If anyone reads this I’ll be doing a webinar on classroom management at 1:00 ET today so if you want to join us please do. Just go to the Teacher’s Discovery Facebook site and look for the webinar.

Ben. I have a 4th period class that has such a hard and awkward spirit about them. They don’t answer questions. They don’t really respond to anything. Today I was considering emailing the AP about getting some of them moved to another class. That was before I passed out the paper for the first invisible

In this communication between Robert Harrell and a parent, we almost have a template that we could modify to use to answer parent inquiries like the one our other PLC member received yesterday: Good afternoon Mr. Harrell, My wife and I have been after our son for the last few days and his grades and participation at

We could talk about this situation for years, and indeed we have, as this kind of communication with parents is not our first rodeo with it. I would guess we’ve had this conversation twice a year for over fifteen years. Some observations: The parent and kid are victims. They too a worksheet intro class, I’m

One of our PLC members got this email from a parent: I’m sorry I wasn’t able to make it to Back to School Night last Friday. I do have a few questions regarding your period 4 Spanish class.My son is in this class and has a few concerns. My main question is can a student with

Alisa shares: …Eric Herman shared this with me a while back. It serves as a good starting point and can be adapted…. No sooner do I say that you can’t mix CI w a syllabus than Alisa finds one from Eric Herman from back in the day: Alisa also said this yesterday about the idea

I’ve added something new to my explanation of the Classroom Rules. It’s this little speech that I make whenever someone breaks one of the rules. If you want, you can make it into a little “elevator speech” that you should probably use AT LEAST ONCE A DAY in the first few weeks of school. The

I’ve been with these students for a week. They’re technically Spanish II. Lots of native speakers. I was starting to wonder just what to do with this class. Today instead of trying to guide them through the same thing I did with Spanish I as a “review” I decided to ask them to draw their

I wish I could scream loudly enough for all WL teachers to hear me: “According to the research, you don’t have enough time to do a fraction of what you want to accomplish this year so take it easy on yourself.”

Hey Ben, I just completed my first three days at a new school using CI for first time. It is an urban high school and I have only two levels: German I and II. In many ways the week went well. But there were times when I felt panic. I notice that especially when a

This is kind of like what we do:

I will periodically break in with comments here: Jake: I’ve completed 2 full days of Card Talk.  I enjoyed it.  I think most of my students enjoyed it, too, or at least understood what was happening.  I have a question about what is considered appropriate blurting in CI.  For example, in one class I have