#1 - START HERE - What Practical Proficiency Means

This is my story of what proficiency-oriented instruction for world language teachers means to me. How I got started with comprehensible input, how much I loved it, messed up, and then learned there was a more practical approach to teaching language. 
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Transcript

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What's up Kloke a saloo World Language teachers welcome to the practical proficiency podcast where we make the transition to proficiency oriented instruction in your world language class in a way that works for you, your unique context and teaching style, and doesn't sacrifice your well being along the way. I'm your host, Devin Gun, the teacher author, conference host, curriculum creator, and consultant behind La Liba language Learning. This podcast is for the creative world language teacher like you, who's ready to ditch the overwhelming pressure of switching to acquisition driven instruction and CI overnight, you're ready to discover how using more target language in class can actually bring you and your students more joy. Instead of adding to your plate with practical, authentic, and down to earth strategies that don't require reinventing the wheel or more training, we'll work together towards the magic of a community based, target language rich classroom rooted in the power of community and comprehensible input. Let's go. What's up, fellow language nerds? Bienvenido, bienida, bienida tus. Welcome to the practical proficiency podcast. I'm your host, Devin Gunning, and I am stoked to hang out with you in this new way. You may know me better in our little cozy corner of the online world as la Libre language learning, or la libre language learning. If you teach Spanish this is a media company that I run for world language teachers. I work behind the scenes full time, although my background comes from high school world language teaching in Spanish and French. But now I work behind the scenes to support you, the teacher, to provide you with comprehensible in foot focused conferences and professional development trainings, curriculum TPT products, and both with private and public companies and schools to move our language programs in the direction of proficiency and acquisition driven instruction. My specialty, and my favorite thing to talk about is curriculum development. And that fiery passion for curriculum comes from how I personally discovered the power of acquisition driven instruction powered through CI. As a high school teacher in South Carolina, where I currently live, I started as a teacher in high school Spanish, one WHOOP WHOOP. And this new philosophy of teaching. This whole approach transformed my classroom from what felt like a dysfunctional, disjointed cog in the school system machine into this thriving community based language hub where kids got to know each other and the world around them via the language that we were using every day in class. Albeit broken, kind of messy, but it was doing amazing things. And what we saw happening in class, too, was that it wasn't just outcomes for me. My students were doing better, their grades were going up, the referrals were going down, and all kinds of greatness was blooming all around us as we were trying this very messy approach. Even when I wasn't very good at it, it made such huge dividends that I was hooked right away. Meanwhile, I myself, behind the scenes, was a mess. I was struggling at home with this full time teaching deal that was way more than full time. Oh, my God. It was way more than 40 hours, and I was struggling at home with a young child and missing all of his important life milestones. And at the same time, I was also going through a health crisis that I was also conveniently ignoring. So I didn't have time or resources to get training on this teaching style that I loved so much. I had to figure it out all on my own, and I made a lot of mistakes. I first tried making the switch to proficiency overnight. Disaster. Then I tried working myself to death. Also a disaster. Then I tried taking everything too seriously, making everything myself. Guess how that worked out. High achievers, anyone? Anyone? Then, after two or three years of this, I couldn't ignore my failing health anymore. It got quite bad. Those of you who know me already know this story, but those of you who are new to our podcast, I have a sometimes debilitating, but now under control migraine condition called intractable migraines. And it came on pretty suddenly in my fourth year of teaching, and I had to get serious about going home on time. Going home on time. I mean, I was light sensitive and sound sensitive, and you can imagine what that was like in a teaching environment. It was quite devastating. Well, switching to all of the extra work that I was doing at home to research and then create lesson plans and all of that work that goes into transitioning to proficiency in the outdated method, I would call it, of trying to get proficiency to work in your classroom. I'm going to show you a better way. That's at the end of the story that I could no longer do. I had to get serious about going home on time because my health simply wouldn't allow it. It was a full stop situation, and switching to going home on time every day. It's not as cool as it sounds. It was actually a disaster for a little while. More on that in a whole nother episode. We'll go down that rabbit hole. But here's what you need to know for now. Something wild started to happen when I eventually, after a few weeks, got used to not spending time at home planning for lessons in addition to my planning periods at school, this wild thing happened. My students actually did better in class, and I became better at teaching them. Granted, the lesson quality wasn't as good. We couldn't do as many of the in depth things that I used to like to do. But I, me, Devin, the teacher, the most important factor in their success, shown time and time again. I was better in class. I was ready for what they brought to the door every day. And whoo, did they bring a lot. This changed everything, and the transformation really began. The lessons started to get better, and as I started to get used to not having a lot of time or resources, I found this new groove. Instead, I threw away the idea of working so damn hard for proficiency. I made proficiency work hard for me, and it was too good to keep to myself. And that's what this podcast is all about. I mean, that's what my company is all about. My company at La Libre language learning. The mission is to share with world language teachers like you that there is a better way, that there is a roadmap to transition to proficiency, to use more strategies that rely on comprehensible input. But that can still feel like you can feel like your teaching style. That doesn't require you to start from scratch or alienate your colleagues or reinvent the wheel every night, but that still gets your students speaking and interacting and creating that community feel that you want in your class. And sure as hell doesn't sacrifice your life outside of the classroom, because you deserve to teach what matters in a way that works and still have a life. So, are you in? I hope so. Because the first step, and the one that everybody usually skips in transitioning to proficiency, is understanding what a proficiency oriented classroom, which is where we teach for the acquisition of language through the lens of comprehensible input. There are many terms for it, but we're all going towards the same place. This is what it actually looks like, understanding the look, feel, and everyday practices of that proficiency focused teacher. So our first series of episodes will be short, sweet, and succinct pieces of the signature la libre framework, which is the ten elements of proficiency oriented instruction in a classroom setting. Here's what you need to know about this podcast. It's about more than just language. I infuse encouragement, joy, motivation, wellness, and mindfulness, and interweave them into the episodes that you'll see on. First, we're doing the elements, and then after that, we will tackle second language acquisition research, then dive into some tactics, the input driven activities, the target language routines, and the things that we teachers love and need from our podcasts. You'll hear from me regularly, and they will usually be in shorter sequences so that if you are a part of commuter university like I was when I was in the classroom, you'll be able to listen to something on your way to and from school and implement it in your classroom that week. You'll also hear occasionally, some longer sessions from my PD membership coaching sessions so that you can take a little sneak peek and see what we talk about behind the curtain, as well as some guest speakers to get different perspectives. And when it is time, our annual practical and comprehensible conference, you'll get some sneaky peekies behind the curtain and some more surprises along the way. So muscle up, buttercup, and let's get into our first session with the ten elements of proficiency oriented instruction. Yeah, as always, I'm rooting for you. Leave a rating. If this helped you in any way, it's the best way to support podcasters like me and share with a colleague, because doing a good deed always brightens your own day. Friend. This is Devin signing off, and I can't wait to see you for our very first official episode into the ten elements of proficiency oriented instruction. See you there. Bye.