Daniel Navar mentioned his new, rather odd schedule in a comment today so I thought I would post that article now. The amount of minutes we have with our classes is, in my view, a key factor in all we do, how we plan, etc. So if anyone has any ideas for Dan on how to negotiate […]

Diane Neubauer and Haiyun Lu report: Chinese teacher conference in Milwaukee Oct. 11 & 12: Friday, 10/11: “Learning and the Brain” with Dr. Judy Willis – Brain-friendly teaching and learning strategies Saturday, 10/12: “Advanced TPRS with Mandarin” with Dr. Terry Waltz – Using Comprehensible Input methods with the unique needs of Mandarin language Cost: $100

So we know that we want to personalize and set the rules firmly in place over the first two months, but we also might want to make sure that those first 20 hours of instruction (the first month and a half minus necessary English in the first week to set the table) are done 98%

Some may remember from last spring that our own Bob Patrick is teaching a graduate course in the World Language and Literature Department at the University of Georgia this fall. It begins on Wednesday night, Aug 14. There are currently twelve graduate students enrolled. The class was offered to Bob after a workshop he did at

This is Erica’s addition to the jGR and dGR. It is a good version that many of us will want to use. I have changed the title from “participation” to Interpersonal Skills Rubric to align with ACTFL and the Three Modes of Communication. If it doesn’t convert well, here is another link to it: jGR

This is new information about CWB and OWI as of August, 2013. It discusses the importance of simplicity in the first few weeks of any school year. For a review of the basics of CWB and OWI, go to the TPRS Resources page on this site and click on Workshop Handouts. You can also search and

We all seem to like to tweak our own posters and that is great. It is another thing that makes this group unique – there are as many ways to do things as there are teachers. In fact, Annick Chen and I – within our own department and across the hall from each other – use greatly

Sabrina is coming to Denver Public Schools from Chicago. How cool is that? She will be taking Paul Kirschling’s position at Thomas Jefferson High School as Paul moves to East High School along with a growing stable of strong comprehension based teachers there. East is fast becoming a true comprehension based powerhouse. Their department of ten

We are slowly setting the table for the fall. There was no room on the table last year for Movie Talk, it seemed. But it is becoming clear that Movie Talk is going to be a huge piece for the upcoming year. The category has been created and some articles are already there. Links to Dr. Hastings

I’ve never quite understood why more people don’t teach using comprehension methods, and why it’s not mandated in more districts. But I just got an insight into it. I think it’s for the same reason that they don’t hire slide rule scientists from the 1950’s to work in the space industry of today – they don’t

We have our first specific “start the year” question from Kelly and it’s a good one. How many of us have had success with CWB (see category for definition) in level 1 and then not known how to start out bonding with the kids in level 2 because CWB had already been done the year

With all the conference excitement this month, plus I was writing that book, I forgot to publish this post describing our July teacher of the month – jen Schongalla. I ap0logize for that. Jen is definitely one of our rock stars here. Jen is just so cool and real and direct and uncompromisingly honest in her communications