
• I have a space that is my own and that I've made my own. 
• I actually liked proctoring an AP FL exam. (yes, I'm weird)

And all of these things don't mean that I didn't have them at my old school, or have them all the time. We all have bad days, weeks, and even months. I loved teaching my former students and I enjoyed working with my colleagues. I also love working with my current students and enjoy my current colleagues. Both are okay. 

I think I've learned that as much comparison as we all do when we move schools (it's natural). I've also learned not to compare them. My two schools have different demographics, different layouts, different rules, and different people. I like them both. and that's okay.

I want to close with this quote I saw. I don't know who said it, but I saw it on instagram and it spoke to me:

You'll be fine. Feeling unsure and lost is part of your path. Don't avoid it. Breathe. You'll be okay, even if you don't feel it all the time.

CI Curriciulum, Untextbooking, Student Choice and Teacher Planning

This post comes to us from Dr. Robert Patrick. Dr. Patrick teaches with both Rachel and me and is a great influence on me as both a colleague and my father. ~Miriam Patrick

One of the hot topics these days among CI teachers in general and perhaps Latin teachers in particular is how to create and then prepare to teach without textbooks.  I’ll spare a defense of dropping textbooks as a quick search through this blog will catalog the problems with all our textbooks.  The driving force of a CI classroom are the principles, of course, but really two things:  compelling material and understandable messages in Latin.  Those messages come through the teacher who speaks to students in Latin that they can all understand and through readings that they can all read.  The talk and the reading must be interesting to them.  Coupled with some classroom practices that make learning Latin a friendly and supportive experience, this approach has grown our program over the last 11 years by 400%.  

We will begin the Fall of 2016 with about 700 students and 5 Latin teachers.  We will also be continuing ongoing work, evolution through trial and error, our CI work, Untextbooking and Standard Based Grading.  In what follows, I want to outline how we create and prepare our curriculum.  For the third year now, we will be doing our work with no textbook.  This work is entirely a collaborative effort of Caroline Miklosovic, Rachel Ash, Miriam Patrick and myself.  Next year we will be joined by Keith Toda.  What we are doing would never have happened as a result any one of us doing what we do best, but has evolved and continues to as we pool our efforts, skills and insights.  I share here with this declaration, that this work belongs to no single one of us and only results from a daily commitment to collaboration and sharing.  Quite frankly, we believe that the future of Latin in this culture depends on such collaboration and sharing.

We began with a list of topics that met two criteria:  1) they included topics we thought students might have interest in and 2) they were topics we felt we could teach from Latin authors (or many periods) either directly or (more commonly) through embedded versions that we would prepare from them.  You can see immediately the two core principles at stake: compelling materials and understandable messages.  So, for example, if a topic depends on you working with an author that you are unprepared to work with, don’t offer it for student consideration. If you know that offering “Roman Couples” means working with the Heroides, which you love, and your Latin 2 students choose that, you will need to do much embedding, and that’s a lot of work.  Balance what you offer them with what you are prepared to do and/or co-create with a colleague. You do not have to have multiple Latin teachers at your school, but it is really important to have some other Latin teachers that you can collaborate with.  The marvels of the internet and things like Google Docs make that easier than ever.

Here was our original list:

• Roman thoughts on other cultures (Cicero)
• Roman Virtues (what Romans valued in themselves)
• Couples relationships/myths
• Battles and Wars
• Roman History
• Roman heroes and legends
• Romans Science and Philosophy
• Roman games
• Roman Women
• Roman Daily Life (Cf. JoAnna Shelton)
• Roman Religion and Philosophy
• Fables
• Roman Government and Law
• Modern Literature in Latin (Harry Potter, The Hobbit, Dr.Seuss, Charlottes Webb, Treasure Island, Fairy Tales)
• Roman Comedy and Drama

We posed those topics to students in the Spring of the year who were in Latin 1-3 asking them to identify topic they wanted to encounter in the next year of Latin (2-4). We tallied their results, demarcated topics by level (so as not to have too much overlap--though we did allow for some overlap), and established what our curriculum for the next year would include.  That year, the curriculum looked like this:

Latin 1--Mythological stories written by the teacher based more on high frequency vocabulary than any particular author; Fables from Aesop, Phaedrus et al (much thanks to Laura Gibbs for her wonderful online materials).

