I have been talking to Charlotte and the plane fares were twice as expensive from Germany as she expected so we have to help her. If anyone going to either San Diego or Dallas can help with any ideas about lodging – that is the main issue – pls. respond. I can’t imagine the expense for […]

Hi Ben, Guess what I did today? Yes! Absolutely right! I went to a department meeting where we took a stab at trying to come up with a curriculum map. Woo-hoo! Do you know if anyone out there has one that I can riff from?  I am dragging my feet on this because I know

Jennifer commented here earlier today: …on Friday, a traditional teacher was defending two sections of a test she gave which required students to fill in the blanks for verb endings (unprovoked by me, by the way) and said, “It’s important to test those things because some kids need grammar rules….because that’s what they’re used to…” I

Grant asked Diana for a definition of CI and she copied me in on her response to him. We actually had this discussion about three weeks ago here but nobody thought of looking to the creator of the term for a definition. Here is what Krashen said CI is in “Foreign Language Education, The Easy

Ben, I would normally write to my Latin peeps when in dire need of blowing off steam, but this is a purely Spanish problem so it seemed inappropriate.  Feel free to post if you want, but I didn’t want to hijack anyone else’s thread. Today I had a meeting with my sympathetic department head and

Michele has a request of the group: Hi Ben, I’m ready to start a master’s degree and really would like to pursue something in TPRS, but as far as I know there are no programs as such – even undergraduate.  Or are there?  So instead of just “settling” for doing one in curriculum or technology

Anne Matava and Laura Avila teach together in Maine and are veteran TCI teachers: Hi all, Here in Maine they have made standards-based education law.  The school I teach in has held out as long as possible, but there is no avoiding it, so now we are having to scramble to be ready for next

We have a young scholar in St. Louis whose awareness of the research and spot on grasp of the difficult issues confronting us seems to go well beyond his years. Here’s Nathan Beck’s bio: Hey Ben, Here’s my bio that’s taken me forever to write. Sorry about that! Hello, all! My name is Nathan Beck

Ben, In the general atmosphere of negativity that always comes up this time of year, I’ve caught from my first and second year students the general perception that “Latin is easy.” Several students have said this to me personally and I’ve heard it whispered in various contexts as well. Of course this is always contrasted

A report from Hotlanta: In these days when a lot of us are stressed and stressing (and I have been), I have had a couple of encouraging experiences that I want to report. As you may recall, I have several workshops for teachers scheduled, and this past weekend, I did the first one with 30

When people think of language classes, consciously or unconsciously, they think of the textbook, the conjugations, the rules of agreement about parts of speech that the kids grasp but vaguely. They remember that some kids weren’t interested in all that, and they draw the conclusion that kids don’t want to learn. This is simply not

Greg is getting ready to hit his kids, and I mean like in splat, with their first jGR grades. They are earned each day this week as we speak. On Friday the kids will see a dispassionate, factual assessment of their observable non-verbal behaviors in Greg’s classroom. It will be a big moment for them