Ben's Mission Statement
Many of us think that if we master the CI piece (the set of skills that we need to get through a story), then our kids will show the gains in proficiency that we want and they will test well and all will be happy with our jobs. This is not exactly true.
We must also focus on three other pieces besides just the CI piece, pieces that function like the three legs of a stool to hold up the CI piece:
1) the community building piece,
2) the inclusion/equity piece.
3) the mental health piece
I do not know of other approaches to CI that include a conscious focus on these three things, but my work with the Invisibles (2014), now in its current incarnation in the form of the Ultimate CI books (2022), does address these things. My mission is to get information about the Ultimate CI program out to as many language teachers as possible, because it will change lives.
Despite huge expenditures of public funds, most language students in American schools see themselves as failures at another language. It is my goal to properly train and fully provide second language teachers with the teaching skills that they need in order to reach their all of their students and end their misery and our misery. It can be done.