ginlindzey

It was wonderful to meet so many of you who read this blog! I often wondered who (if anyone!) read the blog, whether it was any use to anyone or not, or just good psychotherapy for me. And when you are a teacher juggling classes and family and commitments, you often need psychotherapy, let's admit it!

Some people asked me where I find the time to do this blog or answer emails, but to me this is my down time, this is my me time, this is when I feed the soul in a way. My husband is not a classicist, though he is well educated and a former teacher and administrator, so I cannot always talk to him about the things that I obsess over, from new teaching ideas or pronunciation or failings I see in colleagues. And that's always a sticky one to discuss anyway, because you can love these people as friends but... but what our colleagues do and how successful their programs our (especially if in the same district) truly effects our own programs, some more than others.

A friend and former Latin teacher told me his child was in a program where the teacher announces that no one has ever gotten college credit for AP in his program. All I could think of is how sad that is, and why doesn't this teacher try to figure out where the disconnects are happening. There's only so much we can blame on students. And it *IS* hard to step up to the plate and admit that you strike out more than you hit, but why not do so and ask for some real coaching?

I hear the way the Japanese improve teaching is by constantly going into each others classes and meeting and discussing ways to improve the teaching. So I hear. How many of us would rather someone NOT come into our classes and tell us what we are doing wrong?? I had an argument with my supervising teacher when I was doing my student teaching ages ago about my doing translation on a day my supervising professor came to observe. She chewed me up one side and down the other and said you NEVER do something that would show you or the students in a bad light. I replied that the prof and I had discussed what were areas that I felt I had difficulties with those particular students and he wanted to see those areas in order HELP ME IMPROVE. He was there NOT to judge me but to HELP me.

I would rather admit that I'm forever the student than to act like I'm the master when I'm not. My gosh, I'll be back at square one this year teaching high school. I'm already contemplating HOW I will double my pace so I can finish 2 units of CLC in one year. But you know what? If I don't manage it, that won't be the worst thing. The worst thing would be settling for mediocrity in my classes.

Why teach AP if you can't teach it well enough so that the majority of your students get AP credit?? Why bother? Why not just teach a level 4 class that covers easier prose that can go at a slower pace?

Well, I think one of the problems is that not enough people pay attention to how they really teach those lower levels. They use mastery of morphology as some sort of way to weed out students, and yet mastery of morphology is a low level cognitive skill; application and analysis is much higher on the scale. And if you aren't teaching reading skills from day one and trying to reach ALL OF YOUR STUDENTS, then what do you expect by AP??

If you haven't taught pronunciation, what do you expect to have when you're trying to teach scanning? How sad that you can't slide right into the fun of scanning a line because you never taught pronunciation rules and found a way for all to master it! And how sad if you never taught students how to read from left to right when the sentences were short and easy so that they can master them when they are long and hairy?! Oh, but you made sure they could decline and conjugate. Big deal.

But where was I?

Ah yes, ACL.

My preconference workshop went great. I think, though, that in great measure it was because of Nancy Llewellyn's presentation on using Rassias techniques. We had a wide variety of people in the room, including a professor or two who taught methods courses and one talked about how much he learned from that technique. And Nancy is so sweet because she seems stunned when I say I want to be more like her. I'm not there, but I tried some Rassias stuff last year and part of it went well, and part of it was just too much for some of my students, and part of it I MADE MISTAKES IN DESIGNING THE MICROLOGUES, or so I understand now. But Nancy's part was great, and we may do it or something similar again.

I was concerned that my part wasn't that useful in comparison, but I did get good feedback as well. My two main areas were class structure and reading using Dexter Hoyos' rules for reading plus metaphrasing and using a reading card. One experienced teacher said she actually gained a lot from my presentation on class structure and group work and such, and others thought the reading card and my insisting that we need to build those reading skills from very early on when the sentences are really too easy for a card was valuable.

Other panels I was involved in centered around teacher preparation, and those discussions were good. Certification issues were also discussed, and it is sad to hear the range of problems out there for getting certified.

I met a lot of neat people, gave away doorprizes and buttons (my new buttons that say. "DOCEO: What do you do?" were very popular-- http://www.cafepress.com/animaaltera/348478) and even a few posters.

You cannot go to ACL and not come back refreshed. Any teacher that is just "hanging on for the next x years until retirement" needs to go. Frankly, I feel sorry for teachers who think they don't need to go to conferences, as if they are above doing so because they are so well educated or just consider teaching a job. There is no way to go to ACL and not come back totally jazzed and full of ideas.

If you didn't go this year, put it on your calendar for next year. It will be in Memphis, Tennessee. The only good reason to miss ACL is travel in Italy! And you can get CEU's. I didn't. I probably should have, but frankly I don't like to have my time dictated. If I want to sit and discuss certain issues with colleagues in the bookroom, then that's what I want to do and that's what makes the trip more valuable to me. I did go to several great sessions, and I need to go over my paperwork from those sessions soon.

But first, I need to round up paperwork and such for my new job (which I'm getting VERY VERY excited about), and tomorrow I'm going to load up my car with boxes and head down to my new school--30 minutes away--and start setting up my new room. Wow.

And, if you are going to be a new teacher this coming year, keep your eyes on this site. As I said, teaching high school after middle school will make me feel like a new teacher too. We can ride the highs and lows together.

Thanks for reading.