Probably the single hardest thing about changing your practice from traditional Latin teaching to an acquisition-oriented approach is...
Speaking Latin? Nah. Writing comprehensible texts? Nope. Dealing with new classroom management challenges? Nuh-uh. Learning a whole new set of activities and trying not to fall back into the old comfy rut of grammar-translation? Not that either. Preparing your students for an old-school, hardcore G/T teacher? Guess again!
Dealing with constant, crushing self-doubt as you change your entire mindset regarding the goals and methods of Latin teaching, WHILE doing the above?
Oh yeah, there we go.
For this, the number one thing I recommend is that you USE THE COMMUNITY. None of us learned Latin the way we're now teaching it. It doesn't come naturally. We will always be looking over our shoulder to see what our high school teacher or first college professor would have thought of what we're doing now.
Add to that the fact that we're on a hugely steep learning curve with all new goals, methods, activities, and also functionally re-learning Latin as a spoken language? Yeah, self-doubt is normal.
Speaking Latin? Nah. Writing comprehensible texts? Nope. Dealing with new classroom management challenges? Nuh-uh. Learning a whole new set of activities and trying not to fall back into the old comfy rut of grammar-translation? Not that either. Preparing your students for an old-school, hardcore G/T teacher? Guess again!
Dealing with constant, crushing self-doubt as you change your entire mindset regarding the goals and methods of Latin teaching, WHILE doing the above?
Oh yeah, there we go.
For this, the number one thing I recommend is that you USE THE COMMUNITY. None of us learned Latin the way we're now teaching it. It doesn't come naturally. We will always be looking over our shoulder to see what our high school teacher or first college professor would have thought of what we're doing now.
Add to that the fact that we're on a hugely steep learning curve with all new goals, methods, activities, and also functionally re-learning Latin as a spoken language? Yeah, self-doubt is normal.
Some tips to cope
Join TLA or one of Justin Schwamm's Virtual PLCs, and talk about your struggles. That's a huge part of why these groups exist.
Be patient with yourself. Be patient with your students.
Don't try to change everything at once. If you try to change everything at once anyway, let yourself drop some of the balls you have in the air. Focus on juggling one new thing before you worry about juggling two, or three, or sixty.
If you realize you WERE doing something good, but it kind of fell by the wayside, don't panic about having dropped it. You can bring it back when you're ready.
If you try something once and it bombs, examine why. Post on TLA. Ask your students, for goodness' sake. THEY know why it bombed. Then? Try it again, only better. If it still bombs? Give it some time, then repeat the same steps, and try again.
Or, if you don't feel like it, don't try it again. There are so many millions of great ideas for teaching toward acquisition. If one of them isn't working for you, try a different one. I don't like movie talks. Another blogger who's super good at movie talks can't stand TPR. Many teachers I know don't like story asking at all. Story asking! The backbone of TPRS! And yet, they do well anyway. That's why we talk about a BOX of tools, not a single do-it-all practice.
Don't measure your students' progress the way your progress was measured. If they're not learning by the grammar-translation method, then no, they're not going to be able to talk to you about grammar in the terms you're used to. They're not going to be able to parse like you had to.
Read the stuff below. And post on TLA. :)
Be patient with yourself. Be patient with your students.
Don't try to change everything at once. If you try to change everything at once anyway, let yourself drop some of the balls you have in the air. Focus on juggling one new thing before you worry about juggling two, or three, or sixty.
If you realize you WERE doing something good, but it kind of fell by the wayside, don't panic about having dropped it. You can bring it back when you're ready.
If you try something once and it bombs, examine why. Post on TLA. Ask your students, for goodness' sake. THEY know why it bombed. Then? Try it again, only better. If it still bombs? Give it some time, then repeat the same steps, and try again.
Or, if you don't feel like it, don't try it again. There are so many millions of great ideas for teaching toward acquisition. If one of them isn't working for you, try a different one. I don't like movie talks. Another blogger who's super good at movie talks can't stand TPR. Many teachers I know don't like story asking at all. Story asking! The backbone of TPRS! And yet, they do well anyway. That's why we talk about a BOX of tools, not a single do-it-all practice.
Don't measure your students' progress the way your progress was measured. If they're not learning by the grammar-translation method, then no, they're not going to be able to talk to you about grammar in the terms you're used to. They're not going to be able to parse like you had to.
Read the stuff below. And post on TLA. :)
More to read
- What to do when everything is terrible by me, Ellie Arnold
- Pacing Yourself by Keith Toda
- One Step at a Time by Keith Toda
- The Perils of Comparing & Despairing by Keith Toda
- This Time of the Year by Keith Toda
- Raw feelings & Follow up to raw feelings post by me, Ellie Arnold: These are two things I posted recently about how I was feeling. A lot of people have found them helpful. There aren't really any tips in there, but it's nice not to be alone.