EP.155 - Elizabeth Spiegel
Elizabeth Spiegel is a USCF expert who played in the US Championship in 2006 and the US Women\u2019s Championship in 2007. Of course, her greatest accomplishments have come in the realm of coaching, as she is an award winning and renowned scholastic coach, as well as a New York Public City School teacher.\xa0 Elizabeth has been a guiding force for the incredibly successful Junior High School chess program at IS-318 in Brooklyn. The students at IS 318 have amassed 57 National Championship Titles (!!), and the program was featured in the award-winning, outstanding 2012 documentary, Brooklyn Castle.\xa0\n\nElizabeth was honored as the 2019 Chess Educator of the Year by University of Texas at Dallas, and her teaching was also memorably featured in the excellent book, How Children Succeed.\xa0\n\nIn our conversation, Elizabeth shared tons of insights from her experiences as a chess teacher, and parent. We also talked about ways to further popularize chess, and a bit of\xa0 US Chess politics, as Elizabeth voiced her frustration about some recent rule changes relating to age groupings at US Chess Scholastic Nationals. Please read on, as always for more details.\xa0\n\nIf you are not seeing any embedded hyperlinks in the episode description, you can find them here:\n\nhttps://www.perpetualchesspod.com/new-blog/2019/12/10/episode-155-elizabeth-spiegel\n\n0:00- We begin by talking about the chess activity in Elizabeth\u2019s own household. Wiith chess-obsessed 12 and 6 yr old\u2019s living under her roof, she sees a lot of chess learning first hand.\xa0\n\nMentioned: FM Mike Klein of Chesskid (aka FunMasterMike), Chessable, The Steps Method\n\n13:50- How much is it appropriate for typical scholastic players and club level players and study openings?\xa0\n\nMentioned: Elizabeth\u2019s 2019 Chess Educator of the Year Acceptance Speech, FM Justus Williams, NM James Black, FM Donny Ariel\xa0\n\n19:30- 2 Patreon supporter of Perpetual Chess submit questions for Elizabeth asking for some teach tips.1)\xa0 How to motivate students to do chess puzzles? 2) How to manage classes with disparate skill levels?\xa0\n\nMentioned: The great chess Books for kids by Jeff Coakley\n\n25:00- How has Elizabeth\u2019s teaching changed since Brooklyn Castle was released in 2012?IS 318 Web Site\xa0\n\nMentioned: IS 318 Vice-Principal John Galvin, Facebook Chess Teacher\u2019s Forum, Katie Dellamaggiore (Director of Brooklyn Castle), John Hamm of Mad Men\xa0\n\n\xa0\n\n32:00- To check out the World Championship chess mugs, go toChessmugs.com. If you decide to buy a set of mugs, use the code \u201cperpetualchess\u201d at checkout to save 15%.\n\n\n\n\n\n33:00- Elizabeth shares a few more book recommendations.\xa0\n\nMentioned: Mastering Chess Strategy, Positional Decision Making in Chess,\xa0 Chess School: The Manual of Chess Combinations. More of Elizabeth\u2019s favorite books for teaching can be found here and here.\xa0\n\n37:00- \xa0How could chess be better marketed? Elizabeth thinks there should be more titles in scholastic chess, and that chess could be better marketed to autistic students.\xa0\n\nMentioned: IM Cyrus Lakdawala\xa0\xa0\n\n45:00- As Elizabeth details on her blog, in 2019 the US Chess Scholastic Committee changed the rules regarding which grade levels are eligible for Junior High Nationals prizes. Despite the fact that most schools labeled \u201cJunior High\u201d in the U.S. go up to 8th grade, the US scholastic Nationals allows 9th graders to compete for Junior High prizes as well. As Elizabeth explains, this primarily benefits private schools and magnet schools, at the expense of more traditional junior highs, such as, IS 318. A Patreon supporter of the podcast asks for Elizabeth\u2019s thoughts on this issue, as well as whether it may have effected her winning the 2019 Chess Educator of the Year prize from University of Texas at Dallas.\xa0\xa0\n\nMentioned: Elizabeth\u2019s blog, FM Sunil Weerumantry, WIM Beatriz Marinello, J.J Lang\u2019s Perpetual Chess Interview\xa0\n\n1:03- We discuss Elizabeth\u2019s developing thoughts on chess parenting.\xa0\n\nMentioned: GM Jonathan Rowson\u2019s All the Moves that Matter , Elizabeth\u2019s beginner curriculum is available for download here,\xa0\n\n\xa0Elizabeth\u2019s \u201cpin and skewer puzzle\u201d here-\n\nhttps://share.chessbase.com/SharedGames/share/?p=Ohq5ew6aMX8jfa/9PpWEh02Z/+kYuDvPO6m93orqYYhrxTLkgkYoQifCP5/kltL7\n\nSolution here-\xa0\n\nhttps://share.chessbase.com/SharedGames/share/?p=9X/QHzGoTQrE3QVL9browbeYG4G76LfpL8sT73650khNCeYFbxN1wTRYJhcptlP0\n\n1:09- Thanks to Elizabeth for joining us! You can keep up with her via Facebook and her blog.\xa0\n\nIf you would like to help support the kids at IS 318, you can do so here: https://t.co/YUUvGHIl1L?amp=1\n\nIf you would like to help support the podcast, you can do so here: https://www.patreon.com/perpetualchess\n\nSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.\nLearn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices