It’s not just a town in Rhode Island. When we fear that we won’t be able to generate enough CI in our classes, which is a basic and genuine fear that comes with the territory of working with comprehensible input, we can always do what Huck Finn says he does (The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn […]

Bob Patrick recently reported that his first trip to the computer lab with his classes made him aware of how computers affect his language instruction: Going to the lab changed everything.  Even though I had something interesting for them to read, I was not directly interacting with all of them as we have been all

Two group members cancelled their memberships in the past week, each with short identical statements to me in private emails stating flatly that “I won’t be teaching any more.” This has stuck with me. Both were enthusiastic students of comprehensible input when they joined a year ago. What happened? Of course, I can’t ask them. They would

Bob’s report on a Thursday: Today brought some administrative reality into my work.  I had to take my Latin 2 students to a computer lab to get them signed up for a couple of online services that I use.  I also had some really good, fun, online reading of a story about a character named

Clarice sent this: Oakmont High School in Roseville, CA has an opening for a part time (.66) Spanish teacher.  The position is for grades 9-12. We are a TPRS/CI department.  Due to the growth in our high school, as well as our program, the district has created this opportunity. There is a good possibility this

Nina Barber sent me some short clips from one of my sessions in Las Vegas. I noticed that the clarity of my teaching, which is totally dependent on pacing, SLOW, wait time, pointing to the targets in real time with laser or hand, seemed a lot more distorted in the video, whereas I know that it was completely

Guys, I’m just needing to share.  It’s Wednesday of my first week back.  195 students.  (I know, I already told you that).  I am exhausted at the end of the school day.  I treat that by a trip to the gym and then red wine when I get home (one of them has to work).

Our new group member Guy is faced with the impossible task described below. We have discussed it here before. Pls. contribute what you want – he can get little pieces of answers from everybody. If you know where we can find some of the good answers from before, pls. send us the links. Guy I would

As we begin the year, many of us by using PQA and by just talking to the kids in order to set the rules and personalize our classrooms, let’s not forget the power of early reading to give a little extra clarity to our instruction. How can reading do this? How can reading be a

Captain Bob Patrick’s unit went into ground action today, earlier than most of us. He was kind enough to report back after the day, which sounded great after his first day on duty, with no major skirmishes: Home after my first day at work, glass of wine, dinner finished, feet up.  Wow.  Oh wow.  What

Traders Point Christian Academy in Whitestown, IN. has an opening for a full time Spanish teacher.  The position is for middle school grades 4th-8th and one section of high school ESL.  The instruction is based on the TPRS (Teaching Proficiency through Reading and Story telling) method and uses the TPRS materials from TPRS Publishing, Inc. 

Skip is mentoring a new teacher and gave her this. I think it is a good thing to put here, to remind us how we can keep things simple this year. We need to address a lot this week, like the posters (I still have to get Bob Patrick’s wall photos up here), but I