I was born and raised in California. I received my Bachelor’s Degree in German and Spanish at California State University, Fullerton. I taught Spanish at a high school in Cypress, California for over four years. I moved to Colorado in 1993 where I taught German and Spanish at Cheyenne Mountain Jr. High School in Colorado Springs.

I discovered a natural method of teaching based off of TPRS in 1996 and authored the Sabine und Michael German TPRS® curriculum in 1999. I received my Master’s Degree in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs in 2001. I authored the Charo y Lee Spanish TPRS® curriculum in 2009.

In 2013 I led my school to be named a German Center of Excellence by the AATG (American Association of Teachers of German), a designation given to only one K-8 school in the country per year. In 2017 I retired from public school teaching to begin an adventure traveling and tutoring student groups around the country.
I have a natural approach that is both fun and effective.
Many people tell me that a 10-minute lesson from me allows them to learn more language than they ever did from a traditional high school class! In my public teaching career, I was able to get 8th grade students in Level One to significantly outperform high school sophomores in Level Two on standardized tests. The reason for this success? Going back to the natural way we learn a language. Less emphasis on grammar lessons and vocabulary lists and more emphasis on simple communication. I have several demos available online.

I have taught German for 24 years, tripling my enrollment in a time in which many German programs are declining. In parent surveys, my satisfaction rating was higher than any other class except band (I can provide documentation). I have authored a complete 2-year curriculum in German including a reading book and music CD. I have taken 22 student tours to Germany with a homestay at a partner school--all of which I organized myself. I have presented at foreign language conferen