Many of us must post daily language objectives near our door, for each day. That’s ridiculous, so we in our department have a generic statement so that when any observor walks in, right by the door they see the statement below. It is so generic that it covers about anything we might be doing that […]

Our group member Jason Bond in Scotland on the Isle of Islay in Western Scotland has a question that is so common from new people that I decided to publish it over on this side instead of over on the forum. Please respond with any and all ideas since we now have more than a

A repost from 2008 that fits in with a recent thread here: There were so many great strategies. There were so many that I couldn’t keep track of them all. It was like a wagon loaded with too many bricks. The bricks at the bottom got lost over time, and the wagon kept getting heavier! That

If we have a child who is brilliant in writing, but is not communicative in class, then how do we assess him? Do we keep him from the high grade simply because he doesn’t communicate well in class? Chris Stoltz posed that question to the group here about a week ago: …what happens if a kid manages good

This blog entry from 2011 responds to a thread on the forum. It is by Catharina Greenberg on teaching elementary kids: The very talented Leslie Davison is presenting this year at ACTFL in Colorado and I noticed that her workshop is called “Six to Sixteen: All are preschoolers in foreign language.” Leslie is a master

I would like to suggest that we nominate people for Teacher of the Month instead of me just picking. The criteria for the nomination should include, mainly, contributions to the group here in our daily dialogues. If you go through the list of Teachers of the Month, you will see the names of people who

In this comment-turned-article John Piazza makes a couple of key points about what actually leads to measurable and real gains in the language, in the true and not false way, and then he reveals his struggle with one of those false ways: (forced) homework. My comment to John is “stop giving forced homework” for the

In speaking about using short YouTube videos in our CI classes (see categories on that topic), Sabrina once described how they can be used. Here is that description. Using videos for CI just adds to our list of things we can do to use CI in our classrooms, but they have to be used in

Here is a lengthy letter of mental support I sent out to a teacher who is doubting himself. It was a comment but I made it into an article. It’s a long pep talk at the end of the first quarter of this year’s game, when the weather is starting to turn and the October

James Hosler sent this: Ben, I just read the quote below on the blog of a well know Latin teacher who sticks closely to the textbook and is from the “eclectic” school of teaching. Lots of business, activities, etc. I’ve only been teaching for four years, but I can see that I would have been

Kristen sent this upon my request and thank you Kristen: Hi Ben, The app I have been using more and more of this year is called Educreations. On a storytelling day, I hand my iPad to the kid who wants to have the artist job. He or she draws on the iPad as the class

Another group member in Calgary: Hi, Ben – My name is Jacqueline Ford. I am a French teacher to grades 5 – 9 in Calgary, AB, Canada. I am the sole second language teacher in my school and I am grateful to have the support of your PLC as even in my extremely large school