Last weekend I had the wonderful opportunity to be part of the New York State Association of Foreign Language Teachers’ Annual Conference.   Under the inspiration and encouragement of Lizette Liebold, a group of us presented a “strand” of Comprehensible Input/TPRS workshops and coaching sessions.    From Friday afternoon until Sunday afternoon, participants had the opportunity to attend  workshops on Embedded Reading,  A TPRS demo in Hawaiian, An explanation of the three steps using Czech, The skill of circling via Spanish,  and  the skill of Personalization using French.     On Sunday morning we offered two coaching  and Q and A sessions back to back (almost 4 hours!!!!) .   

This weekend reminded me how much a CI-based program offers….especially in terms of teacher support and collaboration….offerings that I guess I had taken for granted until I watched folks new to the process try to wrap their heads around all of the help and support being offered to them.

First,  the presenters were a team.    I’ve never been to any workshop where this occurred and I LOVED BEING PART OF IT!!!      The group included Terry Thatcher Waltz,   Teri Weichart, Rochelle Barry,  Gary DiBianca, Lizette and myself.    Whenever possible,  all of the presenters were in each  workshop.    We acted as host(esses), secretaries,  Vanna White’s,  gofers and cheerleaders.     Because of this…

• We were all getting to know the participants.    While some folks floated in and out, a core group of attendees developed, and we were able to get to know them over the course of the weekend.
• We could refer back to any of the presentations during our presentation,  making connections for the participants.
• We could see each other in action.  I’ll save all of my excitement about this for the next post!  :o)
• Participants saw us support each other, encourage each other, and care about each other…..even though we came from school districts hundreds of miles apart.

The amount of resources available to teachers is really staggering:

• Local coaching groups
• NTPRS
• Workshops offered through Blaine Ray TPRS®,  TPRStorytelling,  BER,   Susie Gross, Teach for June  etc.
• Webinars offered by the above.
• The invitations to go to observe schools where TPRS is used.
• CICS  Coaching help www.cicoaches.com
• The moretprs listserv via Yahoo groups and www.TPRStalk.com
• Blogs by Ben Slavic, Michele Whaley, myself and others (see bottom right of this page!!)
• Materials to use with students
• DVD’s with teachers using TPRS
• Offers to Skype

I could tell that the teachers were skeptical about the support being offered.     What is this collaborative spirit thing?    I had forgotten that outside of the CI world that there is a very competitive and protective out there.    Even in a venue DESIGNED for sharing such as the NYSAFLT conference, there was a different level of cooperation and support being offered through this strand.

It wasn’t until late in the day on Saturday, and during the coaching/Q and A sessions on Sunday that I saw teachers really accept the idea that we are all in this together.     Not only did they open up to how to incorporate these ideas into their own classrooms, but they started to really connect with each other, teaming up by language or level,  exchanging emails and planning activities.    So cool to see!!!

With love,

Laurie