Q. What if the kids just keep on blurting?
A. Tina recommends for situations where there is a lot of blurting of ideas, that you allow everyone to call out ideas for about one minute, then employ a “Closed Debate!” sign. She wags her finger at them and kind of sweeps it in front of her and the kids know that debate “closes” when the finger sweep is done. And then consult your Profe #2 and get the final answer, immediately praising/applauding the genius of Profe #2. Then just move on, again with good humor as if this is the most natural thing in the world. And always keep in mind that we are only kidding ourselves when we think that we can teach the entire language to them if we just work hard enough. The main thing is to be happy with the kids. That will bring the gains better than stressing out so much. I know! Easy to say, not so easy to do.