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10 thoughts on “Elizabeth Friedle”

  1. Wow, Elizabeth! Thank you for your bio. I am in the same situation as you: I teach Spanish 1 and 2, this is my 4th year teaching. It my 1st full year with TPRS (at least, I hope so). No one in my school is doing it like this. I always thought that maybe I wasn’t meant for teaching language because the old way didn’t feel right to me. When people would show me how simple it was to plan with the textbook based around grammar activities, it felt like they were making me shove a square peg into a round hole. Instinctively, I suppose, I knew something was fishy about doing it that way.

    I’m about 2 hrs from Philly. I’m just going to throw this out there: maybe some day when I have off and you and your colleague, Andrew, are still in school I can come to observe one or both of you? I’m desperate to connect. Good luck to you and I hope to stay in touch in this PLC.

    1. Hi Jennifer…and a sorta update to my bio/from the field report…

      I hope your first few days/weeks are going well! I think one of the hardest things about teaching with TPRS is that while a good day is soo good, a bad day is soo bad. I had one of the lowest days of my teaching career and my highest day all in the first four days of school this year! But regardless of all that it is true that even a bad TPRS day is a better than any day forcing kids to learn a language without context or meaning. When you say 2 hours from Philly, which direction are you? You would of course be welcome to come observe but I’m very much a noobie! If nothing else let’s plan on meeting anyway to talk! Feel free to email me: Elizabeth.Friedle@gmail.com

      Also, I did want to say I really appreciated your response. It’s always nice to know that you aren’t the only one. (Especially when for a longest time I felt this was a deep dark thought…) I too struggled with the thoughts of–is teaching really for me?– when teaching language straight from the book how its “supposed” to be. Because you are 100% right. It doesn’t feel right. I would look at the book and say…why am I teaching this? This isn’t relevant. Now if I’M thinking that? How do I think my students feel? But to be fair…your colleagues are right…IT IS easy and simple to plan from the textbook. If the work has no meaning…than neither does the planning. My department head (thank God I don’t teach Spanish at this school…) at the beginning of the year had a whole PALLET (literally) of copies waiting for her that she had sent to the copy center…A PALLET OF WORKSHEETS…

      But I can’t worry myself about that. (Except for the poor students who will be told that because they don’t understand how to conjugate a verb or the idea that nouns have genders they are failures.) I just need to stay focused and rested so I can continue this week getting to know my kids, using and teaching language in a real true way…letting each and everyone of them know that THEY MATTER TO ME.

    1. I’m in northwestern NJ. Someone here suggested a man that taught in the state about 45 min from me and his whole department was trained in CI. I left a ,ago on his school voicemail in early June but no reply. My intent was to see if he’d be gracious enough to allow me to observe. I can’t remember his name or who mentioned him…. ::sad face::

      1. Not sure if you can learn anything from me but I would be happy to have you come visit me anytime. I’m in Massapequa on Long Island. Is that too far for you?

  2. Well chill is there and Piedad. Right chill? What’s cooking up there in NJ? And then that is where Brigitte Kahn is, kind of – I think she is on Long Island? Gotta be someone to observe in the most populated stretch of people in the US!

  3. Welcome Elizabeth, so great to see you on here! Remember, we spent a week at Sweetbriar together this summer. You’ll love this forum, this is where I go to get my sanity (back). Although I haven’t had much time lately to check in (an additional new prep and generally feeling a bit overwhelmed – what else is new?), I know that this is where I can go to regroup, vent, get a slew of ides, and just feel supported.
    And yes, Ben, I’m from Long Island. So, in that neck of the woods as well.

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