July agenda: To boldly think in public

Ever feel like the world and our profession are changing so fast you can’t keep up?  Which of those five new tech tools appearing on your Bloglovin’ feed is the one that you should use to finally start your students on proficiency portfolios (and where will you find the time to figure it out?)?

It’s hard to describe where I’m at this July, but it’s probably somewhere in an airport or a roadside dive with my mind wandering among the future of Musicuentos, the future of language teaching, whether I’ll ever be able to be on time for anything, and how much all this is affecting my kids.

At the end of next month, I’ll celebrate 8 years of Musicuentos.  I’ve been thinking in public a long time.  When you do that, you open yourself to be stung, and I’ve been stung a few times this year.  I’ve wondered about changing Musicuentos completely.  (I’ve wondered about quitting it.)  And I’ve wondered if it’s worth it to keep thinking in public, if it really matters to anyone.

It is, and it does, if it only means that thinking in public even when it causes strife is the way we all grow.  So here we go.

Next month I’ll go back to fluffy posts on back-to-school, because August.  I’ll focus on my favorite authentic resources I’m discovering and using (the old ones too).  If I can stop long enough to breathe and get a full night’s sleep so I can think straight, I will finish the ebook guides for Esperanza renace and Canela.

But not this month.  This month, I’m thinking in public, and I’m warning you me, it’s going to be rough.  I’ve asked myself this question: What is more important, comprehensible input or a student-centered classroom?  Look for my answer in all three of these posts.

Look for these posts in July:

1. My position statement on target language use in the classroom
   Last year, I discovered where ACTFL came up with that dastardly 90% number that we all allow to plague us, and it blew me away.  One size does not fit all, and I decided to figure out exactly where I stand on the issue of target language use in the classroom and how comprehensible it has to be and make my own position statement. I’ll share mine, and I invite you to do the same.
2. My perspective on the points of agreement and disagreement in the TPRS / proficiency-based battlefield
   I’ve been having some great conversations with very mature, respectful, effective and reflective practitioners (and just a few insulting, inerrant bullies as well) on both sides of this discussion over the past two or three years, and I think this year I’m finally getting a clear picture of why this conflict exists. I’ll think in public about where the points of agreement and disagreement lie, in my view.
3. The state of world language teaching after the invention of the Babel Fish
   How many times have I bristled against education methods I think are outdated and ineffective, from my daughter’s preschool to your Twitter photo of the homework assignment your daughter brought home from her least favorite teacher?  How many times have I listened to my programmer husband talk about a world where the machines will build the machines and there will essentially be no economy?  How did I miss the thought that we are millimeters away from the invention of the Babel Fish?  What is the Babel Fish, and what does it mean for our profession?  Will we watch most of what we’ve clawed and fought for in the last thirty years melt away?  Not to scare you, but I’ll think in public and answer you: Yes.

Raise a glass. Here’s to July.