Brett Chonko wrote something about gesturing here a few years ago that is just spot on, in my opinion: I am for the most part convinced in this article to not require my students to gesture next year for a number of reasons: 1. It wasted a lot of time to have kids come up […]
A truth that all teachers know is that students see through everything. If they sense that we are trying too hard for their approval, then their approval will always remain just out of reach. If, on the other hand, the class is working together to create a story based on their characters, we find that
We feel overwhelmed. Our students feel overwhelmed. Instead of allowing ourselves and our students to feel that way, we should question what make us feel that way. Feeling overwhelmed cannot possibly be a normal human condition, the way we were meant to be. We have bought into the idea that if we don’t feel overwhelmed
Each of us must become our own best teacher, the one that now lies still dormant inside of us, the one waiting to be brought to the real teaching life, to the smiling life, to the happy kids life, with comprehensible input. Nobody else can become what each of us is becoming in this process
Greg shares his syllabus and parent letter: This is my “syllabus”. In my school we call it a “procedure sheet”. Unlike college syllabi, we are not required to provide the whole schedule of what we are going to do in class to students.Here it ishttps://docs.google.com/document/d/1QukizIKwoNKTsklzkTCDCFVW-0PR_7FqFz-0JH8AAkU/edit?usp=sharingReply This is the letter I send home to parents on
If you read the first article on Paul Sandrock, you know that Paul is doing what all good politicians do, speak to their base. In that article, Paul clearly defends both positions. That is his right, maybe. I wonder if it really is his right to defend the traditional way of teaching for two reasons:
Sandrock is the ACTFL Director of Education. In 2014 we in this PLC had a vigorous interchange with his massive ACTFL Foreign Lang. Educators group. We illustrated and defended CI and made the point over a month long interchange that CI is the way people acquire languages, and that the traditional methods of the ACTFL
Before teaching greetings in the fall, consider the content of these posts from recent years here: https://benslavic.com/blog/?s=teaching+greetings
A teacher asked me what kind of auditory input materials I would recommend for aiding in developing her own command of Spanish. I responded: Maybe some of Carol Gaab’s upper level books that she sells for reading classes from her “Fluency Matters” website – the ones with the audio track of the book so you
Diane needs a syllabus for the fall, level one preferred. You have them. Give them to her through this site. You will thereby “do her a solid”. Have you ever thought about that odd expression? It means that you give her something concrete to work with. There are also all sorts of ideas tucked in
John just joined our group and here introduces himself. I appreciate it and invite any other new members to follow his lead. This applies to long time members as well. How can we help each other if we don’t know each other? Hi everyone. Glad to have found this community! I am very impressed with what
I’m posting this information on the Classroom Rules here for Diane : Supplement 4 – The Classroom Rules The biggest chore we have at the beginning of each academic year is to get a handle on classroom management. We must have that piece under control before even thinking about our instruction. Indeed, why even begin
