This is from Ben Lev: Hi Ben, here’s a request for the PLC: I’m presenting at an in-service on Friday. I want to do something practical, so I’m going to show them how to circle and park. If possible I’d like to do it in a language other than Spanish or French or English. Does […]
I got this from our newly minted Teacher of the Year in his district in CA, Don Read: Hi Ben, Here is a link to a presentation I prepared based on Sabrina’s Etoile du Jour. Best, Don https://docs.google.com/a/moraga.k12.ca.us/presentation/d/1EIMO7PHOEK9LxLkhv_CNGJLWW0qCqIcctCq5htUeoyE/edit?usp=sharing This particular link is fantastic. It’s potential in the first weeks of the year is off the
Here is the letter Jeanette shared with her colleagues upon the occasion of her retirement this spring. I like the list of numbers, especially the 32 principals part: Dear Ankeny Friends and Colleagues, I’ve reached that stage in my career where the word “experience” just in not descriptive enough. If my math is correct, I’ve
Charla Aranda reports in from Utah: Ben, I am finally back into researching again, and I’ve recently been back on your forum reading through posts, which has helped me not feel so alone with the struggles I am having. With this being my first year teaching both TCI and AP Spanish, I’ve been overwhelmed at
I am just finishing up a 28 page description of Julie’s Visual PQA work. I will add it to the Google file for those interested. Ruth has it set up now with files generously donated by Julie and Eric. It should post here soon. Ruth has already translated Julie’s lleva, duerme and hace ruido PP
We have a room, thanks to Grant who is running point for Carol in Minneapolis for iFLT, which is from Tues./July 14th to Fri./July 17th this summer. Same thing as last year on the War Rooms. Teacher teaches, we give feedback, and the next person gets up and fries, but in a good way, right?
Ruth and I are working to get the vPQA website up and running. Julie has graciously allowed us access to ALL her Power Point slides. Ruth has already translated the one I raved about (lleva, duerme, hace ruido) into French. What an arsenal we are going to have. I have to tell you that tears
This is from Leah. It’s her turn. It goes in the “Observations by Idiots” category on the right side of this page: Ben, I’m looking for advice and also for my fellow CI teachers to lift my spirits. Here’s my situation: I have a new supervising principal this year who will evaluate me (he is
Ruth and I are working to get a Google folder up for whatever PP slides we create here. Sharing our lesson plans here, as we have said, could save us many planning hours next year once we get this thing on Visual PQA/Power Point CI teaching up and running. I strongly suggest that we scaffold
This can happen in impoverished schools as well as any other as long as we tap into the needs of the children to express themselves using words in the L2. We didn’t have a way to do this in the old model of PQA because the input was not supported by images and captions. And
To restate and clarify. In my current view we will get much more verbal L2 output from our kids than we ever thought possible if we do three things: 1. Put really extreme limits on how much L1 they can use. 2. Use Power Point images with captions (stories can’t do this) so that they
Q. Does Julie ever ask, “What did I just say?” or do quick translations for clarification? A. Yes, BUT both are very limited in how many times they get used. This is the fascinating part to me. The less English used by the teacher, I have noticed in DPS, the more L2 output by the kids there