Latin 2--Fables; Mythological stories from Ovid; Roman History from Livy

Latin 3--Mythological stories from Ovid (not used in 2); Heroes and legends (Ovid, Livy)

Latin 4--Roman Games; Entertainment; Roman Virtues (Seneca, Cicero et al); selections from Harrius Potter

This past year, we did the same, and offer the following:

Latin 1--Mythological stories based on high frequency vocabulary; novella: Pluto: Fabula Amoris; Roman legend/ history focused on stories from the Aeneid and Caesar; Novella: Magus Mirabilis--the Wizard of Oz.

Latin 2--Roman Comedy based on Plautus; Roman War based on Caesar; Roman Heroes based on Livy, Roman women based on various authors; Novella: Camilla

Latin 3--Roman History based on Livy; Roman love stories based on Ovid; The Druids from Caesar; Roman War based on the Pro Caelio of Cicero et al.

Latin 4--Roman Games; Entertainment; Roman Virtues (Seneca, Cicero et al); Novella: Itinera Petri; selections from Harrius Potter; Roman virtures traced all the way through the year as a common sub-theme.  List of 16 virtues chosen from Latin literature with Cicero being the predominate source along with Seneca and Quintilian.  

This spring (2016) we surveyed students again.  Our surveys continue to have the basic list we started with, but now with novellas in hand, we can make those a part of what we offer.  So, we asked current Latin 1 students about their Latin 2 year which novella they would like to read:

Ille Hobbitus (and embedded version of some chapters)

Eurydice: Fabula Amoris (to be written this summer)

Itinera Petri

Camilla (on women and war) currently being written

Other topics from them to consider

Under Science:

Fantastical people (Pliny)

Geography and race (various authors and vocabulary driven)

Medicine

Fantastical creatures (Pliny)

Under War:

Hannibal vs. Rome (Livy)

Boudicca vs. Rome

Alexander the Great

Octavian vs. Marc Antony

Under Love:

Hector and Andromache

Abelard and Heloise

Jason and Medea

Claudius and Messalina

From these, you can see that our original list of items is present, but we are getting better at identifying what we are ready to work with.  If you knew us you would recognize among the authors we are working with the contents of our doctoral dissertations and masters theses, our many years of coursework and teaching experiences.  In other words, we are largely working with what we know or have the time to explore.  

As has become our custom, the 5 of us will gather this summer to plot out exactly what we are doing with the surveyed topics, authors and materials.  We are anticipating the novellas of others to come out soon which will enrich our possibilities as well.  Each year that we do this, we have the repository of the previous year’s work, so in some cases there is less work to do from scratch.  That allows us to edit, refine and add to existing materials.  

I want to add this one note which may be sub-titled program promotion, politics and/or professional development.  At every opportunity, we try to let our administrators and district leaders know what we are doing, why, and with what results.  We need them to support this work.  What we are doing is working with all kinds of learners, and we need it to be supported and celebrated.  At the same time, we look for every conference opportunity to share what we are doing.  As I suggested in the opening of this post, we believe that the future of Latin depends on this kind of creative, collaborative work, and we need and want more Latin teachers involved in doing this kind of things as well--not to jump on our bandwagon, but to ensure that Latin thrives and that it is no longer the domain of elite learners.  I wrote this blog post because of private requests to share how we plan this sort of curriculum.  I can no longer respond to the number of requests that I and the others on our team receive privately, but why should these be private conversation, anyway?  I encourage everyone doing this sort of work to blog, present, share, collaborate, and make sure your local administrators and leaders know what you are doing, and that it’s a national movement.  

A Hard Lesson Learned the Hard Way

I've been in my own head a lot lately. I haven't meant to be, but this year I've been working on my master's thesis, which has caused me to become more introspective and much less aware of what is happening outside my own mind.

This wouldn't be so bad (it still wouldn't be great) if it was limited to missing world events. However, I've been so wrapped up in my thoughts and theories and writing that I forgot to watch my students.

The warning signs started in early November, but I was getting ready for my presentation at ACTFL so I attributed my students' restlessness and distraction to the upcoming holiday and heavy work loads from other classes. When we returned after Thanksgiving break, I was scrambling to compose and organize my research into something I could turn in to prove I had spent the semester researching my thesis topic, so I attributed some of my struggling students' difficulties with the readings to not paying attention, because this was easier than stepping back and reassessing my approach, and I didn't have time to do that anyway. I already more or less had the rest of the semester planned, so why would I take valuable thesis time to change all of that?

