Jody sent this for us a few days ago: Warren Ediger, creator of the website, Successful English, wrote an interesting article this week about “How do I know if my language ability is improving?”. I am very interested in this topic and wrote to him to ask if I might use his ideas to help […]
How do I know I'm Getting Better at ________ (fill in the language)? Read More »
Michele has a few questions in this larger email to me. I defer to my colleagues on the question about TPR: I know that Ben is always revisiting Susie. I have just watched all of the Susie videos in the three-video set. Can you believe that, while my school paid for those, I hadn’t had
K has updated us on her lunchtime French crowd, which is meeting through the summer: Hello Mr. Slavic: I wanted to update you on the first summer lunch group meeting. It went very well. I’m pretty sure that my parents are crazy since they allowed 25 teenagers to be in their house for a very
This just in from Robert Harrell: Are we fearful of fun? I thought all of you would be interested in this article. It originally appeared in the Washington Post and deals with the necessity of fun in order to learn. Robert http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/learning/why-fun-matters-in-education.html My guest is Sean Slade, director of Healthy School Communities, a program of
Maybe we became teachers because we like to be in control. But there is a problem with that. Real conversation between people, the good stuff, cannot be controlled. In a good discussion, no one voice dominates. Good talk is a dance among equals. That is where the 50% rule applies. I think that that 50% rule is
Reposting of Information about the TPRS Graduate Course Columbia, SC June 14-17, 2010 Instructor: Elizabeth Hughes Location: Columbia, South Carolina Dates: June 14 – 17, June 21 and August 2, 2010 Cost: $125.00 for 3 hours of graduate/recertification credit and course materials Registration: Please email Nancy Williams at nwilliam@lex5. k12.sc.us, and she will gladly assist you
I don’t know if anyone else has had this experience during CI: You build an image with the kids, for whatever reason (story, PQA. or just to build a little one word image for fun), and pretty soon this kind of weird ownership or the image emerges from the kids. Like, you can’t change any
In a recent communication with a parent there was, in the signature of her email, this quote by Paul Shepard: “…I move toward a feeling that we can make enormous changes, but that they’re not going to be made through change in ideology, or policies or programs. They’re going to be made in the way we
I got a nice letter from a parent today – it was cc’d to other people in the building. We should all get such letters at the end of each school year! – “I would like to personally thank you for making learning a language so enjoyable for my son. His French 1 class
Michele send me this as an email. My responses are in italics: M – Kids don’t usually get the OPI interviews. But the interviews themselves really can tell people about how they are progressing. My problem situation wasn’t about a hole in my sleeve (why would you need language to solve that?! I think they
What goes on in a typical classroom reflects the mental stance of the teacher. If the teacher is uptight, the classroom will be uptight. If the teacher is spontaneous, the classroom will be spontaneous. If the class is heavily planned with all sorts of fragmented/eclectic activities, the classroom will reflect that in the form of
Michele went to those 32 hours of OPI training recently and below expands on some of her earlier comments about OPI: Here are some more comparisons between the ACTFL Proficiency Criteria and how TPRS teachers work. At the ACTFL Novice level, students are not yet communicating autonomously. They are able to make lists and speak
