I was just thinking how, last summer, I invited teachers who work in Coalition of Essential Schools buildings to a dialogue on this blog about how, in foreign languages, they in no way align with the set of ten common principles that Ted Sizer originally set out about thirty years ago. Unfortunately, we got nothing going – […]

On the topic of training new people, Robert Harrell has said: “I think there is a place for practicing certain skills in isolation, but if we never practice everything at once, it will never come together.” I have heard it said that doing TPRS in Blaine’s “stepless” way makes it “harder for beginners”. People making

I just found out something interesting.. The corporate offices of the Coalition of Essential Schools are in Portland, ME. That’s right where Annemarie teaches. If you go to their website, you will see that their site is actually offered in Spanish as well. Having taught in a Coalition school, my thinking is that CES needs

Here is a wonderful new idea from Sean involving chants: I have the most good-natured set of students than I think I have ever had in my 13 years of teaching. That said, I do have some kids that blurt in English or engage in side conversations, especially my Pd. 8 class is, like 30

Last summer I invited teachers who work in Coalition of Essential Schools buildings to dialogue about how, in foreign languages, they don’t in fact align at all with the set of ten Common Principles that Ted Sizer originally set out thirty years ago. The Coalition of Essential Schools has become, over the decades, the Coalition

In human speech, words emerge in a stream of unpredictability. This is the natural  way. We start with a word, then another one emerges, and all the time we are thinking of what idea we want to express, and we are not thinking about the words we need to express our idea. Meaning drives which words are

We have four major ways of neutralizing defiant kids: Circling with Balls – by engaging the child first in discussion about him or her, the child cannot act out because they are the focus of the discussion. Whenever the child acts out, blurts, disengages, etc. we return to the discussion about him or her. Adding the

[This stressed girl] in high school was part of a legendary group a few years ago where I earned my reputation as a crier because I [am so easily moved] by student kindness and vulnerability. This very girl was the one who, one day when we were doing our check-in and someone said “Estoy triste” said in English

[ed. note: this post picks up on the previous post, part 1 of jen’s report from the field here, where she was talking about the question “But how are you preparing them for college?”] Jen: …by creating a space where students can relax and be themselves, a space where a very wound up hard driving valedictorian

Jen shares: This Facebook message showed up last night when I got home. Out of the blue! I just wanted to let you know that I took a test to be placed into a Spanish college class. I tested out of the curriculum which means I am the only freshman in a high senior class for

Actually it was a text. But it sure made me happy! It was from someone in the LA workshop from a few weeks ago: …Ben, I am reading A Natural Approach to Stories [ed. note: this is the new name we have chosen for the new book about the Invisibles] for the third time and I

Here is another idea, a repost from 2013, that maybe someone can use this year: …we can work also with images when doing dictée. It helps the kids because they have a picture to look at while the instructor spins out stuff about what is going on the picture. This builds auditory comprehension, writing/grammar, and