I have been talking to Charlotte and the plane fares were twice as expensive from Germany as she expected so we have to help her. If anyone going to either San Diego or Dallas can help with any ideas about lodging – that is the main issue – pls. respond. I can’t imagine the expense for both of these conferences coming from Europe so we have to come up with a plan.
In the meantime, here is a nice report from the field from Charlotte:
I had my first presentation at the state teacher’s institute who do all our teachers trainings. Only sixteen people came, due to two overlapping flu epidemics, but they were a great audience. They listened and participated for two and a half hours and were very very enthusiastic. Three of them have since emailed me and have started to dabble in TPRS in their classrooms.
I have been invited to talk again in front of all of our state’s sixty English teacher trainees and some of the ones from the neighboring state, as well. Also, my old English professor’s wife was at the talk (I didn’t know and mentioned him twice – so weird) and she recommended that I should sign up as a speaker for a conference in Zürich in September about teaching English through stories and reading (but not connected to TPRS, isn’t that a coincidence). I sent in my abstract and got a positive reply on Tuesday. I’m very excited to be allowed to be presenting there.
This week then, my headmaster came in to observe one of my lessons (part of our beginning teacher evaluation) and said he was “impressed by the natural atmosphere and participation and the amount of English in a class of English year one”. My colleagues are also very sympathetic, though due to work load only few of them have any concrete interest in learning to teach TPRS.
To sum up, I think Germany is ready for TPRS, even on the level of administration. The only real opposition that I expect in the future is the schoolbook editors, because they control all professional media and teacher conferences. They won’t be too happy I abolished our two workbooks and next year the text book with its CDs, teacher materials, exam trainer and exam booklet, as well.
I seem to have some talent in getting the concept across as well, so maybe at some point in the future I can help by sharing some of my tricks.
Also, finally, I have made the decision to do my PhD on TPRS. I have already started in bits and pieces and it doesn’t seem to leave me alone. Yesterday I went to my retired university professor and talked to him. He was convinced that it was a good idea and that we would surely find a professor who would take me as his PhD student. I’m terrified and excited. Wish me luck, I’ll need it.
Thank a lot Ben, for everything.