Saturday, April 6, 2013

I fixed it!

I have had problems getting the Paypal button to work for the TPRS Workshop in Agen.  It is at last functioning.  The problems were due to the bank being slow and to instructions being less than crystal  to an elderly neophyte.  It now appears to be functioning.

So that those who wanted to pay with the button and couldn't won't be penalized, I'm extending the early bird deadline to Wednesday, April 10th.  After that the price will be 395 euros.


Friday, April 5, 2013

A TPRS Workshop in France! Don't miss it!


I'm reposting this because people were having trouble finding the original post.


There will be a TPRS workshop in Agen, France in August, 2013. As far as I know, this is the first TPRS workshop to be held in France.

I have been able to organize this opportunity for teachers in France with Teri Wiechart, who coaches at NTPRS.  Alike Last from the Netherlands and Lynnette St George from Wheaton Academy near Chicago are in on the adventure too.


When?
August 6th – August 10th, 2013
Morning sessions 9:00 am – 12:00 am
Afternoon sessions 2:30 pm – 5:30 pm

Why?
Teachers of English as a foreign language in France or elsewhere will discover TPRS in sessions where they are taught a new language with the method and then they will learn to use it in training sessions with students.
This international workshop is also designed for teachers of French as a foreign language who wish to visit France while improving their teaching skills with TPRS.  Teachers of other languages are welcome. Both beginners and advanced users of the method will benefit from being coached by our experienced staff.




Where?

Agen lies in the Garonne valley in Southwest France at the heart of a rich agricultural area.  You can get to Agen by high speed train (TGV). The trip takes about an hour from either Bordeaux or Toulouse and a little over four hours from Paris.  The site of the workshop is within easy walking distance of the main shopping area, a dozen hotels and the train station. There is a free bus to get around the city center every twelve minutes.
Prices at downtown hotels range from 25 euros to 125 euros a night. You can get a decent meal for 12 euros in numerous excellent restaurants. For more information you can visit the Tourist Office site:   http://www.ot-agen.org/




Who?
Teri Wiechart

Teri Wiechart worked as a French teacher at Delphos Jefferson High School from 1975 to 2010.  Since then she has been working as a consultant to the Ohio Department of Education, working on updating the learning standards for Ohio’s K-12 students and implementing the new standards.

She has been a TPRS/CI trainer since 2001, working as a Presenter and Coach at the National TPRS Conference since 2007.  She has also served as the coaching coordinator at the International Forum for Language Teachers, 2010, 2012, and 2013. Teri has a Masters of the Arts in Teaching and she studied abroad at l’Université de Strasbourg. She is currently President of the Ohio Foreign Language Association.

Lynnette St George

Lynnette St. George grew up in a French-American family in New England in a community infused with multi-cultural influences  from France and Canada. Lynnette holds 2 Masters degrees, an MATL from Nova Southeastern University in Miami in Florida and an MA in French with a specialization in pedagogy and linguistics from L’école française of Middlebury College. She recently adapted the novel Le nouvel Houdini and its teacher's guide for TPRS publishing. Currently, Lynnette is the head of World Languages at Wheaton Academy, a Christian prep high school in the Chicago suburbs. Lynnette is a frequently requested speaker at professional conferences as well as a guest lecturer for University methods classes. 
Alike Last

Alike Last lives in the Netherlands. She is a French teacher and organization psychologist. She introduced TPRS in the Netherlands in 2007 and organized several TPRS workshops for Blaine Ray and Susan Gross in the Netherlands. Alike Last initiated network meetings for Dutch and Belgian TPRS teachers who are interested in TPRS and she is co-founder of a Dutch platform for TPRS. Alike Last bases her French lessons on Multiple Intelligences and she teaches French with TPR and TPRS to adolescents at a Hotel school and in her own language institute she teaches French to adults. Alike Last is also a TPRS-teacher trainer and in 2012 she gave several workshops at the NTPRS in Las Vegas, one with Bryce Hedstrom, called: "The art and genius of going slowly".

Judy Dubois

Judith Logsdon-Dubois began teaching English to French speakers in 1967 as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Cameroon.  Married to François Dubois, she moved to France in 1984 with their four children.  She began teaching adult learners in 1986 and earned a Masters and then a DEA in English Literature and Civilization from the University of Bordeaux III.  In 1991 she began teaching translation and American literature at the DEPAA, an antenna of the University of Bordeaux for future English teachers.  In1995 she passed the French civil service exam for teachers and obtained the aggrégation in 1997. She taught at the Lycée Jean-Baptiste de Baudre in Agen from 1996 to 2012.  She is a published author and since her retirement has been giving private lessons and travelling around France to talk about TPRS. She has led TPRS workshops in France and in Switzerland.

