It’s interesting that anger seems to be a lot more directed at us than from us. We just want to left to our own devices to study what Krashen and Blaine have offered, and I don’t know of any TPRS teachers who have “gone after” traditional teachers.
Some, like me, have gotten angry at being hounded by traditional teachers who manifest anger towards us, but that is different.
Anyway, here is an extreme example of a teacher named Zach who dealt with an unusually strong attack last week and, in my opinion, handled it just beautifully.
What this email tells me is that we may not be the ones with the problem in trying to bring something new into classrooms:
Ben,
Thanks again for all your help! Your videos were very helpful when I was first learning about all of this. I can’t wait to get deeper into the books to flesh out my teaching plans for next year.
I really appreciate your help. I actually have implemented a lot of the ideas during winter break. The kids were having fun. It was so much better than any other lessons I’ve done.
Unfortunately my co-teacher was really mad and told me these weren’t elementary school kids and they are actually very smart. She flipped her lid. I was terrified.
This is Korea. I teach at a middle school. Each class sees me once a week during the year. Perhaps I am teaching at a lower level. Honestly, even my high level students when asked simple questions about things can’t answer them.
In order to please my co-teachers, I’ll need to do something different. I can either incorporate grammar points from the book, or teach two completely different lessons. TPRS to the lower level students, and some sort of communicative based lesson.
I think because I tried out one of the three ring circuses as a warm up, the co-teacher was absolutely furious. She was a bit passive aggressive, and then she blew up today.
The next day, Zach followed up:
I’m still feeling a little shell shocked from yesterday. [My co-teacher] apologized last night, and I’ve talked to a few friends about it. Luckily it’s the weekend so I can recover.
I have mostly calmed down about it now. But, man was that a lot of stress. I will stay strong and persevere for the kids. Because to me, nothing else matters in teaching than the kids. Thank you for highlighting that point in your books.
Zach