This is a new feature here. I would like to focus on one teacher per month and their struggles and successes.
The first teacher I would like to focus on is Jeff Brickler in Cincinnati, OH. The two of us have talked via email recently and the one outstanding quality I see in Jeff is a most important quality for a transitioning teacher to have, in my opinion – humility.
As we know, Jeff has been riding the bumpy train this year. He has been met with strong opposition while at the same time realizing how much of a challenge the method is to master.
He has been going in every day and fighting that battle, and he has met all of the oppositional forces in front of him with poise and equanimity. This is why I think he should be teacher of the month.
Most teachers think that they are “all that” even if they aren’t. There is a certain pride, and that is the word – pride – that causes in many traditional teacher an instant reaction of refusal to Krashen’s ideas.
I have seen so often how many, if not most, of these teachers, when presented with the magnitude of the change, even if they get it mentally, just refuse out of pride. They would rather fight than switch, even as the focus of the standards has changed.
But not Jeff. He says, “OK, I get it. Now I’ll go do it. And he does it, all the while wrestling with his past training. Even though he was perfectly “successful” in the old model of what a Latin teacher is, Jeff sees a brighter horizon and is now running full speed towards it. No matter how many times he falls down, he won’t stop running until he gets there.
It is the opposite of pride. It is humility in the face of overwhelming change. So kudos to Jeff, the PLC’s Teacher of the Month for March.