Here is a list of former teachers of the month in our PLC. I felt like listing them here for us to look back on over the past few years to reflect on and appreciate some of the voices who have really infused and enhanced our thinking, helping us along the Road of Change, that needs to be cleared of so much debris so that we can plant nice flowers and new trees and really good signs by the side of the road we are resurfacing. To me, these are the names of real heroes and I don’t know where I would be on my own path in language education without them. It’s like reading the line-up of the ’55 Brooklyn Dodgers:
December 2014 – James Hosler
November 2014 – Catharina Greenberg
October 2014 – Michele Whaley
May 2014 – Sabrina Sebban-Janczak
April 2014 – Greg Stout
March 2014 – Eric Herman
February 2014 – John Piazza
January 2014 – Skip Crosby
December 2013 – Laurie Clarcq
November 2013 – Chris Stoltz
October 2013 – Diane Neubauer
September 2013 – Carol Hill
August 2013 – Mary Beth Tietgens
July 2013 – Jen Schongalla
June 2013 – Robert Harrell
May 2013 – Jody Noble
April 2013 – Angie Dodd
March 2013 – Jeff Brickler
The first Teacher of the Month in 2015 is also a hero. He is someone who has been with us through all the changes. His mind has served as a kind of searchlight into the details of important ideas, vetting them. Able to always add a calm and rational point of view, no matter how crazy the topic, this person could only be from Iowa, where the corn grows straight and the conversation is even straighter.
Jim Tripp gets it. But he doesn’t feel the need to blast others with his high octane knowledge of this work. Indeed, his kindness sets him apart. He has written a great book of story scripts. Ever self-effacing, Jim nevertheless serves to illuminate topics like few others can. We are all better teachers because of his active voice here on the PLC over the years.
Jim’s story scripts – aptly named Tripp’s Scripts – rock. And all a group member has to do is search his name on this page to find a number of the scripts he has shared with us in the past, all ready to go for the classroom when needed.
Here is the bio Jim wrote to introduce himself to the group some years ago:
My first year teaching Spanish was 2006-07. (Previously I had taught English for a few months in Mexico while in college and for several months in Peru after finishing college.) I was assigned 6 sections of Spanish 1 and 2, with a total of 175 students! I don’t know how I didn’t give up after that. I worked SO much, living with my parents and putting in upwards of 80 hours a week, just to hold my classroom together. I was teaching strictly with the textbook, as was the agreement in our huge school (Omaha Central High) of 8 Spanish teachers. I failed something like 40% of students in the one year I was there. All this got from admin was a mention of concern on my final evaluation, but was overshadowed by how well they thought I was doing with discipline and order.
Obviously, I used to think that the teaching of disconnected grammar was the way to go. I remember saying often to my students, “Learning language is like learning math, there are many formulas and you just have to plug in the words and letters to get the right answers”. How little I knew.
Because I had not yet done my student-teaching yet, I had to move back to my college town in NE Iowa and get it finished. (Oh how sore I was to have to PAY $5000 to teach after what I had just “successfully” undergone in one of the biggest inner-city schools in the nation!!) But that led me to where I am now.
I heard about TPRS while interviewing for my first job after the student-teaching semester. The school that hired me agreed to send me to NTPRS in Minneapolis (2008) the summer before I began teaching there. Taking French for three days with Diana Noonan (and an all-star cast of student-actors including Blaine and Von Ray, Joe Neilson, Gerry Wass, etc.) the textbook coffin was sealed. Never would I open another for real teaching purposes.
Although I’ve read Ben’s books and Blaine’s green book, and am glad I did, the main piece of literature from which I studied before the school year began was Ben’s handout from a workshop he did at Omaha Westside High that I downloaded off his site for free. I read it over and over, and it was like learning by osmosis.
This is my 4th year teaching at Spring Grove Community School. Most experiences have been positive and the administration supports my use of a communicative method. The district (which is tiny) is now considering starting an elementary Spanish program.
I also teach an adult Spanish class in Decorah, IA, where I live. It is great, and has given me a newfound appreciation for what I proudly consider to be my trade.
I certainly have my conflicts and personal dilemmas with my job. One of them is having to give kids extrinsic rewards (i.e. grades). I fundamentally disagree with doing it after reading Punished by Rewards. And after reading a John Taylor Gatto book called Weapons of Mass Instruction, I now realize how shady the entire institution really is and what its main objectives are, despite our best intentions. So I keep plugging away, trying to make the changes that I can make where I am. Hard times man. But TPRS is a big step in the right direction in my opinion. Glad to have you all here to help me get better at it.
Thank you for all you have done to make us better teachers, Jim. You rock the CI house and all the other houses too. If they can’t hear your music yet, they will one day.