Personal and Professional Information
by Anita McDaniel
My name is Anita McDaniel. I was born in Parsons,Kansas, but we were living in Erie,Kansas. I grew up there and graduated high school there. I went to Neosho Community College in Chanute graduating with an Associate of Arts Degree and then went to Pittsburg State University graduating in 1969 with a degree in Spanish & Social Science. I taught Social Science for 1year in Chanute, then got the opportunity to teach Spanish in Altamont. In 1989 I got my Masters Degree in Community College teaching with emphasis in Spanish. Later I went back to Independence Community College and picked up a degree in French. About 17 years ago after many frustrating years of trying to teach foreign language comprehension and ability to speak, read and write to no avail, I found TPRS - Teaching Fluency thru Reading & Storyasking. This method used the brain functions that I had been studying so that if the student would listen and concentrate on the stories and reading, s/he could learn any language without much real effort. No studying, like the other methods demanded. I had found my passion. I have taught here at CUHS since 2002. I had taught at Altamont for 30 years before that. TPRS or Teaching Proficiency through Reading & Storytelling is a method developed by Spanish teacher Blaine Ray about 15 years ago and the method has been evolving ever since. It has been found to allow students to hear and read their language in context not having to memorize tons of vocabulary, but learning to understand the language in its spoken & written form.
I married my high school sweetheart, Tom McDaniel, who also graduated from Erie High School, NCC in Chanute and PSU in Pittsburg. He was an art major and was in the interior design business for many years. He also paints, does woodworking, and we both do hand made jewelry and take photographs together. We have been married since 1969.
We have a daughter, Amber, who graduated from LCHS in Altamont and got an Associates degree from LCC in Parsons in Graphic design. She lives and has worked for Miller's Professional Imaging for the last 11 years as a digital artist. She also paints and take photographs.
Tom and I have 10 cats, all rescues - 3 of which were my mother's, but when my father, she had to move to assisted living and could not have her animals, so we inherited them. Our oldest cat is 27 years old and the youngest is 5 years old. We lost our 23 year old yellow lab the Spring my Dad died, so we decided we weren't going to have another dog. But the universe had other plans and that fall a 6 week old German Shepherd came walking down the street and got caught in our fence. She was so skinny that we couldn't say "no", go away, but we tried to find another home for her. No one could take her. So, we were the proud adopters of a German Shepherd pup. Boy, is she big. Her name is Paisley, our daughter named her before we decided to keep her, so I guess she knew we wouldn't say no. Then, the next fall along came another orphan that we weren't going to keep, but Paisley had other ideas. She wanted a sister, so we now have an Airedale/Rotweiller mix named Punkin - again thanks to Amber. The dogs are inseparable and we have grown to love them both. Punkin is a funny mixture, cute but eats like a horse.
I love teaching at Columbus and I love the students as well as the teachers and staff here. I am grateful for the opportunity to continue using my Spanish and TPRS to help students learn the language.
