I teach a full German program at Pacifica High School in Garden Grove, CA. I’ve been at Pacfiica for 16 years, and this is the only public school in which I have taught. (Before becoming a teacher I worked at a variety of other jobs, including an airline, a private seminary, a church, and an entertainment establishment.)
I first became aware of TPRS at a California Language Teachers Conference but was not impressed by the presentation. However, my master teacher for my credential and my professors in the credential program put a heavy emphasis on comprehensible input, so I was already pre-disposed to a comprehension-based approach. Later I assisted a fellow student in a methods course with a presentation of TPRS. At that time I became much more interested in the method. Finally I attended a workshop by Michael Miller sponsored by AATG (American Association of Teachers of German) Southern California, purchased his materials and got started. Unlike many other practitioners of TPRS I was by no means utterly frustrated with my job and teaching but simply always seeking ways to improve, and I saw TPRS as superior to what I was doing. It gives me a solid but flexible framework with which to work. I did not jump immediately into TPRS but gradually worked into it, trying to adapt the method and my textbook. This continued for a couple of years and was very difficult, so eventually I relegated the textbook to its proper place as a reference for those who wish to do more research and as a source for some readings.
As TPRS and other CI-based methods and strategies have evolved I have attempted to keep up with them, and the feedback I have gotten through your blog has been extremely helpful. I believe that the future lies in individuals and groups collaborating and sharing with one another their successes and failures in implementing Comprehension-based strategies and methods. Thanks for continuing the blog, even though you have had to modify its original format.