What is MY plan!?

Last night I tossed and turned all night thinking that I really need to start planning for my two day workshop coming up! I am so excited for it.

How on EARTH do I begin to plan for a workshop titled “NO PLAN LESSON PLANNING” ?! Seriously!? HA!

Then I realized, I can’t plan for it. If I am going to show everyone in my session exactly HOW I have been liberated from the chains of planning, I have to MODEL it myself. I always say we need to MODEL! MODEL! MODEL! for our students, well that is what I need to do for all of the AMAZING teachers who have come to learn to take hours off of their afternoons/evenings/weekends spent writing lesson plans, creating presentations, and preparing for countless preps.

So what IS my plan?

My plan is to MODEL a true “non-targeted” classroom. I want my “students”, the teachers who sign up to learn with me, to experience first hand what it is like to acquire language in a non-targeted classroom. I will use strategies like Story Listening, Movie Talk, PQA, Picture Talk, and many more to model HOW I teach non-targeted but more importantly, I will be modeling how I use body and facial cues from my students to steer my every move as a teacher. Throughout this “modeling” I will incorportate my favorite Brain Breaks so participants walk away with TONS of ideas for those too!

The second important part of these two days will be the de-construction of WHAT it is that I modeled. After the morning of experiencing acquisition in non-targeted ways, we will talk about the various strategies I used and HOW I decided to steer and guide the class the way I did. We will also talk about other possible strategies I could have implemented or other ways the class could have gone based on different student populations. Then finally, YOU, the TEACHERS, will get to experiment and practice non-targeted techniques. YOU will get to be the driver, and experience how amazing your lessons can be with literally NO pre-planning whatsoever.

Your time is precious and valuable. Teacher burn-out is as real as it is terrifying. We CANNOT afford to have teachers who understand the importance of language acquisition through Comprehensible Input “burn out”! We need to be CAREER teachers! The best way I have discovered to allows for that, is through this non-targeted, no planning approach! I am preserving myself, my energy, and my enthusiasm for the hours I spend IN my classroom WITH my students! 🙂

More than anything, I promise to keep you entertained and laughing over these two days of workshop! 🙂 That is an absolute guarantee! Summers shouldn’t be spent doing boring PD, and I promise that is the farthest thing from what I have “planned” for Cascadia! I hope to see a few of you there!

 

Until next time,

HAPPY VACATIONING!

Love,

La Maestra Loca