Weiwei Chien
I teach Chinese at St. Louis Chaminade College Prep. School at both middle school and high school levels. I have been working with Comprehensible Input (CI) strategies and methodologies since 2014. As a result, my students are much more engaged and naturally immersed in Chinese language environment. I have been presenter and coach to demonstrate the benefits of using CI, because I believe the fellowship with other teachers and sharing experiences makes us all better. While not teaching, I love walking, cooking and traveling.
Skip Crosby
Skip Crosby MS, BSED, BS
Skip Crosby has been teaching Spanish in Maine public high schools for 29 years. Skip gained proficiency in the Spanish language during a two year stay in Colombia after college. In 1998 he earned a Masters Degree in Spanish from MIddlebury College in Vermont. He has taught as an adjunct at the college level for nine years. In 2014 Skip was named Maine Foreign Language Teacher of the year, Northeast Conference on the teaching of Foreign Language Teacher of the Year Finalist, Androscoggin County Teacher of the year and in 2015 was the Maine Teacher of the Year, Finalist. Skip earned National Board Certification (NBCT) in 2018. For the past six years Skip has taken groups of students to Guatemala City to work with Safe Passage, an organization dedicated to helping the families working in the Guatemala City dump with education, food and medical care. Skip lives in Poland, Maine with Beth, his wife of 28 years, his 19-year old son, Gabe, and Lexi, the 9.25 pound Mini Dachshund.
JJ Epperson
JJ Epperson is a Spanish Teacher in southern Indiana and blogger at SenoraJotaJota.blogspot.com where she shares both successes and misses. She fell in love with CI at a weekend TPRS training. JJ presents regularly at IFLTA, Central States, CI Midwest, IFLT and hosts monthly PLC’s, sharing her passion for music, travel, culture, and all things CI with other language teachers in the region. She has an MA in Second Language Acquisition.
Kelly Ferguson
Kelly is a National Board Certified Spanish teacher from Madison, WI. She has presented nationally and locally on input-focused teaching topics, and has coached at various CI-focused conferences and workshops. She also is a writer/contributor to Sr. Wooly’s materials and runs the active Facebook group “Woology”. When not teaching she is an avid soccer player and fan (Go Forward Madison!) and in the winter she curls (like in the Olympics, with the brooms).
Robert Harrell
After 23 years of growing and maintaining a thriving German program at a public high school, Robert Harrell moved to CSU Long Beach, where he is the World Languages Curriculum and Methods course instructor and a Student Teacher Supervisor. He is a director for COACH Foreign Language Project and presents at conferences such as CLTA, SWCOLT, and ACTFL. In 2019, Robert led the coaching program for the Agen, France, Workshop and will return in 2020. Robert writes books and other materials for language instruction, available through Fluency Matters or his website (www.compellinginput.net). Combining his interests in history, language, and creative pursuits, Robert also writes historical time-travel fiction for a general young adult audience.
Carol Hill
My name is Carol Hill. I have been teaching French levels 1-4 for twenty-five years. I became involved with coaching in 2013 when I realized how many CI teachers had been of immense help to me along my CI path. It truly does take a village. I have been part of coaching teams at iFLT, NTPRS and the conference in Agen, France. I have participated in Trainer Prep Workshop offered by Anny Ewing of Altimira and Kirstin Plante of TPRS Academy. As a founding member of the Facebook group Tri State TCI, a support/training group for CI teachers, I have helped facilitate workshops to teach others how to effectively use CI in their classrooms and to train other teachers to themselves coach others. Through this work, I m more convinced than ever of the need for peer support that lasts throughout the school year. Conferences are great inspirations but the coaching helps answer the question, “Now what?” Coaching continues to evolve. It gets better and better every year. I will be looking forward to seeing you at iFLT 2020.
Janet Holzer
Retiring after almost 40 years of teaching middle school French and German in Indiana, Janet is passionate about sharing her experience with her colleagues. Janet discovered classic TPR around 1980 and has been exploring ways to facilitate comprehensible input ever since. She is a frequent presenter at IFLTA and since her retirement has been very active in coaching, presenting and mentoring. Janet has often been recognized for her teaching and professional activities, most recently with the inaugural William Hatfield Distinguished World Language Career award from the Indiana Foreign Language Teachers Association.
Nelly Hughes
Nelly Hughes is an outstanding Spanish teacher, presenter, and author. She has been teaching Spanish at all levels since 2006. She has presented on CI activities and strategies at the local, state and national level. Nelly is a sought after proofreader and creator of many educational materials. She is an advisor of the Spanish Club and Sociedad Honoraria Hispánica at her school and seeks many opportunities to engage the students of Ohio in her beautiful native language.
