Who are we?
Kirstin Plante is a teacher trainers in the field of TPRS and Teaching with Comprehensible Input, and runs an online bookstore in comprehensible easy readers and teaching materials for CI.
Originally trained to be a translator in Spanish and French, Kirstin soon discovered that her heart lay in teaching – not surprising, since both her parents were teachers. Thus, she started to teach Spanish to adults, and during a workshop she attended at a language conference in The Netherlands, she discovered the storytelling approach TPRS. After a steep learning curve in this dynamic methodology, she soon started to present workshops and together with her colleague Iris Maas started a company called TPRS Academy. They developed a year-long teacher training and have presented workshops and trainings in Europe, the US and Japan.
After Iris Maas left the company, Kirstin started to collaborate with Carmen Meester, and in 2019, they became business partners and changed the company name to Dynamic Language Learning. Together, they have been doing teacher trainings and workshops throughout Europe and online.
With Anny Ewing, Kirstin developed and for several years ran a yearly train-the-trainer course for CI teacher trainers in the US. She also publishes CI-related easy readers and handbooks.
Carmen Meester is a teacher of Spanish and teacher trainer in the field of language education with Comprehensible Input.
After finishing her career as Merchandise Planner in Fashion Retail, she decided to change course and use her knowledge of and passion for the Spanish language professionally. In 2012 she founded her language school Español y más in Hoofddorp, The Netherlands, where she soon started teaching with Comprehensible Input. The lessons were such a success that the number of students increased and it led to a demand for other languages being taught according to the same philosophy. In 2018 the school changed it’s name to Talenmeester (Language Master), a name that reflects the variety of langue courses with Comprehensible Input that are now being offered.
After having completed the CI-teacher training at TPRS Academy, Carmen herself started facilitating courses to other language teachers as a team member of TPRS Academy. In 2019 she decided to partner with Kirstin and continue this teacher training company under the name Dynamic Language Learning. Together with Kirstin and their team, Carmen now facilitates various trainings and workshops in The Netherlands and abroad as well as online.