John just joined our group and here introduces himself. I appreciate it and invite any other new members to follow his lead. This applies to long time members as well. How can we help each other if we don’t know each other?
Hi everyone. Glad to have found this community! I am very impressed with what I have read on these pages and can tell that it will be an enormous, enriching resource. Looking forward to following the discussions and learning a lot in the months and years to come! And contributing too!
My name is John Krueger and I live in Louisville, Kentucky. I’ve been at it in the teaching profession for over 20 years. In my first ten years, I first learned about TPRS and became more and more focused on it. Early on, I was set on getting rid of my text books and making major changes. The learning experience improved for students year after year I’m happy to say and the program grew. This was all good but the success came at a cost. Since I was the only teacher of German in my building, I had to prepare all levels. For me this meant five preps per day, one for each level: Ger I, II, III, IV, and AP. The stress levels took their toll.
Ben: My immediate comment and I hope everyone in this group is aware from the past five years of articles of this one critical point: There are no preps for different levels with NTCI (we do not use the term TPRS anymore here – we use the Invisibles which are based on NTCI. Again, we don’t need to prepare our classes for NTCI classes. It is because of the Star Sequence.. Read about NTCI here:
https://benslavic.com/blog/why-i-prefer-ntci/
Also search the term Star Sequence for information on that groundbreaking curriculum.
The Invisibles/One Word Images system – my new system based on NTCI – represents a heavily researched and painfully attained over years new curricular approach that soars on different CI wings. NTCI is based on TPRS but only in the same way a house is built on a foundation. And my point is this to address John’s point above – we can work from the same Invisibles clay and the ground-breaking Star Sequence curriculum and mould each prep level from the same clay so we have no planning, no prep and much more fun.
John: Looking back at this time, I realize now that I was developing a love hate relationship with TPRS. Those moments when it worked in the classroom were wonderful I couldn’t deny that. However, the amount of energy that I needed to keep it all going was not sustainable.
Ben: Why did I leave TPRS? For the same reason. When a way of teaching like TPRS is not based fully on the research, it becomes unsustainable.
I quit the high school gig due to some disagreements with administration and eventually got a job in an established remote-learning operation in the state. It was a welcome break in my career, for sure. Things went pretty well there for many years. Just last year however I made a big decision to get back into the classroom. I took a job at a challenging middle school in the city. That’s redundant I realize: all middle schools are challenging! Well, I survived that year and now this upcoming school year – in a month from today!- will take over a program at a local high school. The position will be tough as it is a high-risk school. But having had an excellent introductory CI workshop over the summer – taught by Andrew Olimpi – – and in so doing, getting acquainted with this community, I feel confident about moving forward.
I do have a question that I would like to hear feedback on if anyone out there would like to respond: I am definitely excited and prepared to go all CI for my level I and focussing on moving SLOWLY at the beginning to establish the right tone.
Ben: How to start the year has been addressed in my recent books. It’s especially well described in the two new Invisibles books.
JohnL I want to do the same for levels II and III as well, but wonder about the danger that such plans could backfire and be met with a strong current of resentment, as many in those levels may feel a strong attachment to their former teacher.
In addition, it may be best to go full monty CI only with the level I as it will be truly my own. With the other classes then I would go ahead and use a textbook as the teacher before me has done. Thoughts?
Ben: on this point see the discussion posted here a few days ago that was initiated by Diane:
https://benslavic.com/blog/trying-it-with-levels-2-4/
Thanks again and look forward to working together!
John Krueger