What?

The workshop program will be centered around experiencing the method, first as a student, learning Dutch from Alike Last in Fluency Fast sessions, then observing experienced teachers work with real students, and finally practicing with the same students while being coached.  There will be sessions on classroom management, Embedded Reading, working with films, Krashen’s underlying theories, and French literature and culture. Considerable time will be spent in debriefing sessions, so that there will be more back and forth communication between the presenters and the participants than can be handled in larger programs.  On Saturday afternoon, August 10th, there will be an optional  walking tour of Agen.
We will help participants to find lodging if requested, but we cannot advance the cost of booking a hotel.

How Much?
For five days, morning and afternoon sessions, the price is 395 euros. We are deliberately keeping the price much lower than is usual for a five day workshop with such highly qualified presenters in order to encourage European teachers to discover TPRS. We are able to offer this exceptional price only because of the generosity of our workshop presenters who hope to see TPRS develop in Europe as it has in the United States.



Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Sage on a Stage?


The traditional style of transmitting knowledge was the professor who lectured in front of awed disciples who copied his wisdom down in notes that were preserved religiously.  It was a style that preceded the invention of the printing press, the mimeograph, the photocopier, the recording machine, videos, etc.,etc.

It was only in the last century that teachers began questioning the traditional model, arguing that students should be more active, should be encouraged to seek their own answers, find their own resources, that they should animate the class while the teacher simply proposed questions and guided them to keep them on the rails.  All the manuals began to talk about “student-centered” learning.

There were many slogans designed to promote the new style of learning.  One of them was “Kill the teacher”.  Another was “sage on the stage versus guide on the side.” When I first heard these expressions I welcomed them as a breath of fresh air, something that could empower students and make classes more dynamic and interactive. There is no question in my mind that the lecturer model of transmitting knowledge is the most ineffective way of teaching a foreign language known to man.

Some observers of a TPRS class notice that the teacher talks throughout much of the class.  So they come to the superficial judgment that the teacher is being too directive, monopolizing the discourse and following the medieval tradition of “sage on a stage”.

I would ask such observers to look again.  Throughout a TPRS class we are constantly interacting with students.  We are not spouting wisdom but asking them questions about themselves, something they know a lot about.  They are the experts. They are the subject of the class. If TPRS teachers were to simply speak in the target language without the constant interaction that comes from PQA and circling, they would soon lose their "audience". On the contrary, students are fully engaged during a TPRS lesson, engaged in a conversation with the teacher about themselves, a conversation which uses their input to build a story.  We are modeling the language, but giving them every opportunity to express themselves as much as they can.  

I think dancing partner would be a better description of what we do.  The better dancer “leads” so that their partner can follow. It’s the interaction that is magic.  The best way to learn to waltz is to have a partner that knows what they're doing. 

Monday, April 1, 2013

"Dang"


“I enjoy the kids. I throw a nerf football around with them between classes and sometimes in class. We try to laugh during our brain breaks. ... We can never lighten up enough on our kids.  ... All my years of teaching, and I am only finding this out at the end. All these years, I thought it was all so serious. Dang.” __ Ben Slavic 
Last week I went into one of Emilie’s classes in order to be her model for the Class competitions. Tuesday we did PQA and Friday we did a story. She did the same thing in the next class. And as I stood in front of those kids who had their names written on cards because I didn’t know them, I realized that I really missed being in a classroom, standing in front of twenty some kids.
This year I’ve been giving private lessons and there are six in my largest group, so it’s not at all the same thing. My private students are very motivated and pleasant, but there’s not the same tension as there is in a “real” classroom. It’s a bit like walking a tightrope, trying to keep them engaged and yet rigorous, reeling in the loose minds that start to stray without them being too aware that you’re reeling them in, knowing there’s no net below you. 
Then there are those magic moments when you make a connection and see eyes light up and there's genuine laughter, laughter that can be shared, laughter that harms no one. That's how I got my highs.  
So, yes. Dang.

Sunday, March 31, 2013

Christmas in August!

This is the last day on which you can register for the TPRS workshop in Agen, France and get the early bird price.  Since the Paypal button is not yet working, I've extended the deadline for anyone who sends me an e-mail stating that they intend to send the 295 euros by bank transfer during the coming week.

I'm very happy about the participants who have already registered.  We have some quality names, people who I know through their posts on the moretprs forum and that I'm looking forward to meeting.  It's a delightfully international group, with teachers coming from Spain, France, Great Britain, Germany, Canada and the US.  I'm so looking forward to working with them and Teri, Lynnette and Alike.  It's going to be like waiting for Santa Claus.