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I just asked Dr. Krashen permission to quote here on the blog from Foreign Language Education – the Easy Way*. He responded: Yes, feel free to use anything you want to from Easy Way. It is long out of print, no plans to revive it, too busy trying to resist Arne Duncan’s policies. Best to the […]

Carol sends these end of year thoughts, which kind of fit right in with Robert’s comment citing the Patrick Lencioni book: Ben: I have been processing a ton of information from all of you. Thank you. This space and its community of professionals continue to be a source of great comfort and inspiration. This is

Here’s one of those penned- in blog posts from the labyrinthe – from 2008: It is an increditble thing to hear, just before class as they are quieting down, their genius, fun, humor in the form of their discussion, which all kind of fades out if you are going to start a grammar class or something like

The job that I am leaving in favor of my new life as a part time teacher was characterized by one thing – we never confronted each other. It was taboo. Who can survive in an environment like that? Michael Fullan believes that we have the moral imperative to confront each other. I like that.

Michele sent me this a few weeks ago and I should have gotten it up here sooner but better late than never: Ben, Nathan has been blogging on our shared space about a great end-of-year project that others might want to see. He has even scanned in copies of kids’ work so that people like

More good stuff from Bryce: At the beginning of each class I have my students do a “Repasito”.  The Repasito is a sponge activity.  It is a review of what we did yesterday and a link to today.  Sometimes it is just a fun warm up to get them thinking in Spanish.  The goal of

This is a repost from some time ago. I repeat it here because its content makes things simple for me and my new focus on simplicity is very important to me when thinking about next year. Indeed, it is my strong belief that many people fail at TPRS because, if not presented to them properly, the approach can seem

Michele and Laurie are helping to get Alike Last (from the Netherlands) to NTPRS! Let’s all do this: Dear colleagues, In the Netherlands I’m participating in a competition for the “Meaningful Profit Award” for companies who have a mission that is of value and interest for lots of people. I’m participating with the mission: “TPR Storytelling,

I once assumed that the most important aspect of the cake of instruction that I baked for my kids each year was the instructional content, the language – all sorts of information about the language. The frosting was merely the human interaction with the kids, which I always thought of as secondary. The cake was the

Second Telling:  We expanded and played with the story.  Reorganized the sequence a bit (obvious below).  I did not write it down that day, but I wrote the expanded version down the following day.   Third Telling: This story takes place ten years in the future.  It happens ten years from today. Mackenzie was walking

First Telling: (Slightly expanded outline from original thumbnail plot): When Mark was younger, it seemed like he was going to be very successful en his life, but it didn’t happen that way.  He made a lot of bad decisions.  The same thing happened with Kirsten.  She also seemed like she was going to be very

The story uses relatively simple vocabulary and sets up the use of complex grammar.  “Shelter the vocabulary, but not the grammar” as Susie Gross says.  Here is what we have come up with so far (I can send the Spanish translation if you would like for people to use as an extended reading). In an