It seems like a lot of the new CI based teachers are around 30. The other day, Diana and I found ourselves sitting at a table with some of our TCI group and Joseph (30), Jesse (29) and Erin (27) were sitting all right across from us. And now here is another blog bio from Andrew, who is 31. Hmmm. This is a very very good thing! Meet Andrew:
Hi Ben,
My name is Andrew Graff and I am in my third year of teaching at the secondary level, having taught post-secondary for a few years as a grad student in my early-mid twenties (I’m now going on 32.)
I teach German and French — at the moment, I teach one class of German I in each of my district’s middle schools, and a class each of German 1 and French 2 at our high school.
I came to TPRS via many whispered hopes of reaching more students more often, and also keeping my sanity. I began to try my hand at TPRS after my first real encounter: a day workshop with Carol Gaab at NECTFL 2010.
I am lucky enough to be in a district where I can inject as much TPRS/CI as I want, as long as I am convincing: the kids, in turn their parents, and in particular the administration. My colleagues are open to what I am trying.
To be honest, I believe that their tolerance is far more due to a shared vague/weak long-standing dictum of “we all get ‘there’ in different ways, we all have different methods” than to any abiding interest in a better teaching paradigm. But I’ll take it.
And there’s hope – at a countywide language-teacher dinner shindig during World Language Month, a TPRS/CI-fellow from a college in NJ spoke, beginning with a TPRS Dutch lesson and introducing a wide variety of CI activities. Ironically, I was not able to attend, but many of my most diehard packet-preparing colleagues were there. And they raved about it for days.
My weakness and ever-present area-of-opportunity is classroom discipline. Your clarity on this matter, and your clearly delineated reasons for the teaching-to-the-eyes and demanding complete attention, were an inspiration throughout the year, albeit one that I did not live up to. [ed. note: me neither]
My goals for the coming year:
1) articulate a level 1 curriculum for German which a) is drenched in CI b) provides many examples of CI-masked-as-fun-games c) assesses as oft as possible in short, targeted, ideally self-grading ways, likely with regular tech use: homework on Wordchamp/Quia/GoogleVoice and quizzes on Quia [in addition to the end-of-class quizzes based on the day’s CI]
2) have all of #1 set up for next year, so that I can concentrate as much energy as possible on facilitating the CI.
3) articulate TPRS tenets with the book “Teach Like A Champion” – which is being embraced by my district. Happily, the book’s ideas are very TPRS-friendly: teach to the eyes, demand squared shoulders and visible cues of attentiveness, assess frequently and with varied means, teach for mastery.
4) be convincing and get the enrollment way up! Garner support from as many corners as possible to ward off the program-chopping-block.
I’m thrilled that your blog is back.
Sincerely,
Andrew Graff