November, 2021…My last post was in November of 2021.
Every time I think about posting, the voice in the back of my head that promotes my imposter syndrome tells me that I have nothing of note to say. Sometimes, I wish I could go back to the young and naive version of myself that thought I knew everything…
I recently saw this and it has put everything into perspective for me RE blogging and putting my ideas and observations on the internet. It’s known as the Dunning-Krueger Effect.
My earliest posts were at the peak of Mount Stupid; I had just learned about all this new stuff and I felt like the world was my oyster…I could do ANYTHING!!!! I was the GREATEST TEACHER IN THE WORLD!!!!! The reality is that I had no idea how much out there I didn’t know.
As I have continued in my career teaching and using CI in the classroom, I have begun to learn how much there is to know and plugging away at becoming a better teacher and practitioner. I spent a lot of time wallowing in the Valley of Despair. Thankfully, I finally feel like I’m reaching the top of the Slope of Enlightenment and I will be at the Plateau soon, I hope.
That being said, I have not just been a despairing sad sack. On the contrary, I have been a busy little Spanish teacher in the time between then and now. I have been working as the Scholarships Director for SCOLT (If you are a teacher who wants to go on a trip to learn more about your target language and culture, let me know! (scholarships@scolt.org). I’ve also been working with NNELL as the Florida state representative. If you are a Florida elementary teacher and have questions or things to share about your program or school, let me know that too! (senorfernie@gmail.com)
Those things are super cool and super fun, but the biggest thing(s) I have been doing, outside of teaching, has been getting Paco, El Pingüino Perdido off the ground.
“Paco, you say? That sounds familiar. Didn’t you have a story about Paco in your elementary classes? He’s a penguin who misses his parents or something like that.”
Something like that, indeed.
In the time that I have been not posting, I was working on adapting Paco into a full-length novel!
The book finally came out in August, 2022 and is available from the Wayside Publishing website!
I hope you check it out and use it with your own students!
senor fernie 