This month, Classroom Voces and Teacher’s Discovery are spotlighting authors who’ve turned their real classroom experience into comprehensible readers for World Language classrooms. These are stories born from real teaching experience—written to engage students, build language skills, and deliver results in the classroom.
Meet: Erica Peplinski-Burge
Spanish teacher for 18 years, MIWLA 2020 Teacher of the Year, neuroscience aficionado
Author of the “Who Are We?” Special Person Interviews Collection
1. How did you learn about Special Person, and what motivated you to try it in your own classroom?
I first learned about Special Person through Bryce Hedstrom. I loved how something so simple could have such a big impact on classroom culture. Students were using Spanish to genuinely learn about one another. I wanted my students to feel seen, valued, and connected, and Special Person became one of the easiest and most powerful ways to build that kind of classroom community. It helped turn my room into a community.
2. What difference did Special Person make in your classroom?
Students stopped seeing their World Language class as just another subject and started seeing it as a way to connect with the people around them. They became more engaged because the conversations were about real classmates. They felt proud sharing about themselves, which we know activates the reward center in the brain, so students were eager to participate. Over time, I noticed students cheering each other on, remembering details about one another, and building empathy alongside language proficiency.
3. What inspired you to writeWho Are We? to share with teachers?
Teachers don't need more to do. I wanted to create something that captured everything I loved about Special Person while making it easy to implement. My goal was to provide ready-to-use, high-frequency questions, built-in scaffolds, engaging quizzes, and extension activities so teachers could spend less time planning and more time connecting with students.
4. Describe a memorable moment you had teaching withWho Are We?
One of my favorite moments happens every year when students start making connections with classmates they normally wouldn't talk to. A student will discover someone else loves the same unusual hobby, has the same favorite animal, or shares the same birthday. Suddenly they're talking before class, sitting together, and encouraging each other during activities. Those moments remind me that language classrooms are about community as much as communication.
5. What do you hope teachers get out of reading this book?
Talking about ourselves lights up the reward pathways in our brain. Humans are naturally curious, when we tap into that curiosity, participation increases, anxiety decreases, and the classroom becomes a joyful place to learn. My hope is that Who Are We? helps teachers create those kinds of classrooms with very little prep and a lot of heart.
You can check out Who Are We? activities for Special Person interviews by Erica Peplinksi-Burge for Spanish, French, and German.
