NTPRS 2026 in Port Orange Florida

Wow, another NTPRS has come and gone! 

I was trying to think about how many I’ve been to. I think it’s 9 or so. (Reno, San Antonio, Boston, Chicago, Chicago, Minneapolis, Salt Lake City, Huntsville, Port Orange) Crazy how time has flown by!

I was actually excited to be able to go this year because I used TPRS 2.0 in my classes all last year and was quite impressed with the quality of output in level 1 students (compared to when I had previously only used TPRS, or what we refer to as TPRS 1.0 now). 

Here’s the main difference from what I can tell:

TPRS 1.0	TPRS 2.0
Tell an entire story each 1-2 days Read on a separate day. Use Circling to get students to talk about the story Focus on comprehension to determine class pacing	Tell a chunk of information almost every day Embed reading each day Use Circling, Triangling, and DTS to build comprehension and speaking confidence Focus on speaking from day 1 to determine class pacing

Latin Demos

Something that I have always loved about TPRS Workshops and the NTPRS conference is the focus on learning a language during the week and the power of how that feels. I remember when I first learned French in 2010 and it felt so easy. I wanted to speak. Later at my first NTPRS, I learned Russian. It was so neat to be able to learn languages and get a glimpse into how my own students might feel in my Spanish classes. And it also helped prove the effectiveness of the method to build the language in the head. 

Magister John Ricard was our Latin teacher for the week and while people might not have been convinced after the first lesson, he stayed the course and each class masterfully blended a mixture of asking the class questions (circling), asking individuals questions as the character (triangling ) and asking us to retell the story to ourselves, a partner or for the class. A takeaway from me was how much I was hoping he would call on me so I could try out some of the language and take some risks to figure out if I could say something unscripted. However, there were plenty of people to call on (and later he told me he wasn’t sure if I wanted to be called on). Which is a fun point. But in TPRS 2.0, the best part I learned this past year is that it was ok for me to call on any student and help them if they weren’t sure how to answer with confidence. In a few cases, a student might pass, and I let them know I would come back to them, and when I did, they had more confidence after listening to their peers.

By the final day of Latin, the class laughed together, celebrated each other, and the students wrote in Latin! They did a 5 minute timed write and some students rewrote the story in over 100 words in Latin! And these weren’t people that knew latin 3 days prior. Pretty awesome! Which echos what I saw in my classes last year.

Beginner and Experienced tracks

During the first three days, there were two tracks: Beginner and Experienced. Beginners was for those who didn’t feel confident using TPRS 2.0 in their classroom yet. Experienced were those that were using it and felt like they could do it, but needed more ideas for variety and to sustain it. For the Beginner Track, there seemed to be some that weren’t convinced the first day, but as the week went on, a paradigm shift occurred for many of them here they really could feel their own learning in the Latin class all week and then when other teachers would demo TPRS and try it out in languages like Greek, Russian, and Yupik. I was able to be there for a few moments for the Upic demonstration. It was phenomenal. The teacher was patient and encouraging. She had a calming presence and I could see how impressed she was when people woudl respond in full sentences in the Upic language as the character! 

The experienced track also went well. Whenever I would walk over there to take pictures or talk to attendees about what they had learned, they would have some great takeaways thanks to Profe Craig Sheehy. 

The Final Day

And the final day there were some breakout sessions. I presented on How to Teach with Novels in the classroom (see a similar presentation I gave here) and also one on How to Write a Novel. Since I think I have around 13 or so novels now for TPRS Books. Crazy! I never would have thought I would even write one years ago. 

In the closing, Blaine Ray shared some reflections about his time in the classroom as well to inspire us. 

By the end of the week, the group seemed to be closer then when we all started as strangers and it was a special week that I hope inspired people and encouraged them to try out this seemingly different method that actually gets students speaking in their classes! 

I'm excited to get back to my students in a few weeks and keep working on my TPRS 2.0 skills to push them to higher levels of speaking fluency! 

My brief NTPRS story + a commercial!

So I went to a few different TPRS training workshops and was hooked. Then I found out there was this national week-long TPRS extravaganza for teachers called NTPRS.

Ever since I had wanted to go. One year it was in Kansas City, MO. This was before I decided to try TPRS.

Later it was in Chicago (8 hour drive but do-able). I had to go to my brother's wedding and wouldn't make it back in time.

