Apparently this is going to become a movie. Hee hee. You know, why not? Here is this awesome girl racing down a hallway and falling just to prove a point. It could be a good movie! Here is the latest: I’m glad they liked it. I was amazed that my teacher agreed to it – she […]
This is a reprise of that blog when Jennifer and I were talking about pacing guides: I think that pacing guides, in general, prevent any real instructional freedom and any cogent alignment with the research of Dr. Krashen. I experienced this in Jefferson County before I came to DPS. Now that the new state standards have been
My former student has sent a fifth installment, and it is a tribute not just to her but, especially, to her teacher. I am moved by the reaction of this teacher to what was described in the 4th installment of this thread. Instead of getting defensive, like I would have done, she tried something new.
Laurie’s Not Teaching Parrots Got this from Laurie -it’s on her blog (http://blog.heartsforteaching.com) too: I’m a bit of a youtube addict and yesterday I came across this great clip about a speaking parrot. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kyh8KblQrqQ The trainer is adorable and the whole schtick is about the parrot responding a certain way to the trainer’s clues. (ie.
This is blog entry number four from my fearless former eighth grade student who has been sharing her views of studying French as a ninth grader in her high school. (Search “A Blow To His Confidence” for the preceding three blogs.) In this blog, the author bravely interviews her teacher: O.K. not to continue talking
Magic Johnson has said that, as he grew up, there were a lot of people who “shot down my dreams”. How many dreams of young kids of color to succeed at foreign languages have been dashed by worksheet coma teachers? Such teachers would be quick to attribute their racially imbalanced AP classes to the sloth of the individual
I got this email from Jennifer a few days ago. It is pretty interesting: “Ben, I wanted to thank you again for all your time and energy over the last year and a half, on your blog, and in Denver this summer. “As you know (and warned me about this summer) this year has
When we have the time to write up stories as readings (Step 3), we embellish the original story line with personalized details about kids in the class. They want to know what they did and they read the text very closely when they see their names or their friends’ names in the text. We add
This is a follow up email to the one yesterday. In it, we see an excellent restatement of the author’s original point: “Thanks for the compliment. I cannot wait until those new standards are passed. [ed. note: They are passed, but will teachers align their instruction with them?] There will be resistance, I know, but
This email is from the same student who posted here a few days ago about her teacher deciding that it is now time for the class to speak. Before reading this new entry, the reader may want to read the January 12 blog entry entitled “A Blow To His Confidence” – https://benslavic.com/blog/?p=5726). Here is the text of the new
I got this today. It’s long, but it shines light where light is needed: Dear Ben, I have a long rant, but I just spent three hours last night, and am scheduled for seven more tomorrow, of a workshop that seems to ignore everything we know about CI, and yet even quotes Krashen. I like the
On the thread of classroom discipline, Toni asked some questions which I have rescued from the comments and put here in Q and A form to preserve them as a searchable blog: Q. I haven’t used any PAT activities yet, but if I were to adopt that procedure, what do I do if the kids are
