Andrew sent us his bio:
Hello, my name is Andrew Edwards. I live in Lincoln, Nebraska but teach in a different city. This is my second year teaching Spanish and my first year teaching with TPRS. I taught using traditional methods and a textbook last year. It was a mess. I drove myself nuts trying to come up with a bunch of activities to fill up 90 minutes every day and was really frustrated with the lack of comprehension and my lack of L2 use in the classroom. A doctoral student in my methods class at the university demonstrated TPRS and I really thought it made sense but really had no idea how to get started. I went to a TPRS workshop presented by Blaine Ray this last June and it was a really great experience. He definitely made it look a lot easier than it really is for the rest of us. This year has been tough and stressful. I still drive myself a little nuts but I feel pretty good about how my Spanish 1 classes are going. Most kids are enjoying the process and I have been using jGR to keep everyone in check. I also teach Spanish 3 but I don’t use TPRS because I don’t have the resources nor the time to “prepare” them for the standardized exams I have to give. This really cramps my style but I am 1 of 6 foreign language teachers and really only one other teacher sees the value in what I’m trying to do. I feel like a couple of them perceive me as a nuisance since I have questioned the purpose of 100 multiple choice, fill in the blank, or, what amounts to a glorified spelling tests insisting on beginners to produce a foreign language with 100% accuracy. I really have no idea how things will play out with my Spanish 1 kids. My biggest fear is that they will go into a traditional Spanish 2 class and be lost, thus, adding fuel to the fire against teaching the way we do. Be that as it may, I have no plans of stopping what I’m doing because it feels right. The kids are listening to and interacting with me in Spanish every single day and I really don’t see the point in anything else. I definitely have a long way to go and am so grateful to have found this PLC. The wealth of knowledge at my fingertips can be a little overwhelming at times but I just keep reminding myself that this is a marathon and not a sprint.