Since then it wasn't a priority. Not going was easier than trying to go. Especially because it can be expensive after hotel rooms, food, and the registration (not to mention travel costs).

But I was heavily encouraged to go last summer and various kind souls helped make that happen and I was glad to go!  I got to meet so many teachers I have looked up to over the years and pick their brains about activities. I got to finally be in an environment that was friendly towards my teaching style. I have been in situations where it has gotten hostile due to closely held beliefs one what is "best" for students in the classrooms. At NTPRS, I didn't feel like I was crazy anymore.  There were others out there who were passionate about using any method possible other than the textbook who also found results.

And so when the guys at TPRS Books asked me to help them do a commercial a few weeks ago to help get people to go, I jumped at the opportunity.

I wanted others to be able to experience it as well and maybe to be prodded in that direction. I mean, if you share a hotel room with someone, carpool and are frugal with meals, it's completely do-able!

So here's what I made for them.

I hope you enjoy it and consider coming to NTPRS. Even if you aren't sure about TPRS, come!

It's a great way to get a week's worth of "input" about the method and to figure out how you could experiment with it in your classes. It's better than any video, blog post or book about the topic.

Read about my experiences at NTPRS last summer:

• Day 0 - the arrival
• Day 1
• Day 2
• Day 3
• Day 4
• Day 5
• On the way home

Comprehensible Input with the MONO

Hay un mono. (from first episode)

So I have met various educators over the last year or two who have told me how much their classes have enjoyed a little story I made about a "mono" (monkey).

Backstory:
I thought it would be fun to make a super simple TPRS like story about a character that wanted something and didn't have it and so they went to the 3 locations. And as I drew one day on my iPad, suddenly I had a monkey, an island, and Antarctica. From there the first "mono" story was born!

Since then, I have had teachers who have met me at conferences (or have told me via email) how much their classes have enjoyed the story.

How do I teach my classes these days?

If you're in the Spanish Teachers in the U.S. Facebook group, you might have seen this question to me by a talented teacher: Chris Cashman:

Señor Jeremy Jordan​​, el grande, el honorable y majestuoso:

I read the great article about your recognition posted by an admin. I noticed that the day the reporter was present, you were doing a TPRS style lesson. However, you are well-known for your videos of verb conjugations and explicit grammar (albeit presented in a super fun and attention grabbing way).

These two camps of people -- TPRS folks and learn-the-verb-chart folks -- tend to belong in different camps. One group believes that students will learn things gradually over time with repeated exposure, so don't worry about the verb charts and certainly don't assess knowledge of them. The other believes that language learning can indeed be aided by explicit grammar teaching.

I know I'm hugely overgeneralizing an issue here, but you're showing some evidence of perhaps having found a middle ground, or a way to merge the two worlds. Would you mind sharing either in a blog entry, or a response here in this group, of the method to your madness, the thinking/theory behind it? I have my own answer, but I'm *mega*interested in seeing/hearing yours!

Don't mean to put you on the spot, but this really caught my attention.

Of course the article he is referring to is this one where I was interviewed at my school after winning Missouri Foreign Language Teacher of the year.

Here is my lengthy response to Chris. I appreciate his question. I hope that it is understood that I am not telling anyone how they should teach. I am only expressing what informs instruction in MY classroom.
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NTPRS day 3 - More Russian, Acting, Being quiet, Reading, Making a Movietalk & Russian Mafia

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

Russian - day 3
So day 3 of the conference and Russian. I think by this point, I was going in whenever possible for the Russian, but was trying to discreetly leave when it was time for coaching practice. This is nothing against the coaches or groups. I just realized that I could be doing other things (talking to other educators, just taking a break to think about my coming year and the vocab lists, etc).

So anyway, I was starting to drag by this time in the week. My roomie and I weren't averaging much of sleep a night. I was probably getting 4-5 hours a night and it was wearing on me. On breaks I was calling my family because I missed them dearly so I wasn't really getting a lot of sleep and I could slowly feel it more and more each day.

I walk into the class and Katya had chosen me the day before for acting, and I had really wanted to act on previous days because I have never been the main character in a story during a TPRS training workshop thus far.  But I figured that I had been chosen to be Lady Gaga the day before and I could just relax in the back.  For whatever reason, Katya just asks me to go up immediately and act out a story.

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!