Simple Little Changes – 2015-2016

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25 thoughts on “Simple Little Changes – 2015-2016”

  1. This is interesting. I like the idea of letting all those who want, to try the job and then hire the best. Especially with those comfortable chairs…
    I teach grades 2-HS and trying to set up my room appropriately this year…I’m thinking about a word wall and how it may look for my 7 different preps. I’d like the kids to have access to our verbs/words without being overwhelmed by those of other classes. Does anyone have a suggestion? A digital word wall? All of our kids have their own school issued ipads, so maybe that might be a solution. Or could I take my 5 bulletin boards and create a word wall for each class. How crazy would that be?
    By the way, where are you in India? I’m at TAISM in Oman. It’s an amazing region.

      1. It’s amazing and I still spend my summer at home with family and friends. My only challenge right now is that this is the first place I have ever taught as the only TPRSer. I’m determined this year to stick with it, as I haven’t been so pure in these last 3 years….!

        1. That’s great, Melissa. My wife (a teacher as well) and I are really considering teaching abroad like you sometime in the next few years. I may want to ask you some questions about it later in the year. Thanks in advance!

  2. Hi Ben! Thanks for this. Especially the part about the scary monkeys! I’m looking forward to more glimpses of India as they filter through during the course of the year.
    I am just now getting my room set up, and caught myself angsting about posters! Now I don’t have to! I will reread this post often in the next week!
    Here are my 2 questions, which you might have addressed in another post:
    1) Are you using that block template?
    2) Would you be willing to talk me/us through day 1? I’m interested in how you started out in a new school on the first day with a block schedule?

  3. Little change for me: I got a little aromatic heater that plugs into an outlet, heats up a bit, and releases a pleasant smell as it burns some oil. I set it super low so that there is just a hint of lavender. It helps me, at least, not to smell them all day.

    1. omg…James! We are on the same wavelength. Not 30 minutes ago I said to myself: “I think I will bring in my essential oil diffuser. Was trying to decide between lemon and lavender. : )

          1. I’m planting vegetables in my classroom (with a plant light). I might be a hippy already by some estimates, or at least headed towards pleasantly eccentric?
            But yes – low key on odors is a good idea. I might just keep lavender in a drawer and smell when working in my room during planning, as needed.

  4. Hi, Ben.
    As always, your posts are so helpful and inspiring. I love hearing about your new job.
    Two things that struck me from reading this post:
    1. “Daily Targets” = Yikes! Sounds suspiciously like the infamous SWBAT that I have always been so resentful of. What exactly do you write for this each day? Would you give some examples?
    2. I’d be very interested to learn about the format you choose to use for the summative assessment of verbs, to decide whether or not a verb gets listed on the Verb Wall.
    THANK YOU!

    1. Hi Kelly – it’s all just a big continual and unending unfoldment, right?
      But all I mean by targets is the target structures. I would never put up targets/objectives for a class unless I felt like it, so that the students know what I expected of them that day, with the single CYA exception below*. But the routines are so strong in a CI class (we speak or read French and stay in the TL every day) that we don’t need to put up false things.
      *CYA exception – off in a corner of the board is this, left up all year:
      Objective:
      Students will understand and interact in French using contextually appropriate vocabulary and grammar.
      The summative question is weird to me. I don’t believe there is a way to consciously measure what is unconsciously acquired. So – and this may be met with jeers and catcalls – I ask the class if they feel comfortable with it so that if I use it for the rest of the year in any moment they would be able to in fact decode it instantly. After four block classes with each of my classes we have one word on the Verb Wall – travaille. We’re going slowly. Having fun. Lots of English as we get to know each other.
      By the way, Sabrina’s “How you doing?” exercise with all the possible responses (previous post here from about a week ago) is, I am finding out, a fantastic way to learn the kids’ names by circling their answers. I’ve not seen a better way to learn names on the sly, while asking them how they feel, because when I circle it I always come to “Who feels happy today?” and the class yells out the kid’s name that I am shaky on.

  5. Thanks Kelly for bringing up the dreaded SWBAT. Thanks Ben for the CYA default. I will need these types of things. They bring me much anxiety. At the same time I am trying not to over focus on the anxiety or I will become defensive, angry and / or paralyzed. Or maybe all 3.
    Along the same anxiety-producing lines…we are required to submit lesson plans on some online plan book. I have not tinkered around with this just yet. Yes to avoidance but really I am prioritizing mental health by focusing on all the reasons I am excited to teach in this school and primarily my excitement and anticipation of meeting the kids and creating an awesome CI space with them.
    But I still have to submit weekly lesson plans, so…any suggestions? This is brandy-spankin’-new to me, as I haver never taught in a place that required this so I will need lots of help.

    1. Jen honestly it only looks like it’s a Big Headed Wizard of Oz. There is a little man behind the curtain and he rarely reads lesson plans because he is so busy cranking that machine making his head look so big. Even if he did read them, he wouldn’t understand them.
      Lesson plans. Really? But jen I am certain that someone in our PLC writes them and will share them below. Also have you looked in the Lesson Plans category here?
      Here is a start:
      https://benslavic.com/blog/lesson-plans-and-posted-daily-objectives-for-jennifer/

      1. Laurie, it is plan book.com
        I have not even looked at it yet. Probably won’t until next week bc I have too much other stuff to do.
        But I plan to write up various of my menu items using acronyms that they won’t even get….CWB, PQA, movie talk, read and discuss, super 7, interpersonal mode, interpretive mode, also use terms like “listening comprehension assessment,” “exit quiz,” “use of target language” …blah blah blah….
        Thanks for the advice Sean. Not gonna waste precious life energy on this stuff, just trying to do the minimum. I don’t care about “pieces of flair.” (heh heh…office space)
        Love the SWBAT !

    2. OMG, jen! I’ve had to write some crazy lesson plans these past couple of years, having to us the IB framework and reference Common Core and College Readiness Standards. Please don’t make the mistake I continue to make by spending too much time on them. Consider writing a messy draft, turn it in, see if anyone responds, and if they do, make it “look” better the next time around. In that case, the little man behind the curtain will delight in how you’re applying their feedback and his head will grow even bigger.

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