…the click didn’t happen without a certain ring but the other thing was that the boldest boy ran around fourteen times but it didn’t work when the captain began to sing…. That’s what it sounds like to our students when we don’t go slowly enough, and when we don’t check for comprehension at every turn […]

For me, this is a must read every day. It is one of the two or three most important of the 4,000 articles written in this space. I will post and repost it over and over through the year. I have to remember to check for understanding via a thorough questioning process. As we teach for full

Skip suggested that we talk about cell phones. Hello! A perfect topic, since we are doing the two other housekeeping discussions on seating charts and bathroom passes this week anyway. My own position is that cell phones need to be completely out of the room. Of course, that is too much to ask when it

Here is a great link from mb to an article that some of the more intellectually driven among us might enjoy reading: http://linguistlist.org/ask-ling/lang-acq.cfm

I got this from Anny. It could start a series that could be very helpful to us: Hi Ben, Here are some thoughts I’d love to share with the group, based on my reading of The Art of Possibility. My school recommends summer reading for faculty and this year our elementary division was asked to

I had written a question for the group about what limitations video might have in revealing various qualities in our teaching that could help us improve. Jody wrote this response, and it is right on point, so I’m repeating it here: I believe a couple of things. I believe your experience was true. I, also,

We might as well get the bathroom pass discussion going here, since we are in the middle of the seating chart discussion right now as well: What I personally do is allow two 3 min. trips per class without asking. They just get up and go. When I explain that policy in the first few days of

So many creative seating arrangements are out there. Some are designed for classroom discipline and others are designed to stimulate creative sharing of ideas around the room. The problem is that in classes based on comprehensible input the kids can’t share creative ideas – all they can do is distract each other. They must be listening. So,

A guy at my Tuesday session in Las Vegas asked me during a crucial point in the session, “Where are you going with this?” The underlying tone of the question was, “I don’t know what you are doing there – it looks stupid to me.” I smiled and answered, “Mind meld!” Can you imagine how

As many of us get ready to do the Circling with Balls/Cards activities to start off the year, or whatever we do to start things off, let us remember what our goals are: 1. To teach the rules. 2. To personalize, including names. 3. To teach some language. Let us clearly understand that if we

Did you see the Olympic women’s gymnastics team win gold? Who didn’t? I applaud them and their coaches for their great work and their victory. Awesome effort, awesome results, awesome cuteness factor, something the government, I mean the corporations, will be able to take to the bank. An all around good day for America. Hey,

It’s time again for the reminder that we don’t have to be entertainers. A lot of us believe that still. We think that our success is tied to how much our kids laugh and have a good time in class. This is hogwash. Our success is tied to how much our kids can/want to understand