Hi Ben, I had a short conversation with my friend that had so much to do with the work we do as second language teachers that it blew me away: My friend recently agreed to teach me to play the piano and we were listening to a few songs in the car when out of the […]

Chris Stoltz (Vancouver) reports: Hey Ben – I’m sitting in the Von Ray workshop (he has his dad’s eyes) as he demos TPRS in German. Since it’s my first language I am just watching audience and note a few things: A) SLOW rules. A word a second. It feels like he’s CRAWLING and when he

TPRS/CI is starting to work it’s way into businesses: Hey Ben – I am trying to adapt what I’m learning about TPRS and PQA from your books to online teaching of adults often at and above the intermediate level. A different ball of pedagogical wax, one supposes, as these are often adults who are top

I will add this post to the Seating Charts category: Hello, Ben, I am really enjoying Stepping Stones…thanks for writing it! I am in a school that is totally Kagan-driven. In fact, one of Kagan’s national trainers teaches at my school which means that it is pushed hard and implemented in every single classroom. I

Erica has a good MT selection and be sure to look at the selections in the comment field below it from chill and thank you both: A great idea are these new Mickey Toons they are showing on Disney. They really aren’t appropriate in my opinion for my daughter who is 3 but they are hilarious and

Chris from Ohio reports: We’re now a week and a half into the school year here and I have many students commenting to me that my class is their favorite, the highlight of their day and/or the only class they look forward to.  It’s truly amazing and if it wasn’t for this method I know

Ben, I just got done posting this short video I made that describes one option for extending a OWI. Give it a look, if you like, and feel free to post to your blog. I know you have been wanting short videos describing methods, and I hope this fits the bill. Here’s the link: http://www.jameshosler.com/2013/08/extend-one-word-image-to-end-class.html

Here is a link to the parent letter that Mary Beth sends out. I don’t think she’d mind if any poaching occurred. That’s what we do here: Parent Letter – MB

Hi Ben: I had an interesting conversation yesterday with my new principal and my star student. The student has accomplished an amazing feat: starting from true zero in Spanish two years ago, he is probably Advanced Low on the ACTFL scale. The principal, intrigued by his fluency, talked to him about Spanish class. He said

We need to cool the activity here – it is too active anyway – and just sit with jen for the next few days. That may seem like kind of a dramatic statement but it’s not. She got side smacked yesterday. Only those who have had similar experiences can know what this kind of thing can do to one’s mental balance, especially at the

I got this email from jen today. It could have been anyone of us but it was jen. Due to it’s intensity, I’m limiting posts for four days for us to properly appreciate and react to what is going on as she takes – to say it mildly – some heat. We need a brain break

Chill reports: Hi, Ben: I always worry how my kids will fare when they leave the confines of my classroom and head off to college. I received this e-mail from a freshman at Virginia Tech. Granted Justin was motivated and went beyond the call of duty. With that said, he surely walked through the door