I had a lot of excuses, and my students lost out. And lost faith in me. Latin was becoming "hard."

I had originally planned to write a blog post between Fall and Spring semesters, because finally, after turning in my research and turning my attention back to my students right before finals, I realized the mistake I was making, and felt I should share it.

I didn't write it, however. I had also been failing a little as a mother, and decided to turn my energy during the break toward my son.

Luckily, the delay means that I get to report a happy ending to all of this struggle.

The year is by no means through, but I am already seeing the result of my rethink. I did my best to start over this semester with my students. I had them read something light to refresh their Latin at the beginning of January, and from that point on I have focused on repetition, slowing down, and making sure there is enough reading and practice that my students really understand the new material.

One of my students who commonly struggles, and who was acting out the most at the end of last semester and the beginning of this semester (I had to earn his trust back), is now participating and comprehending and has declared our most recent reading "easy." My students who were not paying attention or struggling against me because they were frustrated are beginning to to return to me as the charming people I knew them to be last year. Slowing down is working.

It is easy to forget how important it is to go slow and make sure all of your students understand and truly comprehend what you are reading. It is easy to get caught up in goals or time restrictions (either your own or imposed on you). Even though I've been teaching with comprehensible input strategies for twelve years, it was easy for me to get involved in my own ideas and forget to notice my students.

It is easy. So, we need to be mindful. Studies show that students need comprehensible input to successfully acquire language, and moving too quickly takes even simple readings and makes them incomprehensible to students.

Sharing my failing isn't easy; I don't think this is my best-written post, because I have had to work to find the words. But Miriam and I promised when we started this blog to share things that didn't work as well as the things that did, and moving too quickly did not work.

Hopefully this will help someone else think about pace and consider whether he or she is moving too fast for the students in his or her program.

Don't be afraid to go slowly!

(btw, I've been catching up on the blogs I didn't read while working on my thesis, and I came across this post by the great Grant Boulanger, and it also stresses to go slowly!)

Standards Based Grading - a mid semester update

It's now been three months with grade books and assessing strategies completely aligned with Standards Based Grading. So far, we've posted three times in particular about how we are using Standards Based grading:

• Making SBG work in a traditional grade book
• Setting up our new grade books with SBG
• Everyone needs a little R, R, and R

For this mid semester update, I want to focus on the reactions we've had to what we are doing and the things we're noticing in our students. 

Grading Procedures and Schedules

Doing this the way we are, by using Active Grade in conjunction with our county grade books has resulted in a few road blocks that we are over coming, but also some interesting things we otherwise wouldn't be able to do. 

1. Extra Time - Yes, doing it this way requires extra time from us. It takes me longer because I enter grades into Active Grade (which does all the math for me, so I think it's worth it) and then transfer them to our county grade book. What I have done is that I separate my schedule out and grade one class a day and transfer grades once per class each week. A student or parent can log onto Active Grade at any time, but since our county grade books only update at night anyways, we can do this once a week. We are all handling this in our own way, but this is what I've found works for me. It also keeps the pile of work to pass out from stacking up and getting mixed together.
2. Saved Comments - Using Active Grade allows me to put in specific comments per student, per standard, per assignment. These comments are saved online for my or their viewing any time. Unlike a traditional grade book where the grade is input and nothing else, I can pass messages to students and save them so that when a parent or student comes to me with questions, a record is saved. Since it is done by standard, comments have moved away from things like, "you missed 5 questions" to "you should try the following extra exercises to help with this" or "you got this grade because you...." They are more detailed and personalised. 
3. Student Perspective - The by far most difficult part of this, I feel, is changing the student perspective. When I presented the idea both to my former students, and to this year's students, they were on board, but they struggle to understand that the numbers mean different things. Whenever I pass back a test, or quiz, or assignment I get a barrage of, "what does 4 mean?", "I missed 2 questions, what grade is that?", etc. I have to remind them that they  need to check Active Grade and familiarise themselves with the proficiency guidelines. Some are becoming familiar and appreciate how things are being done, others are trying to master this new territory, but need more guidance. 

