There is another Ben in our group so now we have Ben Lev and me and now Ben Orwin from Arizona:
Ben,
I have not been too active on the PLC, but I do appreciate the chance to hear people’s successes, trials and ideas when it comes to Comprehensible Input. Here is my bio:
My name is Ben Orwin. I teach Spanish 1 at Skyline High School in Mesa, AZ, and have been teaching for almost nine years now. About five years ago Carol Gaab gave a presentation in my district using TPRS. I thought it was interesting, mainly because I already understood the language she was teaching in, but I wasn’t sold on it right away. The next year, Susan Gross did a similar workshop in my district. I attended mainly because I wanted a day off school, and I wanted the professional development hours. Her presentation was in French, and I was completely blown away by how much I learned in those few hours, and how much I retained. It was at that moment that I decided to use TPRS and other Comprehensible Input methods exclusively. Needless to say, CI changed my life…for the better. My students are more engaged, I have very few discipline issues, and I am genuinely excited to go to work. It wasn’t like that before, and I don’t ever plan on going back!
Ben Orwin