Here is some follow up information from Michele. Finally, a university person coming to the aid of a high school teacher who does TPRS. How often does that happen? Ben, You might enjoy the letter the Startalk grant leader (Russian prof at U Iowa) sent my district coordinator and principal (after I told her that […]
This article from Michele has been waiting in the queue since the end of July, so sorry about that. I consider it important: Dear Ben, I presented for a Russian Startalk program at the University of Iowa yesterday. It was a yank back into old-school thinking. Last semester, the program leader asked me to film
Melissa in Oklahoma shares this: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marsha-pinto/introvert-students_b_5697706.html
Here is another jewel from Erin for us: 2. Classroom jobs. I have been reading up on your posts about jobs, and it’s always been something that I avoided because it seemed too ‘babyish’ for my high school students. Well, I am over that. On the second day of school, I told them that I
Whenever you are doing CWB/OWI or whatever else you are doing at this time of year to set the rules and personalization pieces in place, keep in mind that when things drag, you can always move to another activity. You don’t have to keep everything auditory, even if your students are brand new to the
As many of us are doing or are getting ready to do the Circling with Balls/Cards activities to start off the year, or whatever we do to start things off, let us remember what our goals in choosing CWB are: 1. To teach the rules. 2. To personalize, including names. 3. To teach some language,
Maybe God wants more of Her humanity in our classrooms, and that is why we do PQA, and try, as best we can, to talk to the kids about themselves. It doesn’t matter how bad or embarrassing it is for us. We try anyway, because it is finally time for that – we have reached
Erin Bas in the great state of Tennessee offers some jewels for us, ideas she is testing out as we crank up another year. This stuff sparkles. Here is the first jewel from Erin: Hi Ben – I took a break this summer from checking anything school-related, which included your blog. School is back in
A lot of us are getting ready to grab and use the silver hammer that is jGR or, as we sometimes call it, ICSR – the Interpersonal Communication Skills Rubric. I have also noticed that Eric calls it simply the Interpersonal Skills Rubric, which is simple and to the point. It will always be jGR
This thread from Latin Best Practices (John Piazza and Bob Patrick are the founders) concerns every one of us. This is from Bob: Does the subject line describe you? It has described me before, and I think it describes more than fewer of us. I have been having an off list conversation today with a
This comment from James Hosler – channeling Greg Stout – today really needs to have a spotlight on it, since we are not just trying these days to teach language but to stop all rudeness from kids as our primary focus: …today in class there were three students sitting together and trying to have lots
I’m wondering about the cute answers thing – do any kids ever get upset about making up answers to questions? Or teachers? I find myself thinking of it as lying at times, and I don’t know if I’ll be able to do it well. I feel like every time I say something like “I drive