Assessments

1. Terminology - I have really had to change my terminology when considering assessments with SBG. Students have commented how my assessments (see bullet point 2) are more like their quizzes in other classes rather than tests, so we've changed the name from quiz or test to quest. Students aren't panicking and appreciate the brevity, clarity, and content of the assessments. Students are also understanding now how each assessment is broken into sections by standard. It makes it clearer for them, and reminds them, what we expect them to be proficient in and gives a nice guideline of what they need to work on, should their proficiency level be low. 
2. Structure - It occurred to me as I was writing my first test that, if I'm grading by proficiency in standard, I really ought to separate the test by standard, so I began doing that. Rachel was thinking along the same lines and we've both found it very helpful for students and for us. Organising the assessments this way speeds up grading tremendously and allows for easier commenting on proficiency. Grades are no longer about missing a certain number of questions, but rather about how proficient someone is in a certain skill.
3. Teacher Perspective - By assessing standards repeatedly and in multiple ways, I view assessments very differently. I no longer view them as this end all activity that students must make a certain grade on for us to move forward, but rather a checkpoint. What standards are they proficient in? What standards do we need to practice more (see our recent posts: The Fault in our Plans and Robert Patrick's Guest Post)? It is like a little reminder each time of where we are, where we've been, and where we are going.

Student Voice

1. Confidence - Students seem somewhat more confident when it comes to their voice, their concerns, and their needs. Students know what is expected of them more clearly and so they know what they need to do or what they need to ask for. 
2. Student Choice - Without a textbook, student can have a real say in what they are learning. This year in Latin I, I've decided that I want them to read longer readings and really learn how to communicate in Latin (based on our standards) at a deeper level. To that end, I gave students choices for the Spring semester. All were longer readings (novels really), but they had a wide span of content from science and history to legend to fantasy and adventure. The students really appreciated being able to make their own choice, which means they will enjoy what we do next semester - making for happy students and happy teachers. 

I'd love to hear if you guys are trying Standards Based Grading and how it is going for you. Are you seeing these things? What else are you observing?

The Archery Lesson: A Short Reflection

Today, while I was watching my son at his archery event, I couldn't help but notice a young lady who was struggling. She was young, like the group my son was shooting with, but shooting from much farther away and aiming at a smaller target than they were, like the older archery kids. She only rarely struck the target. She did not look like she was having fun.

After the ten rounds were done and the kids were tallying their scores, the coach (who deftly manages to balance the emotional, developmental, and archerial (?) needs of kids between the ages of 8 and 18) approached her, and I heard this conversation (which I immediately wrote down):

"I did horrible."

"No you didn't. This is your first time to shoot [a] 40 centimeters [target] and your first time to shoot 18 meters [distance]. How do you know what horrible is? You scored 78. Now that's your baseline. We'll look for improvement. So if you score 82 next time, that counts as a good score." [It may help to know that 300 is a perfect score, and most kids there were scoring in the 200s.]

Aside from reinforcing my already good opinion of him and his coaching, this conversation struck home (and inspired frantic note-taking) because it's exactly what I wish for education. Exactly. Personal, progress-based goals that take into account where students start.

Instead I teach in a national system that believes if we tell students how much they should know at what age, that's the best way to Race to the Top with No Kid Left Behind. If we keep throwing tests their way eventually students will just give in and learn on our schedule instead of their own.

I love what I saw demonstrated today. I want that for every kid in every subject in every school.

I'll continue to focus on progress within the structure of our current educational system.

I'll continue to share ideas and hope for change.

Data Doesn't Have to Be a Four Letter Word

I am not one to sing the praises of data collection. Specifically, I actively hate what legislators and the powers that be have used the excuse of "data collection" to do. I have written before about how I feel about test-driven class curriculum, and have complained very loudly on facebook (and written some legislators, Arne Duncan, and President Obama) about these things.

But I believe in useful data. Data that focuses on what I need to improve not only my teaching, but my current students' understanding so they are more successful in my class. This class, this year.

Last semester, we covered (I'll say "covered" until I can feel confident that "learned" is the correct word) 123 vocabulary words. This is a low number for a traditional textbook, but it is still a lot of words my students are juggling around in their heads, with a lot of potential for forgetting and confusion. I need to know what words have been forgotten in general and since the two week break we just completed. I need to know what words I need to review so students can comfortably function in the language their second semester. I need data.

I actually came up with a really simple way to collect that data, and I'm making students help me collect the data because I don't want to spend hours outside of class doing it myself.

Collecting the data

I put together two quizzes, each a little over 60 words (123 seemed like a lot for one day), for students to take. I asked them not to write their names on the quizzes, so I can have accurate data, and to do their best, with the threat that it would be more work for them the more words we needed to review.

