Thoughts on being dogmatic

Image source: https://thesaurus.plus/related/biased/dogmatic

I love my job, especially since I shifted away from the textbook to do more CI and using stories. I teach at a fantastic school in New Hampshire. My students are awesome. I work with good people. I also coach cross-country and I love that. I love working with teenagers. I love teaching Spanish. I love delivering interesting cultural content to my students. I love to see my students process the Cultural Ps and reflect on their own lives. I love it when they can understand something or say something spontaneously in Spanish. I love having conversations with them in Spanish. I love to see so many of them go on and minor (and a few major) in Spanish. And I love seeing "non-academic" students be engaged and successful. I love "comprehensifying and extending" authentic resources. I also love professional development; I am kinda a nerd about it. I listen to SLA podcasts. I love reading books about teaching (see below for some suggestions). I love going to conferences and learning from others. I also love presenting. I love trying to come up with good "I can" statements for units. I love trying to incorporate the 5 Cs. I love collaborating with others and have developed relationships and even friendships with lots of teachers throughout the country through #langchat. And I love sharing and trying to help others, especially teachers who are on the same journey to shift their teaching. And I love traveling and bringing back what I learn to the classroom. I also love traveling with students.

But, lately, I have been feeling a bit discouraged (and perhaps I need to take a step back from social media!). I have noticed a lot of dogmatic (and sometimes aggressively and cultishly preachy) language teachers. I am seeing more and more teachers who have an attitude of 

• "our way or the highway"
• "moral obligation" to teach this way 
• "I listen to... and you are doing it wrong" 
• "So and so says..., so you have to do it that way" 
• "I am a language teacher, I don't teach about culture"
• "Authentic resources should never be used because..." 
• "You should never teacher grammar." 

Wow, this dogmatic attitude is not helping teachers! And it certainly not going to encourage teachers to shift their teaching! So, after a few recent conversations and a weird tweet exchange on #langchat about #authres (which ended with someone blocking me), I realized that I have to make sure that I am not being dogmatic! I have this blog because I want to share and help others. And, fortunately, I have had a lot of people who have contacted me and thanked me and/or shared back... and that keeps me going!

So, let's respect each other and value each other's journey... and maybe be a little less dogmatic.

On the note of being a bit of a nerd when it comes to PD and being an informed and educated language teacher, here are some of my favorite books, podcasts, and YouTube videos that I have read/listened to/watched in the past few years. I have taken a lot from these... and I have also not taken some things.

• Words and Actions: Teaching Languages Through the Lens of Social Justice
• A Natural Approach to Stories (helped me to do more untargeted CI!)
• The Big CI Book
• Not a book, but the ACTFL 21st Century Skills Map (love page 4)
• ACTFL Proficiency Examples
• The Keys to Planning and Learning
• Also not a book, but the "I can" statements have helped me improve my teaching a lot
• Podcasts: here and here
• Eric Herman is doing some awesome stuff here and here
• CI Peek from Fluency Matters
• One book that is on my list to read is While we're on the topic