Diane Neubauer

Here is a biography from Diane, a Mandarin Chinese teacher in Chicagoland: Hi Ben, I grew up in Ohio and majored in East Asian Studies in college (Wittenberg University, 1995) and had a few jobs and other studies after college. I lived in Yunnan Province, China from 2001-2004. While in China, I took one-on-one classes […]

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Parent Conference Tip

Dori shared with Karen something we should all be aware of as a technique to use at parent conferences: I thought I’d share something that worked for me last year–maybe it will work for you, maybe not. But I thought I’d share. At parent-teacher conferences a rather weak student came with his parents who weren’t

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The Best Novels

We’ll see if this idea works – I am going to create a new category here for novels that are currently available. Kind of a book review section. We’ll arrange it by beginning (1 and 2) and intermediate (3 and 4) levels. If you want to suggest a novel that you think is worthy of

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Options to Stories

It is more than reasonable to offer newer teachers, who naturally need practice with the basic TPRS/CI skills of Circling and SLOW, etc., some options to stories that work with kids and give them that needed practice before they even try a story. The activities described on the Resource page of this site on the

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Charlotte Rempel Kroeker

Here is a bio from Charlotte: Hi Group, I am Charlotte Rempel Kroeker and I am now entering my 29th year of teaching German as a second language in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. I helped pioneer the German Bilingual Program in Winnipeg at the Kindergarten level in 1984 and then progressed through teaching Grades 1, 2

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Teacher of the Week

I would like to nominate Karen for Teacher of the Week in our group, because she just so much tells it like it is here, in a comment made last week: …I’m willing to have a somewhat rough year and figure it’s a little like being a first-year teacher again. The goal is worth it:

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Voces 3

The text below is from the Teacher’s Discovery website. Never in my career would I have dreamed that such a wonderful opportunity would have come my way. The text in bold is the great part. We are indeed lucky to be teaching at a time when we can get this kind of support from corporations:

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Voces 2

Chris continues: Ben, Remember that video I set to you about the newest, most awesome thing in the world of Spanish education?  Remember?  Remember that awesome digital textbook Voces?  If not, I will resend you the email.  If you do remember, keep on reading.  Below is an email I”m forwarding to you from Teacher’s Discovery,

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Voces 1

Got this from Chris: Ben, If you want to see something truly pathetic, that epitomizes the mentality of so many FL teachers here in the 21st century, look no further.  I present to you “Voces”, the newest product that Teacher’s Discovery is peddling to the FL teaching community.  Not only is it pathetic, it’s dangerous. 

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Update 2

Something thing that really bugs me is how some of us are trying to do too much. We’re loading up our plates at the salad bar and trying everything. Why should we do that? It just leads to confusion. I am not overeating. I do PQA on Monday, stories on Tuesday which carry over to Wednesday if needed,

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