Last week, BAA’s Center for Arts in Education hosted Darcy Rogers for a full-day workshop on her Organic Language Acquisition (OLA) technique. I first met Darcy at her school, Crater Renaissance Academy in Oregon, and then I ran into her again at the Coalition of Essential Schools Fall Forum, where she presented her workshop on OLA- a kinesthetic approach to learning a language. I knew we had to get her in to BAA, so when I learned she was coming to the Parker School in Western Mass, I jumped at the chance!
We had about 15 educators from Boston and the surrounding areas as well as Boston Public Schools central office folks (including Yu-Lan Lin, the World Languages Program Director for BPS) attend the full-day workshop, which included BAA students actually learning the technique alongside the adults!
I see Darcy’s work as one of the many valuable techniques that innovative teachers develop to counter the increasingly high-stakes-testing-obsessed culture we live with in our schools. In my new role next year as Executive Director of BAA’s Center for Arts in Education, I am excited to sponsor more workshops and institutes featuring work like Darcy’s… We were so glad she could join us at BAA for this high-energy workshop!
Dear Linda,
Thank you so much for bringing Darcy to work with BPS teachers. Darcy’s enthusiasm and energy was contagious from the very first moment we met with a hug. Her method, using the target language exclusively along with TPR type of kinesthetic movements proved to be highly effective, particularly when demonstrated through BAA Spanish class students. I love to invite Darcy back in the future for more WL teachers to experience a method that really works for both teachers and students to use target language only in the WL classrooms. Thank you so much for the opportunity. Yu-Lan