We are now finally connecting the dots between our work in language education and the 229 Black people who have been killed by police since George Floyd: 1. Tony McDade aka Natosha McDade, 38, Tallahassee, FL 2. Modesto “Marrero Desto” Reyes, 35, Marrero, LA 3. Ruben Smith III, 35, North Little Rock, AK 4. Jarvis […]
Victoria and the three little ones are heading for Lviv tomorrow with kids and stuff to apply for an emergency passport and then cross the border into Poland. That’s the plan. Godspeed to them!
Diversity. Equity. Inclusion. Belonging. Belonging! In case you haven’t noticed, we are in a new time. We can’t teach grammar anymore. It’s just ridiculous that we’ve gotten away with it for this long. If you don’t feel the urgent need in your students to belong to something in their school buildings, and if choose not
The four Hub D students are a tech team. See the attached Seating Chart for an Ultimate CI classroom. Hub D is not a physical hub like the other three hubs. Sometimes its members sit together but not always – they could be sitting anywhere in the blue area on the Seating Chart (see attachment).
The language curriculum you use has a deep impact on kids. If you use the textbook and worksheets, you bore them. However, if you choose something that is truly student-centered, you can get them truly engaged. It’s your choice. Before you make your decision, if you haven’t yet done so, consider this: In a recent
Here is an update from Victoria: There is a lot of negativity and grumpiness in the country, and in Ukrainians, even those who have left Ukraine. I don’t think they will give me the US passport for Alegría, since the embassy in Kiev stopped working. Now they are asking if I can go reapply in
Someone objected to me today how “easy” the Ultimate CI quizzes are. Whenever I hear that objection, I refute it. We must ask ourselves what we are doing as teachers. Is it our purpose to confuse half the class so that the other half can establish its dominance over those who process language more slowly,
Victoria, whom many in the group know from working with her in trainings over the summer, moved from Maryland to Ukraine in the fall of last year. Her husband is now in Portugal. Victoria is stuck with her three young children in Central Ukraine because the baby doesn’t have a passport yet. I’ll keep the
With new words, ask for mental associations to help the kids remember them. You can see this done occasionally in some of the videos. How to do this? It’s simple. When you write any new words on the board in both languages, you have the option to ask this question: “Class, how can we remember
Word and Sound Associations/”How Can We Remember?” Read More »
Think about the gut reaction that a child must have to going into a language classroom and being forced to memorize a long list of words that she is not particularly interested in memorizing except to get a grade on a test. Now think how she must feel when she is asked to write or
Those present at the training (Gp. 9, Session 6) on Saturday saw some pretty high quality “mais” bleating from Danielle, whose talents as an artist were shown to be paired with a marked alacrity for bleating. Then, ironically, her son had a first date that evening and her name is “Mae”. I wonder if Danielle
When we teach robotically, we get robot-like responses. But when we teach from our hearts, using body and heart-centered activities that reach the oft-closed hearts of our students, we get responses from their hearts. Language instruction REQUIRES the involvement of the heart. When it is all caught up in the head, no language is being
