Each of us should work from our own intuitions and strengths as we plan how we are going to navigate each year so that we can get through it as best we can with the highest mental health possible and the best results for our kids. We are all trying to get that balance, almost impossible […]
So when we think about September coming to a close, each of us must reflect on what we did in our instruction in terms of: 1. Norming the class for discipline and clarity of behaviors expected from our students. 2. Personalization in terms of the Circling with Balls cards and any other such activities that
Our group member Shannon shared with me in an email the following about the department she chairs in St. Paul, MN and I would like to share it with the group: …7 of 9 WL teachers in my building alone are TPRS/CI now. Maybe 12 of 19 district-wide. We’re certainly changing the culture around here,
For the past weeks I have been using and continuing to see greater and greater value in “the JGR”. I knew it had power when this week Annick Chen – a truly gifted CCI Mandarin teacher – came into my room (I had asked her to observe me in a reading class to clarify a few
The topic below is a good one to revisit from time to time – use of tenses. Kelly sent in this question for consideration by the group: Hi, Ben, I am really struggling with asking the stories in the past tense. It just feels so unnatural to me. When I have actors and the story is
Corinne in CA sent this: Ben, In response to your Magic Bean post, I’ve allocated some jobs this semester. The two French combined level 2&3 sections enjoy checking that they can keep in L2 as long as each other, so that timer is popular. My “barometers” (I know we don’t call them that ) enjoy
A question for anyone with some wisdom to offer… For my junior class, I had aimed to move into Caesar’s de Bello Gallico. My thought was to create embedded readings and work slowly through selections from the text. This seemed to be going well, but the fact of the matter is that the previous 2
I don’t recycle stories because of time limitations but I think Jim does. This is a question from Angie for the group: Hey Ben, My classes are starting to accumulate stories, and I’m wondering how/whether you have a method for reviewing the old ones so they don’t get forgotten. I’ve been reading them aloud and having
Hey Ben! Just wanna give you an update on how things are going with the Star. We’re in November and the Star is still a game-changer. It’s amazing what some of my classes are doing. My 6th period class has created their own “cinematic universe” with our stories. One of our very first OWIs was a
I have noticed that in two of the teaching activities I do during the week I just fade off to the side of the room and have very little direct involvement. The kids run the class, and they run it well. The two activities are: reading from the projected image of the story on the
Experience today I want to observe and report. Word Chunking has become a very favorite “game” with my Latin 1 and 2 students. In both levels today, I noticed something that I was not aware of before, but now I am fairly sure has been there all along. When I read a Latin sentence for
I’d like to add two jobs to the three already connected to the Word Chunk Team activity – the Heads Together Checker (HTC). The first is for a kid who doesn’t participate well in his group and needs to be taken out of it. She stands next to me with the other two hires on that activity and tells me
