This month’s PLC Teacher of the Month is a fountain of courage in confronting anyone about best practices in language education. I find it ironic that in a recent comment here, just a few days ago, he admired Nathaniel’s (Teacher of the Month in March) courage while calling himself chicken. It’s just not so. Those who have kept up with posts since last October know what Michael has brought and continues to bring to the national discussion on best practices in WL education.
What is particularly worthy of note is Michael’s service in the current revision process of the Arizona WL standards. Among other things, Michael has recognized that the committee is biased in favor of an ACTFL agenda, which is not all that bad except that, when one group gets to do the the same old sorry and tired thing of exerting their will on teachers, nothing changes and if no one stands up to insist that their voice be heard, kids suffer.
Of particular concern to Michael in the state level rewrite process going on right now in Arizona is that there is an ACTFL “lobbyist” (Michael’s term and the perfect one) who has asked to have the “program models using comprehensible input” removed from the eventual AZ document.
So imagine being up against an ACTFL lobbyist on what sounds to be a largely timid and lifeless, backwards looking committee, with potentially the quality of instruction on behalf of tens of thousands of Arizona kids at stake. Failure to not act, really speaking, is not an option. Michael’s voice has become a clarion call in that process in Arizona.
Those aware of the recent and ongoing drama in Arizona have sent much support to Michael. He deserves it. One man against a system can be very emotionally and mentally draining, and yet Michael each day gets up and goes to work to teach in the best way using CI, all the while being enmeshed in this standards revision process.
We first heard Michael’s voice in the October/November 2014 online war with the ACTFL Language Educators. His voice joined Robert’s and Eric’s and Nathaniel’s and that of others from this group over those two or three weeks in a David and Goliath confrontation to end up delivering a number of severe and righteous jabs upside the heads of that prematurely dead – yes, I said prematurely dead – group of teachers whose feet are firmly planted in the stinky and tired old ideas about what WL best practices should look like now in the 21st century.
Of course, it’s not Michael’s political courage but his knowledge and practice of CI that counts the most. He said in a recent comment:
…I care most about students loving to learn. This is probably why most of us are teachers. At some point we fell in love with learning….
So, whether fighting at the state level on behalf of Arizona kids or teaching his own students, we can know that we have a battler in the national mix right here in our group and so we are quite proud to honor Michael as this month’s Teacher of the Month on the PLC.