Dana reports from India on the word “playfulness”. It’s not a word that is going to get a lot of play in the research world, or with 80% of teachers who might consider it out of the realm of what we do. However, it may be the most important word, or one of them, in […]

Hey Ben, It looks like my school is pushing the seal of biliteracy. And it looks like it is literally a gold star that gets put on kids’ diplomas. My question is does anyone on the blog know anything about it? Is it at all useful? If so great if not and I have to

Alisa, this comment was made on FB by someone doing NT CI at the elementary levels. I would be curious to know how you would respond to it: …I am in the same boat this year after learning about non-targeted structures. I also have students 2x/week for 30 minutes. I found it really hard to do non-targeted

Hey guys Hope you’re having a great year! Just an update of how things are going here in Oregon. Starting last year, I got my colleagues to show an authentic Spanish soap opera in some of our classes. I was movie talking the show and my students loved it but as the semester went on

The school’s president, the Upper School principal and three parents who work at the school and have kids in my French class have given me positive feedback since January, when I started teaching – doing CI for half a period as Ben suggested. It was a great suggestion. One of the parents who is an

The thing about the OPI is how it is “old school” like the IB/AP exams are for the kids – they measure how much vocabulary you have, etc. and they don’t really bring into consideration that, even if your abilities in the language are low, intermediate or whatever, the thing that really counts in a

The thing about the OPI – the stupid and elitist Oral Proficiency Interview – is how it is “old school” like the IB/AP exams are for the kids – they measure how much vocabulary you have, etc. and they don’t really bring into consideration that, even if your abilities in the language are low, intermediate

Alisa wrote here about a week ago the following insights. It should be posted here as required reading once a week for the next ten years: No-one wants to be forced to change to something new and many in that situation push back…. though I have seen those who are led to the well actually

Hi everyone, I recently had a situation with some parents where they kind of called me out for the no homework thing and not knowing what their child can do at home. I created the following document about homework in my classroom. I think you all will enjoy it as it is a great CYA

Steven reports: Hi Ben, I wanted to let the PLC know that I am taking on the most important group needing buy-in for the work we do–students. In the spirit of mental health, I am doing a week long unit on SLA. It is long overdue for my population of gifted students. Also, this year

A repost from 2012. There was a hurricane: Dear Lord, Please protect all the people on the East Coast as they go through this big storm. Keep them in safety. Watch over Carol and Jennifer in New Jersey, and Brigitte in Long Island, and our brothers and sisters in the Maine group and everywhere else