I would like to suggest that we nominate people for Teacher of the Month instead of me just picking. The criteria for the nomination should include, mainly, contributions to the group here in our daily dialogues. If you go through the list of Teachers of the Month, you will see the names of people who really invest in the dialogue here, for example, Robert Harrell, who was our first teacher of the month about a year ago. He’s a great example because the overall effect of his comments is to help the rest of us. That is what a Teacher of the Month means to me, anyway. Another important area would be involvement not just in this group but in their professional environment where they teach.
This idea of nominating the Teacher of the Month is from Chris Roberts. He just sent me this email, drum roll please, which suggested Chris Stoltz as the Teacher of the Month for November, and he must be psychic because I was thinking the same thing. Chris is just moving big blocks of old thinking around like play toys. He is crushing lots of the old thinking in his area of Western Canada.
Chris’ style is direct, to say the least, and that is what we need. This is not a time for hiding or letting the fear card get to us. The only other teacher I have experienced in this work with this kind of no-fear attitude is Susan Gross, and that is just about the highest compliment you could pay a teacher in this work, as Susan sets the standard in just about every area of TPRS/CI instruction.
I offer a strong second to what (Chris Roberts) said about his namesake in his email to me yesterday:
Ben –
I’d like to nominate Chris Stoltz as the PLC’s official badass. From when he first entered the PLC and pissed you off with his political comments, to his occasional radical ideas and comments, and his article he recently wrote, he’s becoming a valuable part of our group, contributing a lot to the work that is done. We are blessed to have you, Chrisz, Hosler and Robert on board.
Hey Chris congratulations! Now, to distinguish between you and Roberts, can I just say you are Chrisz and he is Chris? It’s getting confusing.