In class each day I assigned a quiz, explained the purpose and the need for accurate data, and students wrote in the words they knew. Then I took up the quizzes, passed them back out at random, and had students grade them as I quickly went through the list. Lastly, I called out the words on the list, one by one, and had students raise their hands if the paper they graded missed the word I called. This is where the anonymity and exchange of papers was really important. No one in the class (except probably the student who wrote the paper) knew who had missed what word, so it prevented embarrassment (as much as possible) and encouraged honesty. I recorded the results on a data sheet I had previously created (see bottom of post on how to create one yourself if you aren't too familiar with worksheet programs) which you can see in the image below offers me the total number of students who missed each word in each class, the total for all classes, and the percentage of my students who did not know a word.

The percentage was really what I was looking for. In a dream world, I would hold every word to a 90% rule--it is only good if 90% of my students know it. Or even a 100% standard. But it's unrealistic. I am currently standing at 186 students. With 186 students of varying personalities and learning strengths, it would be impossible to teach everyone everything perfectly. 

So I'm looking for 80% understanding. It's from the traditional TPRS standard "80% of 80%" which translates to "at least 80% of your students understand at least 80% of the language you're using." 

I went through and color-coded the words with that standard in mind. If 20%-30% of my students didn't know a word, I colored it yellow. For 30%-40%, orange. And if more than 40% of my students did not know a word, it went into the red zone, as a word that I need to cover first and with the most repetitions.

Trends I saw

I found a few trends that reinforced my expectations and understanding of language learning. Generally the words that were red were words we had not spent as much time on. There were a concentration of them at the beginning of the semester, and at the end of the semester, representing words we began with but didn't really repeat again and words that we ended with and had maybe a week or two to work into repetitions.

The first day we collected data on the first half of the vocabulary for the semester, and the great news is that after a semester of repetition, over 80% of students knew 70% of the words. That's honestly a very good number, and better than any year I've taught previously.

The second half of the vocabulary did not fare as well, and that is most likely due to less repetitions and more words competing for repetition in stories. For that section itself, I found that 80% or more of students only knew 31% of the words (although if I slackened it to 70% of my students knowing, it becomes less dire). For all the words over both days, 77% of the words were generally known (over 60% of students knew them). In specific, 60% or more students knew 77% of the words, 70% or more students knew 62% of the words, and 80% or more students knew 51% of the words. It's not perfect, but it's a starting point, and useful data to have in my hands.

What I am doing with the data

The whole point of collecting this data is to use it. I am using the red words first; I have a list of words that less than 60% of my students know and that is a major focus for my review. After making sure we have a decent number of repetitions of those words (using any combination of the activities Miriam and I have discussed in our different posts), I'm going to add the orange words, and finally the yellow. This review might take a week, or it might take two. One of the wonderful things about teaching without a textbook is that I set my own deadlines. I am focusing on vocabulary students need to know for a county-wide test, as I've mentioned in a previous post, and I can take time to make sure my kids really know it. This is a rare luxury, and I know that well.

If I weren't free to spend two weeks reviewing past vocabulary, I would work to fold these words into my upcoming lessons, at a rate of two per day. 

But I'm lucky, so I'm going to take advantage of that luck.

How to set up a spreadsheet to do math for you

It's actually not too hard. I've used spreadsheets for this sort of thing before, and "programmed" one to calculate percentages for me so I can quickly look up the grade for 13 out of 15 without a calculator.

Basically, I wanted something that would add the totals for each word, then divide it by the number of students I have, and give me the percentage of students who missed each word.

I started by laying out what I was looking for:

Then I highlighted across the periods so I could set up the spreadsheet to add the total number of students who did not correctly translate "surgit." I clicked the sum symbol on my program (I use Google Spreadsheet, but all worksheet programs have this capability).

Once I had my total set up, I set up my percentage. I clicked the space next to the total, and typed in the code "=H2/186" to stand for the specific square I wanted to divide (for me the total, which was on H2--squares are designated on a Battleship sort of system) and the number of students I have total (186). 

Lastly, I added in some numbers so you could see the math work, and I selected the square for the total, pressed ctrl+C (you can also right-click and select "Copy"), selected the squares underneath, and pressed ctrl+V (you can also right-click and select "Paste"). It will automatically fill the squares with the appropriate row's total. 

Do the same for the percentage column and you have a worksheet that will automatically figure out your percentages for you.