My new instructional plan for the second semester is based on an idea that, in my view, soars in importance far above any other in CI instruction, that students must never be given the opportunity to behave in a CI classroom in a rude or antisocial way. In the past, in my fervor to get […]
It’s nice to be back from three weeks traveling around India with two of my boys. I hope that all of us in our group are rested and ready for the next semester. During the break, on the beaches of South India, I gave a lot of thought to my instructional priorities for the coming
Last night when I took one of my boys to the Delhi airport for his return flight to the U.S. after a three week visit here, in line behind us were two students who are now doing graduate work at Howard University. They had just completed an internship in India. We recognized each other as
Good things are happening out West! Tina reports: Hey Ben! Chris Stolz told me to email you. So here goes! Today I participated in Teacher for a Day. It was organized by our union. The idea is to get leaders and legislators into the classrooms to see our current reality. I got a last minute
I’m heading out of New Delhi tomorrow morning for three weeks with two of my boys (Landen – 16 and Evan – 18) to points south in India (Maharashtra and Kerala). I won’t be taking a computer. There is lots to read here (nine years worth of discussion), and also don’t forget the Forum, good
There are more than 6000 educators in Denver Public Schools. Diana Noonan, World Language Coordinator for DPS, last year won a district level award called the Leadership Lamp for her work in World Languages. (Diana is also the current president of the Colorado Coalition of Foreign Language Teachers and the reason for Denver’s rocketing WL
Sabrina has shared a clip that she did of one of her students whom she interviewed at the end of last year. She showed it in Agen as well and reports that people were “very happily surprised, even the French!” Here’s a little background. Brie was a 1st year French student at Thomas Jefferson High
There is a grammar presence in school buildings that can force even the bravest among us down to our knees. There is mental and emotional pain that comes with dealing with that presence, which is a kind of dark and shadowy thing. This presence hides. Naming it here over the years has helped us to
Another good bail out move when you just don’t feel like launching the CI rocket is to have a stack of words ready to place on a central table on the room. This is Bob Patrick’s OWATS activity (originally intended for front loading vocabulary from authentic texts with upper level students to make the texts
That lengthy and deep thread about blurting from about three or four months ago (new people search “blurting” on this topic if you want to not feel so alone) had a lot of excellent ideas on how to deal with blurting in class. Each, of course, like everything we discuss here, will be as valuable
The text below is being added to the Primers if you ever need to have the “homework discussion” with any of your students, colleagues, or parents: There is a place for Homework, just not homework as it is traditionally conceived. Many people read Alfie Kohn (The Homework Myth), for example, and think he is saying
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gustavo-tanaka/something-extraordinary-happening-in-the-world_b_8820154.html?ir=India&adsSiteOverride=in
