NTPRS - day 5 - Embedded Reading, Closing Ceremony, Tahoe, In & Out, & Videogames,

*this is my attempt to keep track of what happened while I was at my very first NTPRS in Reno, Nevada 

Embedded reading presentation
In the morning I went to Michele Whaley's presentation on "Embedded reading: A Literacy Tool".

It was really neat to see! I have been using embedded reading now (or trying) for three years.

If you aren't familiar with it, it's simply creating a simple version of a text and then a harder (bottom-up) or using a hard version of a reading and making it more accessible in different versions (top-down).

Michele Whaley did a good job breaking it down and I could see how important it really can be to help kids be successful. So thankfully it reinforced what I did for my classes.

NTPRS - day 2 - Breakfast, reading Russian, & Mafia

*this is my attempt to keep track of what happened while I was at my very first NTPRS in Reno, Nevada 

So I get up Tuesday morning and Mike had told me the night before that we were going to eat breakfast with Blaine Ray and Von Ray! I was really excited. Unfortunately I woke up incredibly late and probably made a terrible first impression on Blaine because I was still groggy from the lack of sleep and wasn’t very good about making much conversation.

Regardless I think I held my own ok. We talked about TPRS, my new school and I thanked him for helping bring the method to the light so so many of us could use it and find such amazing results in our classrooms too.  He is an incredibly nice guy. I am surprised just how fun he is and how he is not afraid to be goofy.

We also talked about some ways for me to get more involved in the TPRS community (and more specifically NTPRS) in the future, which is exciting. I haven’t seen much value in what I do over the past few years. I know there is still so much I can learn. But I am glad that they see potential in me and we might be able to work together in the future!

After breakfast, I went back to the beginner’s TPRS class and learned more Russian! I also brought attention to myself and ended up having to act as Lady Gaga.  There are probably pictures and videos out there somewhere.  Again, I was amazed at Katya’s seemingly effortless way to tell a story to us and review prior information as well as introduce new information.

NTPRS - Day 1 - Confronting Discomfort, New People, and Russian

*this is my attempt to keep track of what happened while I was at my very first NTPRS in Reno, Nevada 

I wake up somewhat groggy due to staying up somewhat late with Mike, chatting about our lives, experiences in the summer, classroom, etc.

Mike has to take care of something and I decide to not be his shadow. So I go downstairs to the opening breakfast ceremony but become really uncomfortable really quickly.

If you are ever around me, you’ll find out very quickly how socially awkward I am.  At times, I even bring up in conversation how socially awkward I am to relieve the tension of social interactions. 

I walk into the giant room where everyone is going to eat breakfast and talking and I freeze. As I scan the room, it occurs to me that I don’t really know anyone in the mass of people to such an extent that I will feel comfortable inviting myself to sit at their tables. And there are no tables that are empty, which is the easy choice for me.

So as quickly as I walked into the giant banquet hall, I just as quickly turned around and walked out. If you were to see me I am sure that it would look humorous to see me walk in, take a look and walk right back out.

Thankfully a colleague at my new school and phenomenal French teacher, Bess Hayles saw me and comes out to ask me to sit at her table.

So I go serve myself (during which some teachers recognized me from my videos and I awkwardly waved to them) and sat down.  While seated I met everyone around the table and felt a lot more at ease, but still out of my element.

It got easier. Then the opening ceremony started.

Katy Paukova spoke about her life experiences (or her story) about being an immigrant and a teacher and how her journey led her to storytelling in Russian via TPRS. Regardless of language, she is a captivating speaker and wonderful storyteller. Of course, I would find that out later as I was going to be in her Russian class during the week.

Shortly thereafter I found myself in said class. I decided that while I had 6 years of TPRS under my belt, a majority of what I did was through reading blogs and trying things out in my classroom. So I didn’t actually know what TPRS looked like 6 years after being trained in it and therefore took the beginner’s track.

