Last year we had “the war” with those 18,000 ACTFL soldiers (they call themselves the “Language Educators”). Alisa is pointing at a new possible battlefield. If we go there, let’s play nice. That was brutal last year. Robert and Eric and others here in our group handed their asses to them on a plate. Instead […]
I made a mistake. I created 4TR (Four Truths) because I thought it would get more output from the kids. That was not true, I am finding. The quality of the speech in that (still wonderful!) activity was forced and, if speech output is forced even a little bit (forced = made conscious) it is a
My kids are doing SSR right now. The room is pin drop quiet. They are totally lost in the books. I’m amazed at what reading is, what it can do. I do think it’s better than stories, more effective, in TPRS. I sense the truth that the kids really welcome not having to interact with
Linda and I were talking about whether we should join a program in our school where we open our doors to groups of teachers from all disciplines to share ideas about teaching. My position and Linda agrees that we are so different in what we are doing, in what we are trying to accomplish, that
A repost from 2012: I’m doing this story by Jim Tripp this week. It originally appeared here last June but here it is at a more appropriate time of year. As I was underlining the variables, I noticed what a work of art this story is in its simplicity. Anyone who wants to craft a script is invited
Just venting here. I was looking at a benchmark that my school uses to describe the Interpersonal Skill in our SBGR system. It reads: … I can communicate on very familiar topics using a variety of words and phrases that I have practiced and memorized…. Dude. That’s not interpersonal communication. Gag me.
OK we are doing Lance’s second video (02) right now. I know there is the time availability factor here. Maybe we should do only one per week. So let’s schedule it this way: discuss/give feedback to Lance on 02 by Saturday and then crank up a discussion on 03 on Sunday and on into next week. Here’s
I just got this celebration report from Angela Pidgeon who has been with our community for a very long time although somewhat quiet. This is the kind of report from the field that I most value on this PLC, and there is a lot to value here. Angela’s success is what our group is all about.
I did this activity today and I gotta say this is a mega winner for the kids. I know that it is hard to explain but if you see it in action you will see how simple it is, and you won’t believe the involvement. This falls under the category of “The Are Not Learning
Lets’ extend the window for watching and commenting on Lance’s second video (see first post on this thread for the link) until Sat. nite. I sense we are all so busy right now, so it seems like a good idea. We will start discussing his video 03 on Sunday. So I expect to see lots
I don’t like to plan a class in advance. It seems fake. I wouldn’t order a meal for Friday night on Monday morning, either. How would I know what I wanted to eat so early? When we plan in advance, the message is, “OK, I have this cool stuff to do involving such and such activities,
I have a question for the group. When you create a story without a script, what do you do? I want to hear the different responses. For me, I just: 1. Get any sentence like John was running, about some kid. It gives me a person to personalize and an action to create a problem
