Alisa shares: …Eric Herman shared this with me a while back. It serves as a good starting point and can be adapted…. No sooner do I say that you can’t mix CI w a syllabus than Alisa finds one from Eric Herman from back in the day: Alisa also said this yesterday about the idea […]
I’ve added something new to my explanation of the Classroom Rules. It’s this little speech that I make whenever someone breaks one of the rules. If you want, you can make it into a little “elevator speech” that you should probably use AT LEAST ONCE A DAY in the first few weeks of school. The
I’ve been with these students for a week. They’re technically Spanish II. Lots of native speakers. I was starting to wonder just what to do with this class. Today instead of trying to guide them through the same thing I did with Spanish I as a “review” I decided to ask them to draw their
I wish I could scream loudly enough for all WL teachers to hear me: “According to the research, you don’t have enough time to do a fraction of what you want to accomplish this year so take it easy on yourself.”
Hey Ben, I just completed my first three days at a new school using CI for first time. It is an urban high school and I have only two levels: German I and II. In many ways the week went well. But there were times when I felt panic. I notice that especially when a
I will periodically break in with comments here: Jake: I’ve completed 2 full days of Card Talk. I enjoyed it. I think most of my students enjoyed it, too, or at least understood what was happening. I have a question about what is considered appropriate blurting in CI. For example, in one class I have
Hi Ben – I’m in my new school. So far so good. Nothing to complain about. There are a lot of native speakers here in Spanish 1 but there are no other foreign languages to teach here so…. Anyway I’m trying to see these students in a less contemptuous way. I can’t handle resenting them for a
Nobody has collected data on the number of teachers who have framed their failure at doing TPRS in terms of themselves. They thought others could do it but not them. This is a tragedy. It’s not them.
I remember years ago I was looking at my seventh graders at the start of class and I asked them, “How many of you remember having been told in the last week or two that you are doing a good job, that you are just good?” Not one child responded positively. In fact, they looked
We can’t have the mindset when we start the year that we are going to be merely teaching our students a language – that part is incidental. Rather, our mindset should be about looking forward to training them, which includes hiring the 17 student jobs (over months and months). We want to get to know
Teacher: Any words of advice on what to focus on? I don’t want to let my school / kids down this year. My response: You won’t. They only want to be loved, quite frankly, and you do that, I can tell. To repeat; they only want to be loved and feel confident. Love them from