Cécile Lainé
Cécile is an experienced K-12 French teacher. Her second passion after growing alongside her students is helping teachers to build joyful, inclusive, and acquisition-driven language classrooms. She achieves this goal via in-person training, coaching and mentoring, and through her website: towardproficiency.com. She is also the author of Le Petit Journal Francophone and several comprehensible novels.
Allison Litten
Allison, 2019 VFLA Teacher of the Year, currently teaches French at the Marion Cross School in Norwich, VT. She enjoys working with multiple age groups and loves her students, playing with stuffies, and encouraging her students to take risks. She blogs about her ideas at cicanteach.com. When she travels, Allison searches for vegan restaurants and interesting running routes. At home, she enjoys playing with her dog Boo, training for obstacle course races, and watching stand-up comedy.
Lark McCarthy
The last fifteen years of my career I have taught Spanish on the Navajo Reservation and currently at Rio Rancho HIgh School. I have truly enjoyed this experience and wished my whole career was spent teaching Spanish. I can say this because I began using CI strategies fourteen year ago and have never looked back. The accomplishments that my students have achieved are unbelievable in their language acquisition. I love what I do because of being able to teach using comprehensible input. Attending iFLT every year has helped to make me the teacher that I am!
Becky Moulton
Rebecca (Becky) Moulton loves being a Cohort Leader and IFLT Coach. She has taught Spanish since 1995 at NWHS in Jackson, MI. Becky started teaching with CI when she and her colleague attended a TPRS workshop in 1998. With the intention of sharing her knowledge and experience, Becky has presented at several conferences including IFLT, CiMidwest, and MittenCi. She is passionate about reading, stories that involve her students, and integrating music and culture into lessons.
Sherry Nesbitt
Sherry Nesbitt has been a Spanish teacher at Hershey Middle School in Hershey, PA since 1994. Her teaching was totally transformed after a TPRS workshop in 2003. Her passions include using Acquisition-Driven instruction at all proficiency levels, integrating technology into instruction, and helping fellow educators reach their full potential. She was named a Keystone Technology Innovator, is an Apple Certified Educator, a Nearpod Certified Educator, and a Quizlet Ambassador.
Diane Neubauer
Diane Neubauer 杜雁子 is a Mandarin Chinese teacher who has taught elementary, middle, & high school as well as elective & adult classes over the past 14 years. She currently teaches online part-time while working on her PhD in Foreign Language & ESL Education at the University of Iowa. She frequently presents on a variety of language teaching topics at conferences and is involved in research relevant to comprehension-based language teaching and learning.
Darcy Pippins
Darcy Pippins teaches Spanish in Norman OK, and is Nationally Board Certified with a Masters in Education. She was SWCOLT TOY and ACTFL TOY Finalist in 2016. She started an Elementary Spanish Program, that won the ACTFL Global Engagement Initiative Award. She started teaching using CI in 2003 and her students have had great success on the AP Spanish Language and Culture Exam without explicit grammar instruction. She advocates for quality sequential language programs and couldn’t teach without her PLC.
Keith Toda
Keith Toda has been teaching Latin for over 20 years and currently teaches at Parkview High School in Lilburn, GA. A self-professed recovering grammar-translation teacher, Keith has been implementing CI in the Latin classroom since 2013 and regularly writes about his experiences on his blog Toda-lly Comprehensible Latin. He is currently pursuing a doctorate in Instructional Technology and is always looking for new, innovative ways to implement technology for the delivery of Comprehensible Input and of higher-level thinking. Keith enjoys long walks on the beach at night.
Michele Whaley
Michele Whaley has been offering Russian to students from middle school through adults for more than 30 years. She shares her passion for language learning by presenting at conferences and workshops, and hanging out on social media teacher groups. She was twice the World Language Teacher of Year for Alaska, the 2016 Pacific Northwest ToY, and a finalist for the 2017 ACTFL ToY. Currently, she teaches Russian 102 and 202 at University of Alaska and kindergarten through fifth-grade Spanish in an independent private school in Anchorage. When not teaching, Michele plays in a Baroque ensemble or works on her Spanish. She prefers to be rowing, Nordic skating, skiing or hiking with her husband and sled dog. Her eclectic family includes a musician, an actress, and an outdoor educator.
Dustin Williamson
Dustin Williamson is a French and Spanish high school language acquisition facilitator and has been teaching for 17 years. He uses comprehensible input strategies and methodologies at all levels. He has presented on a variety of topics at local and national conferences and has been a language peer coach. He is also a professional photographer, a master level certified USA track and field official, a certified US Cross Country Ski Technical Delegate, a Nordic Ski Coach, and an avid traveler.