Carly reports in: Hi Ben!  I have been a bit out of the loop on the blog, but I am starting to read up on what is going on and I am really excited that you are posting about your new teaching adventures. I was just reading your post Something Old/Something New, and it was […]

1. Have a verb. It could be to set up a story or just a verb you want to work on. 2. Focus on a kid. It may be one who just as class is starting seems to need some attention. Or it could be a real quiet kid. There is no wrong kid to talk about.

I remember always getting annoyed that I had to put grades in the book. Can’t I just ride the CI train and enjoy ]taking in the scenery of the stories with my students? But I want to keep my job so I collect grades. This year, I have found a nice way to get two quiz

So today I just started clapping the word instead of saying it. In my mind, it counts as a repetition, even I am just clapping it. Why am I clapping it? I think because it catches the attention of the mind. Thus, if I just got about 20 reps on a envoyé – sent – then

Can anyone offer any help to Shauna on this question? Hi Ben – …I am required to use Discovering French and VHL’s D’accord- do you have any idea where I could find resources that might align with those books? Yes, I have to use them. As you said, you never know when someone will pop-in

Usually parents nights only give you ten minutes or so to explain your program to the parents. I would put all the informational stuff on your school website or in a letter to give them explaining any important policies in under one minute and then do some CI. Those parents nights can be mind-numbingly boring

I just went through an 85 minute class on a story with 6th graders. We didn’t even do any PQA and we didn’t even finish the story. I just stayed with my barometer, the kids stayed with me, and it was magical. When the fabric started to unravel a few times, I just started over

Since my classes are small, I have been adding in invisible students. They are in the actual seating chart. In one class there is a Seth and an Ella. In another a Dward Fardward, an Arnold House, and a Biddley Flurgenjurgen, whom I tell my students is an actual made up student in a classroom

For some reason, this year, I am using stories much more than in the past. I don’t know why. And much less PQA. In some cases the kids want to get to a story so badly that I just dispense with the PQA. It doesn’t seem to bother them, in fact it bothers them when

I misspoke in a comment a week ago and want to clarify. I said I didn’t use the laser at all. But I do. For distant posters like Sabrina’s “How you doing?” poster that is such an effective tool to start class. Or the colors/numbers chart. But I still try to limit the use of

(We have talked about the use of L1 in the classroom topic a LOT here over the past few years, especially last year. This is my update.) James Hosler has always been a big proponent of just hanging out in English with the kids, and I have too. It just seemed like one of the