Best practices
May 14, 2024
Because I write about good ideas on the internet, it’s easy to assume I’m full of good ideas (lie: most of them I stole from someone else). Let’s be open about some of the bad ones. I’ll go first. It’s nearly the end of the school year and as the good proficiency-focused language teachers we […]
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November 18, 2023
Meet Jack, the mean clown who wants to help you remember the map to TL Memory Lane. Earlier this year, I blogged about the lessons we can learn from Lisa Genova‘s book Remember. Check out that blog post for a more in-depth look at the content of the book. I mentioned there that my dear […]
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October 4, 2023
It’s so sweet to be back, y’all. Last weekend, the annual conference of the Kentucky World Language Association returned to Lexington, Kentucky. Last year, KWLA was my first conference since I paused blogging while I wrapped my mind around a diagnosis of MS. I embraced friends, sat quietly, absorbed the learning– but I didn’t present. […]
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May 9, 2023
Remember that car that was parked two spaces down from you, at that store you went to, for that thing you wanted to buy? Of course you don’t. Every day, thousands of events pass through our experience, and they do not stay with us. For most of us, these experiences go in, they’re briefly acknowledged […]
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December 23, 2019
In the final Musicuentos post next week, you’ll see what posts are at the top of all 700(ish) of them, in terms of hits overall. But there are some that perhaps didn’t get viewed as much that are special to me, either because I said something I really thought was meaningful and needed, or because […]
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October 24, 2019
One thing at a time: Step Five.
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Someone, somewhere, is going to comment, I can’t believe she put this one last. It’s ok. Everyone has their cross to bear, and I’m that person’s. You see, I think that before you make big changes, you need to know sound research principles involving how people acquire and learn languages (that was step one). I want you […]
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September 2, 2019
What’s the most powerful use of your voice in the classroom? That’s a question that Justin Slocum Bailey (BlackBox videocast creator extraordinaire!) asked and answered on the most recent episode of WeTeachLang, an excellent podcast for hearing diverse perspectives of language teachers. I highly recommend you listen to it, but I was inspired to blog […]
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August 1, 2019
For a teacher, opening old files is like opening an old photo album. You’re flooded with memories, and also reflections on what went wrong and what went right: Why did I let my mom talk me into that perm? Stirrup pants with winter boots! When are those coming back? If I had real friends, they […]
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March 28, 2019
Athletic events. Widespread illness. Someone’s unprepared (teacher or students) or arrived late (“Teachers, due to a car accident on the highway, do not count any student tardy in first period today”). Emergency drill – or a passing kindergartener decided to pull the fun red handle on the wall. Half the class gone for an AP exam, […]
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February 21, 2019
I pledge allegiance to teaching with comprehensible input. Truly, I do. Though I have perhaps a bit infamously blogged about where I depart from classic TPRS, including modifying translation as a way to establish meaning, where I land on the points of agreement/distinction in world language teaching, and how we need a couple of cures […]
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January 29, 2019
By now we’re all back into the language class swing, right? I love my breaks and I love teaching and I confess I have a love-hate relationship with that first day back after a break. I almost always have at least one dream sometime in the few days beforehand with one of the following scenarios: I can’t […]
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November 20, 2018
From the “icky” test to the Supreme Court: Reflections on teachers sharing (& selling) ideas
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Last year, a fellow homeschool parent sent me a file she’d downloaded from an early childhood education resource site. “I’m sure it’s fine, because it was free,” she wrote. But this email came to me after probably years of disquiet and investigation into what exactly is okay for teachers to use and reproduce in the […]
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