Ben, I am in my third year (as of 2013) of teaching Latin at Central High School in St. Joseph, Missouri. I am the only Latin teacher in my district, which gives me a lot of freedom. I started on a path of CI at the beginning of this year. Actually it has felt more […]
I was encouraged to join this group by John Piazza, of San Francisco, before the winter break. Here’s my bio. I currently teach Latin at Westlake High School in Southwest Atlanta. I use TPRS and some WAYK methods in my classroom – as well as just random shit that I think works and that kids like. I
Hi Ben, I was wanting to submit my bio but I was unsure of where to submit it so I thought I would just send it to you. I am not a “trained” teacher. I didn’t go to school to be a teacher. I learned Spanish in another country and because of the requirements of
Grant’s essay and the ensuing conversations have just hit the spot for me. I am doing “Creating CI Classroom” workshops this spring and summer. March 8-9 I will be offering a 3 hour workshop at the Foreign Language Association of Georgia for World Language teachers–Creating a CI Classroom. April 8 I have been invited, thanks
Grant asked Darcy Pippins for some harder numbers, those referred to in the previous article, and here is Darcy’s response: Our numbers in the upper level classes are very high and we added a part time position this year to compensate. It’s a high school of approx. 1800 students, title 1 school with approx. 40%
What Grant has written in the previous article here is significant. It was directed to us, but, if it were slightly rewritten, it could be directed to and made more palatable to those whom I describe as on the fence with comprehension based instruction. It could even be handed to skeptics and naysayers. So I
Grant Boulanger has written the folowing passage about the change we are in. It is free of venom and refreshingly clear. If even half of us printed and shared some variation of this text at at our next department meetings, submitting it to our administrators as well, we would reach a lot of people who
Robert requests ideas from the group: Hi Ben, As you know from my recent comments, I have been elected Department Chair at my high school. At the urging of our French teacher, I am going to move ahead at the school site level with trying to introduce TCI/TPRS into the curriculum across the board. With
When a so-called expert (we are all experts and fools at the same time) shows up in a school district from 2000 miles away and gives a one or two day presentation, the actual return on investment by all involved is minimal at best. Most people are just too skeptical and it can be diffucult on
There are probably only a handful, if that, of teachers out there – but there are some – who for some reason do not want us to be doing this work, and we don’t want them in our private conversation here. So if you haven’t sent in a bio, please do so. We must know
We have been talking about the need for simple low level novels for TCI classes in Latin. We actually need more of them in many languages. In this article, published so that I can make it available in the category list and not have it scroll out, David Maust asks Robert Harrell for advice on the
James reminds us of something we often forget, that the kids have to sit in restraining devices and fake, feign or pay attention to us yammering away each and every day from around 7:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.. I often tell them that if their parents had to do that, there would be no school, or it
