Day 266: Picasso FTW

This is going to be pithy, because I NEED to thesis...

Today Pineapple almost cried in class thinking about how little amount of time remained. I laughed at her, but when I went in the teacher's lounge and found out that we only have three weeks left together instead of the four and a half I thought we had, I almost cried, too! >_< Brother.

Bachi class was wonderful as usual, and I asked them to all write a few comments about the blog project for my thesis. I made sure to make it anonymous and tell them they could write if they hated it or whatever - no problem. And so when I went to read all of their comments and they were all ridiculously glowing and positive (some of them even thanking me and claiming I was the best English teacher they'd ever had - ?!?!!?), I melted a little. Awww... my Bachis. <3

The more theory I read on bilingual education and language acquisition, the more I'm realizing that my silly little English classes with them might actually be a slice of pure brilliance... certainly without me doing it on purpose or even realizing it until now. See, Krashen (one of the most important language acquisition theorists - don't worry, you'll read more about him in my thesis... hahaha) has proven that learning grammar really doesn't do a whole lot for a person... what makes them really acquire a language and get proficient in it is something he calls "comprehensible input" - pieces of information in the target language which are relayed and understood by the learner. He has an entire theory which simply states that one best aquires communication through... yeah... communicating. But this only really pays off if the learning enviornment has low anxiety, encourages self-esteem and truly motivates students.

I don't mean to be pompous, but I'm pretty sure we just described the classes I have with my Bachis. ;)

Grammar is never even mentioned - all we really do is sit around and chat and work on their blogs and get the giggles about stuff. It's HIGHLY nontraditional, and studies are showing that the more nontraditional the foreign language class, the better! Not that I'm claiming to have known that... all I really did for the class was try to put myself in their shoes. I asked myself what I would have wanted had I gotten to have a native girl from Spain come to my Spanish class two hours a week when I was a Junior in high school. The only answer I really came up with was that I'd have wanted the girl to be cool and on our level... maybe teach us some slang and some cool cultural differences... but mostly just make us feel comfortable and awesome and free to be ourselves - in her language.

In the back of my mind, I've always tried to think, if any of these kids started dating an American kid in a year or two... would they be linguistically and culturally equipped to do so? That was my goal. I am a WEIRD teacher, but I'll be honest and say that was my sole goal. And I'm proud to say that I think most of them totally could rock a relationship with an American at this point. ;) Hell yeah they could! They might become annoyed by the American, depending on what kind of American they got (haha), but linguistically and culturally, I have faith they could keep up. :-P

Anyway, the second best part of my day was my private lesson with Picasso!!! When I started classes with him a few months ago, even his teacher told me he was a bit of a hopeless case. But I refused to listen. Some days were a little more worrisome than others, but holy crap that kid has come a long ways! Today we were discussing PRODUCERS, CONSUMERS WHOLESALERS AND RETAILERS. And you know what? He had that crap down better than I did! I asked him if he could explain them to me, and he just sat there. I wasn't surprised, really. But then, all of a sudden, he got up, rearranged somethings, and put on a mini one-man theatrical play about it. HOLY CRAP DUDE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He even managed to insert a joke about "Where's the house? By the warehouse!"

HAhahahhah. I laughed so hard. I didn't even think of that one.

We then got to transport. When the book said airplanes were public transport and not private, I squeaked in disagreement. Picasso smiled at me and explained (in English of course) that he'd thought that was totally incorrect, too, but his teacher had shut him down. I told him tomorrow in class I'd have it out with her and get to the bottom of it. He laughed.

He's so cool.

But when we had five minutes left and he still had two workbook pages ('cause we'd spent the whole hour going over the whole chapter and discussing it and acting it out and giggling about it - actually, time very well spent, in all), I knew it wasn't going to happen. Instead of telling him to do it, I asked if he was ready to go for it. He said no at first, but I realized it was just because he was clearing a work space free of distractions. Then, all of a sudden, he just started GOING CRAZY FAST.

HE GOT THE WHOLE THING FINISHED IN THOSE FIVE MINUTES - NO ERRORS AT ALL.

HOLY CRAP, DUDE.

When I asked him what that was all about, he said, simply, "Well, we were in a hurry, right?"

O_O

Dude... what??? How... how did you get so awesome??? o_O

Man, if his teachers could have seen him in that moment, they would have SHIT their pants. No joke. The word "shit" is necessary here.

His teachers always said he was capable of it, but didn't know how to get him to work.

And then I come along... not really trying all too hard... and BOOM.

I'm glad he did it for me and not for them, though... because they would have SCREAMED at him for not having done it earlier in the year... whereas I was just amused and taken aback and thinking he was awesome. Way to fool those MoFos (sorry - again, necessary) for so long, kid! I tip my hat to 'ya. You really had some of them thinking that you actually had learning disorders and crap... but nah... they just didn't get you.

Heh.

I love kids like that.

Way to show up those adults. Make 'em look like fools.

Sometimes I think I should not be a teacher. Because this is how I think. But other times, I think, this is EXACTLY why I make such a GOOD teacher. ;)

THESIS TIME.
XOXO