Hello there! Grüß dich! ¡Hola! My name is Ben Fisher-Rodriguez, and I am a high school German and Spanish teacher based in Washington state. My passions are education, teaching world languages with a Comprehension-Based Communicative approach, and reading. This is where you’ll find all my thoughts and reflections on teaching life – with a healthy dose of me making fun of myself.
My degree is from UCLA in German Literature and Culture and Spanish Literature and Culture. After a year as a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant in Chemnitz, Germany, I moved to Austin, TX. There, I eventually enrolled in UT-Austin’s UTeach-Liberal Arts post-bac teacher training program, which prepared me to be a proficiency-oriented world language teacher of the 21st century. Pow!
In my first year, I knew that I wanted my students to hear tons of our Target Language to grow in their proficiency, but had no idea how to do that with students who were starting from zero. For instance, how can you make the first unit in most textbooks, focused around “Hello, goodbye, it’s windy, the 27th of October,” compelling and exciting for young people? Real talk – it was tough. I went in search of ways to make this happen for my students, who deserved exciting, engaging classroom interactions – not worksheets, textbooks, and disconnected phrases stacked a mile high on vocab lists.
This landed me in the world…of CCLT. (That’s Comprehension-Based Communicative Language Teaching!) Approaches that fall under the category CCLT center level-appropriate expression and interpretation of meaning, as well as communicatively-embedded comprehended input, to build learners’ mental representations and communicative ability in the L2. For me and my classes, that means real communication in the L2, real connections to cultures and each other, and real FUN.
Since beginning my teaching career, I have been honored to share my learning and reflections in various professional organizations, including ACTFL, PNCFL, WAFLT, UW-Seattle, CI Reboot, and Comprehended Online. I was named a German Embassy Teacher of Excellence in 2021, the WAFLT Teacher of Year in 2022, and the PNCFL Regional Teacher of the Year in 2023.
Here’s where I’ll think through my classroom practice, and share my learning with you! I believe in professional generosity: I hope my blog can somehow help you find what you need to thrive in your work.
