Another bio from Texas, describing a neat story from David Hardy that goes back to the beginnings of TPRS years ago:
Hi,
I’m David Hardy, a French teacher in Carrollton, Texas who has been ‘lurking’ for awhile: I’m really busy and still a little intimidated to post. I teach levels 1 and mixed 3/4 classes. I have been attempting to use Krashen/CI/TPRS inspired activities for over a decade. I communicated with Ben by email a few years ago (he was gracious and answered questions) when I was going to do some level 2 classes (that’s how I came to the forum). (I purchased his books and read whatever I could find that he said about what he was doing in the classroom: he seemed to march to a different drum than some of the very fervent dévotées of TPRS and I liked his down to earth and very pragmatic attitude.)
I began back in the 90s going to see how kindergarten classes were taught: my daughters loved school and my high school students not so much. I saw them change activities and move around: I loved it! I kept searching for ways to improve/innovate etc. I met Blaine at a workshop and was at first put off by the very early presentations (in the 90s) but decided to try again. I ended up attending two more of his workshops (on my dime!) and it took a while to try to adapt what I was doing in the classroom. I still feel as though each day is an adventure and a challenge.
I now do whatever it takes to have them learn, but the basic “tout le monde a son histoire’ keeps me turning almost everything into a narrative, a story.
David