Mosaico - Dreaming Big

I follow a blog called "Spanish and Illinois" by Dr. Ann Abbott who teaches some really interesting Spanish courses at the university level, including classes for business and community service. This recent post shows part of where I hope to take Mosaic Spanish "classes" at the high school level once my students gain a little more proficiency. It discusses how she is making her business class more real - bringing real professionals into the classroom and having her students prepare real products for the real business world, rather than centering instruction around fictions created for practice. Some adjustments need to be made for Mosaic, since my students are not adults and are working from within a public school, but I think really engaging my students in the Spanish speaking world is doable.

One of my biggest struggles, though, is how often I feel like I say "when they get more proficient." This is an important balance because a real, Spanish-speaking businessperson probably wouldn't have a lot of patience for a 14-year-old that has a hard time even introducing herself. However, I need to figure out ways to keep it real even for my newbies. I think I'll start by sharing these big goals and visions of my own that I have for them and their Spanish so that they can see where I honestly believe they can go with their Spanish. Then, I want to provide them with as much information and as many avenues to explore Spanish locally and globally as I can so as to empower them to figure out how they want to authentically interact with a new multilingual world. And who knows? If I can inspire them to orient themselves toward a big goal like developing business relationships with Spanish speakers in the area, perhaps their proficiency grow way faster than in the classroom which by its nature has to be a more fabricated environment than the Mosaic one.

And so it begins...

And this time I really say that enthusiastically!  Today was, as @ryanmcclintock called it, Day 0 of Mosaic. I've come to appreciate the fact that we're figuring this out as we go, which isn't exactly my personality nor is it how I was trained (backwards planning?). I think it's true transformation though, and that is what makes it so exciting. There's a possibility that the Mosaic product will barely resemble the education world from which it evolved. This is not a time for fear, even though I predict that this year will be full of challenges and setbacks.

Roger Ebert said, "Start. Don't look back. If at the end it doesn't meet your hopes, start again. Now you know more about your hopes."

We've started.

Grades, Creativity, and Frustration

Yesterday right after school, I saw one of my prior students in the hall. After our usual pleasantries in Spanish (which, with almost all of my students, consist of only "¿Cómo estás?" and "Bien, ¿y tú?" - another thing to work on...), I asked her if she was going on to Spanish 3 next year. Her answer nearly broke my heart and actually did leave me speechless:

Translating Spanish into Mosaic: Initial challenges and ideas

When I first expressed interest in Mosaic, I told my principal I would like to start with a small group of students that already had experience with Spanish. Our feeder offers Level 1 Spanish spread out over 2 years; my thought was that I would have students that had either one or both years of middle school Spanish completed when they walked into Mosaic. No such luck. The demographics just aren't there: we don't have enough students enrolled that meet that criterion.

Enter challenge number 1:

Brain Rules: Exercise and CV's Mosaic Collective

Image by "PublicDomainPictures". link

I just started Brain Rules by John Medina, and it already has me thinking.

The first section of the book is about brain power and exercise. The information - that in essence, exercise provides more oxygen to the brain and therefore makes it work better - wasn't new to me, but it was something I had brushed off in the past as implausible to incorporate regularly in my classroom. I got nervous thinking about taking 30 students on a walk and expecting them all to get the benefit of exercise AND learn Spanish. With CV's Mosaic Collective though, it seems like anything is possible!