Hi Ben – I will be changing jobs next school year and moving to Denver this summer! I’ve been hired by Valor Christian High School just south of Denver. I wasn’t on a job hunt since it’s been a good year at my school outside Chicago. I “happened” upon Valor’s job listing last month, and […]

Sabrina sent a link for us: http://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesleadershipforum/2014/04/22/the-best-way-to-learn-a-foreign-language-is-the-opposite-of-the-usual-way/

I don’t want to get all philosophical on anybody here but yesterday was the Columbine shootings’ 15th anniversary and I went by the school about fifteen times yesterday. (I live a short block from it and I have to go right by the front of the school every time I want to get anywhere.) So

Eric continues: Has anyone ever tried #2 above? (see previous article.) I started it today and I love it! After the TCI cycle/process, I put up the story we’ve been working on and the kids have 5 minutes to translate as much as possible. They are not graded. I’m looking for quantity as in a

Eric continues: I have a few CI-friendly measures in mind that I think can show a lot of growth. I like the idea of time-pressured assessments, not to raise affective filters (hopefully your kids have done these types of assessments before, so they are used to them), but to simulate the spontaneity of language and

International World Language Conference in Southwestern France July 7-12 Looking for a conference that develops you professionally and culturally and allows you do it in a beautiful setting at an utterly humane pace? Looking for a conference that gives you the latest CI (comprehensible Input) techniques in a collegial environment? The Summer World Language Conference

Eric continues: Good rubrics may be the most valid way to assess proficiency, but the result depends on the person grading. If you want reliable measures, then you have to spend time and money on training people to use the rubric and then have multiple people grade the same test. Ideally, the testers & scorers

This was posted on the Forum by Catharina and is a home run idea. Catharina shares: Rochelle Barry suggested we add “What did … do?” to the [classic standard questions of] “Who? Where? When? How? Why?” That was years ago. I forgot all about it. One more trick to move the story forward, and engage

I got a question that I sent to Carol Gaab. Here is an email exchange between Carol and Melisa Alexander, reprinted with permission: Melisa said: I am completely new to TPRS but extremely motivated to learn about and use it. I have spoken to my administration about converting our curriculum and he actually seems to

One of my students showed me this after class today: What Does School Really Teach Children? 1. Truth comes from authority. 2. Intelligence is the ability to remember and repeat. 3. Accurate memory and repetition are rewarded. 4. Non-compliance is punished. 5. Conform: intellectually and socially. www.facebook.come/thetruthbooth I think it is pretty much true, although

Andrew Edwards shares and seeks advice: Ben – I have recently been hired at a school where I will be a department of 1 and am pretty free to teach as I please. This is crazy exciting and a little intimidating. Do you know anyone on the PLC that is or has been in a

With the advent of comprehension based instruction, the assessment scene MUST go through some changes. We are faced now with kids who are being trained in such a different way (which when done properly is very fine) that we must come up with a fine way to assess them. Here in DPS we have started