Trying to cut through all the crap and get to the core of this stuff and share it is my mission. It’s what we are doing here, and very well, I might add.
But doing this work is so hard, and getting distracted by bullshit happens a lot. Whenever I get distracted or confused, I turn to this month’s PLC Teacher of the Month, Jody Noble, of San Francisco.
Put simply, Jody is expert in how language acquisition theory best applies to the classroom. She is very much like Judy Dubois in France in that way. Some new to the group here may not know her name, because she maintains a low profile.
Jody is nonetheless a galactic level supernova in the area of comprehension based instruction. She makes one think of the expression, “Those who don’t know, speak, and those who know, don’t speak.”
At least Jody speaks here sometimes. If a point is made that has holes in it, she is quick to point that out in a direct but loving way. She gives new and refreshing meaning to the term intellectually inquisitive.
I first noticed Jody’s internet voice on the listserve years and year ago and felt very lucky whenever she clarified things. It was like a voice of reason in a cacophony of bullshit. Jody is as much a pure extenion of Krashen into the elementary school language classrooom as is possible.
Chill knows all this, because Jody and chill and I got to spend some time talking about everything in Breckenridge last summer at iFLT. Since chill gets it about Jody, then it’s a done deal, because chill gets it.
I am happy to announce this month’s Teacher of the Month on the PLC, a teacher who is in my mind the best elementary Spanish teacher in the world, the unmatched Jody Noble.