the first day

     Our first day in my district was scheduled for January 4th. The weather decided that the teachers and students needed an extended winter break. This is nice in some ways. (More time to prepare! More time with my family!) However, I don't think my nerves can take much more of a delay. I try to extend myself a little more each semester. This semester, I plan to use Immediate Immersion a bit more faithfully. This means opening the semester with extended student conversation surrounding the students' favorite activities. There seem to be a variety of names for this. Circling. Circling with balls. PQA. Power PQA. Card talk. I'm sure there are some that I haven't heard of yet. Some people have mastered this on the first try. Their conversations flow effortlessly in any language they speak. They remember the words for obscure hobbies without a dictionary.

     I am not that person.

     In fact, this technique has bombed every time I've tried it. I have had decent success with a highly scripted version of this later in the year, but it always feels somewhat artificial. Every technique is not for every teacher. I know that. However, I finally got to experience this technique in person at ACTFL 2017 as a student. I'm not generally a learn-through-doing type, but this was different. This was fabulous. It was relaxed. It was teacher-intensive, but it was not as teacher-focused as I'd always thought, if that makes sense. I don't know why I couldn't see it from the videos I've watched of people using this. Why did it make a difference that I was a student rather than an observer? I was not even one of the students compared in this presentation, but for whatever reason it clicked.

     The teacher's guide starts with the students, but I think to build my confidence and the students' I will start as Scott did in his Power PQA video, by talking about myself first before discussing the students. Only one class this semester is Spanish 1. My other three are Spanish 2, but some of the students will be mine, and some of the students will belong to my coworker's Spanish 1. I'm following the activity conversations with Spanish 2 as well because I'm hoping it will serve as a decent review of this vocabulary for my Spanish 2 students and quite honestly I don't think I'm ready to implement two separate versions. Wish me luck!