Got this from John today: Guys, I just wanted to share a success story today, and one that really confirms all the inner, emotional work we are doing, in class and on our own in order to be prepared to norm our classes in a compassionate way. I have been racking my brains about how […]

This is a repost from 2008: If I feel hesitant about letting go and just expressing myself in a lighthearted way, I will just remember what Drew Barrymore said: “Let your freak-flag fly, and if someone doesn’t get you, move on.”

This is a repost of a recent comment here: It is hard to look a kid in the eye – especially one who is bright and used to getting A’s – and tell her that her OUTSIDE behavior (reference the rigor poster found on the resources page of this site) is not sufficient to get

I feel like we’re getting too busy here. I can’t read everything, and I want to. I learn from every comment and it takes me more time than I have to absorb everything. Should I limit the articles? The queue is always full of new articles. I guess it is a problem with this kind

What a long and fascinating journey! Teaching using comprehensible input is a Long and Winding Road that leads me home, finally, from all that shitty teaching that is now, thankfully, years behind me. New idea du jour: what  we have to do is insist on responses! Our mistake – a big  one – is to

This is a repost of an article from a few years ago. I publish it here because of Angie’s recent question about emergence of writing: I got this question: Q. My kids can’t speak or write.  The speaking is the problem. Any thoughts? A. They can’t speak or write. Those are output skills and they

Here is something from a colleague and blog member that all of us who are using the Circling with Balls activity need to wrap our minds around and talk about: Ben: It seems as if the Circling with Cards is losing it’s steam and I haven’t gotten to all of the students yet. I can

In talking about grading kids, Michele sent in this link: http://prezi.com/axzlriy65i7x/daughertys-bicycles-performance-based-learning/ She was saying how at parents night, she uses this bike analogy applying the process of riding a bike to explain how she grades. My response is that in my confused mind this conflicts with natural emergence of skills as per Krashen. A kid who is stable

For those of you who are just beginning your year (as I am, having just finished day two with my students), I wanted to make a few connections that I somewhat stumbled upon, and have found to be very helpful during these first days. I have realized that you can easily integrate the explicit metacognition

Today I was being interviewed by the Colorado Dep’t. of Education. I mentioned about the Latin New Life Commandos out there kicking up dust and getting it in people’s faces. The interviewer, who proudly told me about her own Latin background, could not keep her eyebrows from moving up and down over her glasses. I also noticed that her socks

This comment/question from Corinne kind of ties in with Angie’s question so I’ll pull it out of the queue and publish it here. I agree with what she says about the jGR. Her question is subtle and I hope we can give her some quality responses in the comment field: Ben, The discussion around the

Got this from Angie. I am assuming this is about a level 1 class: Ben, I’m feeling a ton of pressure to have the students start PRODUCING something.  I read about the free writes in the green book and on the blog, but when can I start these, and what do the very first ones