Being Mrs. Mean

I came down hard on my level 3 kids today. I told them I was frustrated because they are in an upper level Spanish class, have sufficient vocabulary, are capable students... yet I hear them speaking in English WAY too much. So I put my foot down. I have had this talk with them before and they usually shape up for part of the class, but slowly, they somehow manage to go back to being lazy and putting forth minimal effort.

The "transition year" is always hard. I came in with different expectations, different rules, different ideas, and different teaching methods than the previous teacher, which resulted in a) my students getting frustrated because of the changes I was trying to implement and b) me getting frustrated because I expected more from them than what I was getting. I started out being perhaps a little too gentle and accommodating to my level 2, 3, and AP students in this year of transition, trying to keep my expectations more or less the same as the previous teacher, but that's impossible when we are different people/teachers; it's hard to be someone you're not!

So I took a stand today to rid my classroom of their former ways and I decided to start giving them a grade each class as to how much Spanish they speak in class. Needless to say, they stared at me with wide eyes, complained, and thought I was being Mrs. Mean because, heaven forbid, I was making them actually speak in Spanish 99% of the time. But it's almost 4th quarter and it's time to for them to spread their wings and give it go. Besides, how can you possibly learn a language without consistently hearing it and speaking it? Additionally, Bangkok isn't quite the happenin' place to find people who speak Spanish, so really class time is the only time where they will consistently speak/listen/read/write in the target language.

So how did the class go? Well, after they got over their initial shock and being completely terrified of me, it was stinkin' awesome. I heard SO much Spanish... to be honest, I don't think I even heard one word of English the entire time. They were actually readily volunteering answers instead of me taking "victims" because they wanted their points so badly. They were thinking so hard and putting forth so much effort; it was amazing! And even better, at the end of the class they didn't think it was that hard to get their full points, so we all walked away happy.

I'm disappointed that it takes receiving a grade to motivate them to consistently speak in Spanish, but if that is what it takes to turn my classroom into what I hope for it to be, then I will gladly do it. Unfortunately, kids don't seem to want to learn for the sake of learning... I guess that's something that just comes with age?! I'm also disappointed that I didn't implement this grade earlier in the year... I let it go on waaaay too long in the hopes that it would improve by itself, but they definitely needed extra motivation to change their ways.

Fortunately, my AP kids got this talk early in the year since I expect a lot from them simply because they are AP students. But they also are really motivated to take in and produce as much as they can because they have an exam to pass. My level 1 kids are also very good... they consistently speak in Spanish because that's what I expected from them from the start and they don't know anything different... granted, there is often some Spanglish as they have limited vocabulary, but they definitely use what they know. My level 2 kids unfortunately might need the same talking to that I gave my level 3 kids today... hopefully I will get the same response/result.

Whenever I have done teacher evaluations, one of the most common things that students say about my teaching is that I always speak in Spanish no matter what the level. [I don't, because I do a lot of difficult grammar explanations in English, but it seems like I do to the kids]. Sometimes it is very frustrating to my students because they just want immediate comprehension/instant gratification... I completely understand that because I have been there before. But I know that I wouldn't be where I am now, doing what I'm doing if it hadn't been for my Spanish teachers doing the same thing to me... not to mention having a complete immersion experience in Spain.

So sure, my students call me Mrs. Mean because I make them speak in Spanish 99% of the time because I can take it [as long as they say it in Spanish]. :)