Here is a very nice report from a new teacher to this work, Matthew Webster, who teaches in Colorado Springs:
Ben,
I was the quiet, deer-in-the-headlights guy sitting in the back of the Denver war room at IFLT. (Everything was pretty new to me, and people were talking exclusively in acronyms and acting like this was a completely normal way to speak.)
I work in a very textbook-centric department. Department meetings in the past usually consisted of making sure we were literally all on the same page, assigning similar worksheets, giving similar vocab quizzes, grammar quizzes, and tests. Fun stuff. This year I have tossed out the textbook entirely and gone all in with CI. Far from crashing and burning, some very exciting things are happening. I was talking with one colleague about what I was doing in my class, and she asked to observe me do a story. The class she happened to watch was, in my mind, absolutely dead. Low energy, low engagement. This is partly because I went a bit too fast and lost some kids, and partly was just one of those days. Despite being one of the worst classes I’ve had this year, she was blown away by how fun my class was, how engaged my kids seemed, and how after just a few weeks my year one kids were ahead of her year 2 and year 3 kids in actual communicative ability. Based only on that observation, she decided to try her hand at TPRS the very next week. She is hooked, and we officially have a convert.
I have the daughter of one of my fellow Spanish teachers in another class. The daughter went home and told her mom that we spent the entire class period speaking Spanish and told a hilarious story about zombies. This was the only thing she remembered about school that day. Now that teacher wants to know more about TCI and TPRS, and is coming to a Carol Gaab workshop we’re putting on next week for CCFLT.
Another teacher was complaining about how stupid her first year students were because some of them still don’t know what “de donde eres” means. She knows she taught it. They are just lazy and stupid. I smiled and told her how glad I am that none of my students are stupid or lazy. In fact, one of my first year students had just said to me in class in perfect Spanish, “I don’t prefer unicorn burgers, I prefer Mr. Webster burgers. Mr. Webster tastes like bacon. I want a Mr. Webster burger.”
I am constantly making mistakes and falling flat on my face…but I can tell you already that I am never looking back.
Matthew