Connections

I have prepared for my travel, read the itinerary (chapter), and am hoping to make connections to reach my destination. But, as is true for most travels, I am not making all my connections. And I m frustrated. I didn't count on slow internet connections that would make me waste 30 minutes to upload a 1 minute video. With the time difference, I can only work on things when my fellow travelers are either already done with their contributions, or haven't started yet. Though the online travel is supposed to be more user friendly due to some time and space differences, I am finding those very frustrating right now.

I am also missing the company of my fellow travelers face to face. In a way, it feels like the joy I get from seeing smiles and getting to know strangers along the way is gone. Reading contributions is not as wonderful as sharing shared time in a cramped space. Complaining or dealing with delays is more enjoyable when you can share a shared cup of coffee at the gate.

And yet, knowing that this travel is different than my previous journeys makes me want to figure out how to do this well. Most memorable journeys come with detours. I am hoping I can keep that in mind.

Aufbruch

Aufbruch is the German word for departure. As I am packing for an early morning flight to Berlin with my 2 year old to surprise my dad for his 75th birthday, I am also looking at Bolt 101 as a departure point to new ideas and impulses to keep rethinking how to teach better and evolve in my thinking about technologies in Spanish instruction. 

There are a lot of content pieces available that claim to teach Spanish in "just a few minutes" a day (Rosetta Stone, I am looking at you). Colleagues are "learning German" using duolingo and other online tools, and yet, they seldom get past the vocab list-like memorization and recitation of grammar rules. But language is more than that. So much more than that. Language is a tool for communication between human beings, involving sounds and rules and words, yes: but also involving culture and history and art and wit and humor and gestures and touch and emotions. 

As I prepare for departure both in the very real sense of putting things into my suitcase and checking items necessary for travel off the list, I am looking forward to getting help packing my suitcase for the journey of including technologies to make my students' language journey a worthwhile one.