Perhaps the best time to work on our classroom management skills is not during the year but in the summer. We must at some point when we are not in the middle of the fray take a step back to take a good look – if an uncomfortable one – at how we managed our […]

Last week in testimony before Congress the actress Taraji P. Henson said: “We in the African-American community don’t talk about mental health issues. We don’t even talk about it. We’ve been demonized for coming out saying that we have issues…and we have trust issues.” Is any part of what Taraji said applicable to what we

With the appearance of my last two books this summer on the Invisibles, the external search to find – for me – the best way to teach a language will now mark the beginning of something new that I wish to address in our professional community. What is it? What is this “something new”? It

Working with great teachers has kept me afloat in spite of taking some direct hits to the hull of my CI boat over the years, when I was made to feel crazy and weak by all sorts of odd battles that I ended up fighting against my will. Some remember the battle we had about

The purpose of this post is to inform my readers that with the publication this summer of the two Invisibles books, with support videos to follow when they are ready, I can say with certainty that the long journey, the odyssey, really – that’s what it has been and nothing less – is over, with

This internet space started as a public TPRS blog about 20 years ago and evolved into this private PLC 15 years ago. During those years, as those few who have been with us for all those years can attest, we have discussed mostly everything under the sun in comprehensible input instruction. There was a lengthy

Anticipated (highly likely) job opening in Bucksport, Maine! Spanish teacher for next year and beyond. Small classes, super supportive administraton and colleagues, TCI-friendly department (of two!) This is one sweet gig. 30 minutes to Belfast, one hour to Acadia National Park. FMI please email Anne at annematavaci@gmail.com.  

We’ve been answering this recurring question for at least ten years now. It’s so common! My responses are in italics below. Hi Ben – Q. I am in a grammar-centric department and am required to give all the same tests and quizzes (dictated and provided by the department head for level 2) as the other

This article completes the series on the student artists: Besides putting art on the back wall in the form of class galleries, another effective way to coax classes into performing at a higher level is to post lists of the names of all the characters that each class has produced up to that point in

For those of us who use Anne scripts, these are the official “best” ones, whatever that means. I think it means that Anne and I agree that over the almost 20 years now since we started using these scripts, these are the ones we feel get the most consistent results and do the best job

The growing displays of artwork by individual classes take the form of “galleries.” Each class gets a section of the back wall in the classroom. Any other classes not yet doing stories of their own beg to get their own creative process going, and it is when the first gallery is posted that the interclass

When drawing a One Word Image, the artists should fill the entire large page of chart paper or butcher paper with the image. As discussed earlier, beginning classes draw two panels above and below a black line dividing the chart paper in half. Second year classes draw four panels, third year classes six panels, and