I teach high school Spanish without text books at Mount Greylock Regional School in Williamstown, Massachusetts. I typically teach the last three years of Spanish to sophomores, juniors, and seniors; my students generally take the AP exam and do very well, and place into high-level courses in college. (I have recently begun teaching some lower-level classes as well, and use no text books there, either.) I have no gate-keeping for admission to my AP class – all well-behaved students who have passed Spanish 3 and Spanish 4, and who give me their best effort*, are admitted. For fourteen years, I have assigned homework to only one student per class, per day; have administered exactly zero grammar-based tests; and have required not a single, solitary student to memorize any vocabulary.
They learn Spanish despite all this. Or, I would argue, because of it.
I have lived in Ecuador, where I was a Peace Corps volunteer doing agriculture work in Chimborazo, a province in the central cordillera. I also lived and worked in Quito as the in-country director for the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s study abroad program at the Pontificia Universidad Católica. I have lived in San Juan, Puerto Rico, where I spent two summers with my family.
Together with partner educators in Argentina, I founded a yearly exchange program with Sain Paul’s School in La Cumbre, Argentina, where my wife, Janneke, was born. Janneke and I spoke Spanish at home with our two children, Quinn and Tess, who now, I am both happy and sad to report, are All Grown Up.
I am also the co-host, with Betsy Burris, of “Teaching Through Emotions,” an award-winning podcast that provides a rare form of relief for educators. Rare because it looks at bad feelings and bad behavior as *meaningful* and *useful*. We share stories of real-life terrible teaching moments, sprinkled with commentary and a ton of empathy, then show you how to transform those moments into happy endings. You also get to hear interviews with remarkable people about their unique takes on education.
If you’d like to check out some of the materials I have created for class, my Teachers Pay Teachers store is here:
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Joe-Johnson-4731
* The shortest definition I can come up with for “best effort:” Pay attention; try as hard as you can to learn as much as you can; don’t cheat. There are occasionally students who don’t manage all three.
Teaching Without Textbooks 