It was co-presented by Katya Paukova (who presented the keynote at the opening ceremony) and Donna Tatum-Johns (who I had already seen at workshops 2 times 5 and 6 years ago).

We pretty much jumped into Russian and I loved it!  While I seemed to have a hard time following at times (jet lag?), I found Katya to be a very warm, patient and skilled storyteller.  She told a very simple story in conjunction with comparing and contrasting other people in the crowd.

Something that really struck me in her presentation of beginner’s Russian was how compelling it was for me even if it wasn’t the funniest story in the world. She just told it as if it was interesting and it was interesting. Nevertheless, she did add surprise details that I didn’t expect, which added to the fun of the story.

I also noticed she used various cognates like the words for tarantula, coffee, ferrari, pink (sounded like rose), and some others.

This made it a lot easier for my brain.

It reminded me of the following for my classes:

1. it doesn’t have to be crazy and silly to be interesting. Surprise details are good though
2. cognates really are my friend. I need to come up with a list of go-to cognates this year while I do storytelling just in case
3. using actors did make it more interesting
4. talking about others in class did help with repetitions

There was lunch at some point in the day (but I can’t really remember it at this point) and I returned to my beginner’s class. A lot of the rest of the class that day was practicing skills that I actually felt like I had a grasp on and talking about the theory behind TPRS.

For dinner, Mike and I found out that Bryce Hedstrom and Jim Wooldridge (Señor Wooly) were going to go out to dinner so we tagged along. I couldn’t believe that I was getting to meet two Spanish teachers that I greatly admire at the same time and we were just going to eat Barbecue so nonchalantly. 

Dinner conversation revolved a lot around who we are, our particular projects to help learners and my just getting to know them and vice versa. It was a really nice time.

When we got back to the hotel, Mike was hosting something called the “War & Peace Room” which is a throwback to something that Ben Slavic started called, “The War Room”. The idea being people can just practice whatever skill they want and we’ll be encouraging while also learning. It was all about practicing TPRS in some way.  This was probably one of the highlights of my week as we simply played in the languages (German, Mandarin, French, etc).  

The War room reminded me how much fun learning can be when there isn’t necessarily much of a plan other than a few structures on the board, but a compelling story. It’s also neat to see so many different personalities and how they can all create a compelling experience with their respective languages.

Soon thereafter, I went to bed, exhausted! And if I remember correctly, Mike and I had breakfast plans for the next day with someone I wanted to meet!

NTPRS - Day 0 - The arrival

Blogpost - NTPRS day 0

*this is my attempt to keep track of what happened while I was at my very first NTPRS in Reno, Nevada 

So I finally get to the Atlantis hotel in Reno. It's 8:30 or so at night. I've taken a ride to the airport in KC, two planes, and a hotel shuttle.  I look around and immediately think that I am in the wrong place. 

I get my keycard for my room and message Mike Coxon. 

As I go up to floor nine, I text my roommate for the conference, Mike Coxon to let him know I have arrived.

A few moments later Mike comes in with someone else that I find out to be Von Ray! We talk for awhile and I shared a little bit of my story as a Youtube grammar teacher and a TPRS teacher in the classroom.  Von seems like an incredibly nice guy. We talk about how excited they are that I am there because maybe we can work together in the future. Of course this is incredibly exciting because I have looked up to these people for a long time!

Then Mike and I went down to where other teachers were because he really wanted me to meet teachers and see the reaction of my celebrity.  So I went with him and there wasn’t much reaction (either because we introduced me as “Jeremy” instead of “Señor Jordan”) or because TPRS teachers might not think as highly of me due to my grammar vids! But regardless, finally we found someone who got incredibly excited and told me how much she appreciated my video lessons and it was nice to hear that even in the context of a TPRS class, some teachers who have to teach a mixture can find a use for my vids to help their kids be successful!

And then shortly thereafter Mike and I went back to the hotel room, talked a bit, laughed a lot and went to bed to prepare for day 1 of NTPRS!