Reflective Post- 12/5/14

Through this semester I have learned about the various considerations one needs to take when teaching such as: the multiple intelligences theory, Masow's hierarchy of needs, the PDE SAS standards, Pennsylvania common core, Pennsylvania certification requirements and constructing a lesson plan. It has surprised me, how much needs to be taken into consideration when one is planning on educating students. Through the inter-cultural nature of the book The Smartest Kids in the World and How They Got There, I have learned that it is relatively easy, in some states to become a teacher in the United States. This greatly disturbs me because I am a firm believer that teaching is not something that you can just do, it has to be something that you love and have a passion for. It is greatly disturbing that those who may not be "cut out" for teaching still can skirt by and have daily interaction with very impressionable youth.

My blogs focused mainly on foreign language education and how popular educational concepts are utilized in the foreign language classroom. For example: implications of bloom's taxonomy in the foreign language classroom, the issue of homework, common core combined with the ACTFL standards and explicit grammar instruction. There were no noticeable shifts in my writing perspective, as I began the blog writing from the perspective of a teacher and ended the blog writing from the perspective of a teacher.

As a learner, I am very self-motivated, driven and a bit of a perfectionist. This is a good and bad quality to possess as sometimes I cannot control all of the situations that I am placed in. This semester has taught me that I sometimes need to accept my best as my actual best and that I cannot control all of the small details of something. These dispositions have helped me as I complete my school work with no external motivation and always complete assignments to the best of my ability.

As a teacher I will face the challenge of getting my students to believe that German is a subject worth taking. It is not a throw away course and can actually be used in the real world. I can overcome this obstacle by demonstrating the use of German in a real word situation through my lessons and teaching my students cross-cultural skills that can be applied to other countries they may visit in the future.

I remain very committed to teaching, as each education class I take reaffirms my passion for teaching and working with students. I feel that teaching is my calling and am very excited to be working directly with students next semester as a student teacher.

Taking this course has not changed my opinion on teaching. I am very confident that I have chosen the correct major because I enjoy all aspects of teaching: working with students, lesson planning and curriculum. I am very passionate about students and my content area.

As a teacher, I strive to always be advancing my knowledge of my content area, I wish to engage my students and spark their love for foreign language. One of my personal goals is to remain professional in the field and refrain from gossiping, no matter how tempting, as in the end, gossiping is only hurtful to those mentioned and is quite unprofessional. Another professional goal I have is to visit German-speaking countries frequently, in order to keep my information for my students current.

Explicit Grammar Instruction- 11/7/14

In the world of foreign language instruction there is a consistent debate about explicit versus implicit grammar instruction.

Explicit instruction of grammar means that forms are called to the students attention and grammar rules are formally explained in a classroom setting. This typically is done through lecture in the classroom. An example using the English language would be: The indefinite article "a" is used before nouns that begin with a consonant. The indefinite article "an" is used before nouns that begin with vowels (a,e,i,o,u). These rules are then rehearsed with specific, form based examples such as fill in the blank and sentence translations: fill in the appropriate indefinite article. "I ate               apple for lunch today." In implicit grammar instruction, rules and grammar rule practice such as fill in the blank are not stressed. When grammar is stressed in the implicit method, the examples are presented in a real world context.

The implicit grammar method leads the teacher to focus on meaning rather than the grammar form, as one learns their native language as a child. (Think of children being allowed to make grammatical errors in their native language without being asked to use a specific grammar form) English language example: "Me want to play outside". An example within implicit instruction in a German classroom would be: How would you order in a German restaurant? Create a skit with a partner.

(image: google images) 

In my opinion as both a language learner and teacher, implicit instruction is a less stressful method for students as they are allowed to make grammatical errors, just as one does when they are first learning a language as a young child. I prefer to teach using the implicit method, as it promotes communication in a real world context, rather than in a grammatically driven sense. However, explicit grammar instruction can have its place in the foreign language classroom. Some students enjoy the grammar tables and charts that come with learning a foreign language and will become frustrated when implicit instruction is used because they want to know the grammatical rules of the language. 

There will never really be one definitive answer to how one teaches grammar in the foreign language classroom. A truly wonderful teacher does what it best for his or her students and teaches in a way where the students will understand and benefit from the instruction. At the end of the day, students do not care about the fancy names we give to pedagogical concepts, they care that they are learning and that their needs are being met in the classroom environment.