Ben Slavic

I didn’t expect to have to actually bow down to Linda Li when I came here to India, but hey, she insists!

Hey Ben – I wanted to balance out some of the other things I have been posting about. It’s been a wild ride, to say the least. Thank you for the post about the energy in the building and the “gun culture.” I am asking myself pretty much the exact question you used “Am I

John Bracey on controlling blurting during Look and Discuss classes. Bold words mine: Here’s my L&D procedure with student artwork in class: 1) Have the first, or only, drawing projected on the board as students walk into the room. (This usually gives kids time to get used to the artwork and talk about it in

Hey Ben – I have been self-teaching myself TPRS with everything I can get my hands on and have basically seen an explosion in my Spanish students language abilities. It is very exciting! My school has asked me to work with the ELL kids to see if I have any luck with them. I am

We have been building up to what Eric says below for years. Finally, the statement is made and we can all go forward with this knowledge when we plan our instruction using CI, and we don’t even have to discuss why because that has been a developing point here now for years. Let’s just stamp

Two additional bits of information for those who are jumping in to help Grant become the next Central States Teacher of the Year: 1. If you are adept at the art of speaking in a way that helps others outside of the TCI arena to understand what we do and why, this is a time

From John Piazza: My students really enjoy it when I project their drawings on the screen and we discuss them in Latin. The trouble is, they get so excited about the artwork (it truly is compelling for them), that many classes (especially freshmen) cannot help but speak out and/or comment in English. Tons of blurting

I know it’s a busy time of year but we need to round up the troops for Grant Bouldanger in the next week or so. Here’s the situation: Hey Ben: Last weekend in San Diego was phenomenal. Hard to say with my highlight was, but my lowlight was not getting to see Robert present on Sunday

Many of us have been honored for our teaching in some way, as a Teacher of the Year (any level – district, state, region, etc., a Fulbright Award winner, etc. Many of us will be honored in the future, because of the force and grace of what we are doing now. Grant’s recent award as MN

Reading Option A [Note: When preparing this reading class from the story, embed about 10%-15% new vocabulary. The text thus generating becomes a gold mine for the spin off actvitites listed below. There are too many to do, so pick and choose. The process called ROA is a complex taxonomy that can lead to massive

I just wanted to write out the activities I am doing the most this year, to share, but also just to have a list for myself, to refer to before a class, when I’m deciding what I want to do in that class. No, I never plan lessons, and yes, in CI, that’s a good

Having private meetings after class when a kid misbehaves (blurts, can’t focus, etc.) does no good. Those meetings do no good. They just alienate the kid. Telling parents doesn’t do much good either – too negative. Maybe it’s better to not talk to the kid and just talk about the kid. It’s the attention they