Last month I had the opportunity to attend the Rassias
method class at Belmont Abbey College with Nancy Llewellyn, Jason Slanga, and
Carson Thomas. Here are some of my
thoughts after the weekend:
·
It is most useful to learn new skills and then
have the opportunity to practice in front of and get feedback from colleagues. I have too few opportunities to do this, but
whenever I do it results in powerful learning.
This was a great reminder to me of how I need to be more intentional about
creating these opportunities for myself as a teacher and learner. It also was an important reminder of how imperative
formative feedback is for my students.
The Rassias method drills provide great ways to give non-threatening
formative feedback to students during their process of constructing linguistic
knowledge.
·
Observing other teachers is amazing professional
development. The opportunity to see
Nancy Llewellyn teach a class to her seminarians was essential for helping me
to build my understanding of how these methods could combine into a
lesson. We were given that opportunity
to see her teach early on in the workshop before we had been taught many of the
methods. That observation was important
for building my own motivation to learn the techniques. Motivation is essential for all learners, and
I need to make sure I am paying attention to that with my own students.
·
Language learning should be fun. Nancy’s students were clearly having fun
during class – at the same time as they were being challenged. This made the challenge feel non-threatening
to them and clearly amplified their learning.
When we were practicing the methods ourselves, we teachers also spent a
lot of time laughing together. The fun
we had learning motivated us to be more creative in our linguistic production
to keep the fun going, contributing even more to an already powerful learning
experience. I want to recommit myself
laughing more with my classes.
Teachers know that it is incumbent on us to model lifelong
learning for our students. Attending
this workshop was a great way for me to experience being back in the classroom. If you ever have the chance to attend
yourself, I can’t recommend the experience highly enough. I know they already have dates up for an
October workshop, which you can see here.
My recommendation is to start thinking now about what grants you can
apply for to get there. - Parva
