Promise not to laugh? This is how I understood using authentic texts seven years ago. I do not know where the magic number 200 came from anymore, and WOW was I out of touch with even the CONCEPT of novice language learners. (Dra. Moser now claims she doesn’t remember me Read more…
While I would be DELIGHTED to come talk with you and your colleagues about whatever your little hearts desire related to life, language, and all things teaching, what I REALLY would love is for you to come see me and my kids in action this school year. Here’s why. 1. Read more…
I want to help people get started with their first PBL project, but I don’t have any one set strategy that I, personally use to get started. Even if I did, the chances of everyone else’s brains working like mine are (thankfully) slim. When I’ve conducted “building block” type workshops Read more…
I will never be the SCOLT Teacher of the Year, but I have to admit, I found success at SCOLT. No, not in a Moonlight kind of way, but more in a Ralph Waldo Emerson way. After all, I have always loved his definition of success. To laugh often and much Any Read more…
When I am planning my lessons for the week, there are several questions I try to ask myself–actually about 25. A part of me feels like I have to ask myself all of these questions every day to be connected, but that can’t be right. There simply aren’t hours in the Read more…
Sra. Birch inspired me to post a top 10 list for songs I’m using in Spanish class these days. While I’m not doing coros as I have in the past, we will be doing some musical starters along the way. (Plus I plan to play these on an endless loop so Read more…
After iFLT this summer, I was ready to sprint back to the drawing board. I needed a good solid month to just sketch, doodle, redraw EVERYTYHING. I got a week. And two completely new preps complete with two completely new LMS platforms. So this year has been a bit of Read more…
I came to ACTFL 2016 with a conference path set for Everything Interpersonal, having had various students freeze up, blank out, and even two start crying during the interpersonal part of the most recent IPA–in spite of low-stress strategies that worked the last two IPAs–just hours before I boarded the plane to Boston. Perhaps Read more…
What a treat to get to join some of my favorite language educators in Texas! I was called in to talk PBL with TFLA teachers last weekend in both workshop and session format. In the workshop, we worked on actually getting started on that first PBL unit using resources I collected Read more…
How cool is it that I got to fly halfway across the country for my Saturday morning PD? I mean, I’ll miss #LangChat this morning, but I get to physically hang out with some of my PLN amigos I’d only ever tweeted or emailed with before! The price tag? A keynote Read more…