ABSTRACT
Understanding theory to me was like “Ah ha!” Teachers hear so much
about theory, and when they go to a workshop or an in-service, they
usually say, “Skip the theory, just get to the practical stuff.” And so
much of what I used to do I just did by instinct-I knew what worked,
what would bring results, but I never knew why. Theory helped me
understand why it worked, why A plus B equals C. I understood how
cooperative learning and integrated instruction and sheltered English
all went together; it was like the pieces of a puzzle-they all made
sense together. I realized the things I was doing weren’t just
disconnected pieces, but were part of a design. I found out all these
practical ideas I was using had a theoretical foundation behind them.
