Hunting Season
Jim Tripp send me this excellent story and gave me permission to publish it here. It has everything except a plot, and shows how a lot of fun can be found in just the creation of images and not worrying so
Silly Putty
I'm republishing this old blog entry - slightly edited - from 2007. Amazingly, the core ideas in it remain applicable today: My stretching of the silly putty that is TPRS has taken many forms over the years, as I’m sure is true
A Lot Of Ears
One of my students has about 60 pairs of ears. That's 60 on each side. Strangely, he is not as distracting as other students with just the one basic set of ears. Why? Because he listens so well. Isn't that what
Coaching
Doug sent this update on how things have been unfolding this year. His new coaching group in Orange County is, in my opinion, an example of how we need to proceed. Obviously, coaching groups at the building level are not going to happen
Juan Lopez
Jim Baird send this: Hey Ben, I would like to tell you about one of my adult ESLstudents, 36 year old Juan Lopez. In 1995 Juan immigrated from rural Guatemala to California. Reportedly, his English speaking skills were zip. He went to work
The Hole In Their Hearts 2
I am about to embark, for the rest of the year, on using much more reading and songs to generate CI. I think that the focus on stories may have kept us from innovating more than we have into these
This Is Boring
Connected to the discussion on technology is its effect on classroom discipline. Doing the hard work of having to follow rules that demand that a child show up beyond the level of a robot in class is hard for kids
The Hole In Their Hearts 1
Jim said: I’m curious to know what you all think is most hurting kids in our buildings (I can think of many things), or shall I say where we should focus in order to help nurture a capable generation of young
In Service Of Authentic Comprehensible Input
Just to reiterate. I see technology really helping, serving beautifully, my students, outside of the classroom. It helps them process so many things that are interesting to them, from songs, sometimes even in communication with kids from other countries, and
Student Centered
About a year ago Michele/Alaska started thinking in terms of student focused CI classes, with Jim and others throwing out new ideas from time to time about how to get the kids to be sources of CI - hence greater