I rode into work today in perfect Indian Summer weather in this great state of Colorado. On the way back home, I saw a lot of kids walking home from school. What I saw seemed incongrous. Kids struggling to carry backpacks full of books, some in their arms, etc., having spent the entire day in restraining […]

Hey Jennifer here is the first part of the class I recorded yesterday, the PQA part: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRvbMM-zqeA I will add a voice over “director’s cut” later, along with the actual story, as time allows.

Michele has come up with an exit ticket/evaluation tool and has already sent it around in Alaska and we get to use it too if we want, so thank you Michele! Hi Ben, Here’s a form that I adapted from everything on the site to hand my kids. I have shared it with all sorts

There is a kind of reading routine or cycle. Whether we are in a typical story week or in a plowing week doesn’t matter, there is a loose sequence of events that I move through whenever we are doing reading: 10 min. of SSR translation of what we just read R and D dictée (optional)

We have other options than invoking standards to make stories work in our classrooms. I hope I have not conveyed here that jGR is the end of the discussion on getting our work to align with standards. The real discipline comes from within and when kids bring that to a class it is because they trust

Tamula has an opportunity: Something kind of incredible is happening in my department. There are 5 of us. Me teaching Chinese using CI for the first time, our Russian teacher who is in her 4th year of teaching with CI, 2 Spanish teachers including the chair, and one French/Spanish very grammar based about to retire

Laurie points out to us an overwhelming fact that, when we feel confronted by anyone about jGR, we absolutely must remember to use in the discussion. It is a game changer, and it is very simple to remember. Laurie says: The rubric isn’t a process for labeling students. It is a vehicle for communication…”This is what is

Maybe we are the stuff of fairy tales. In so many fairy tales, there is one overiding leitmotif – that of becoming real, of stepping out of sleep to wake up to what is real. Examples abound: Pinnochio, Sleeping Beauty, Rip Van Winkle, The Wizard of Oz and on and on. In each of these

Unbelievable. We think that we can communicate a language to another person but not really look into their eyes. We teach the class and there is this king of group mind fuck that we don’t have to look at each other and we can still learn the language. That is impossible. I believe that eyes

I want to clarify one minor detail about my new weekly schedule for 2012, which I haven’t published yet but has a few changes in it from last year. Now I am plowing through a novel, but this post describes changes to my normal weekly schedule when I am doing stories as described in the category (below right) of

Here is a bio from Kristin: Hi Ben, I wanted to send you my bio for the PLC, so here it is! I’m Kristin Duncan, and I’m a new member of the PLC. I just returned to teaching in Canada after spending the last year in England, and I am so happy to be back!

Ben, Thanks very much for pointing me toward Lori Fiechter. It turns out that our schools are part of the same network (the New Tech Network), and I was able to contact her directly. It’s always such a relief to know you’re not alone! I have spent hours on your site and the PLC blog