August 12, 2014
It’s a new school year and for many of us that means talking to new students and new parents about something they’re very unfamiliar with: language proficiency. You may have caught this document on the wikispace for the workshop I did with the Webb School of Knoxville this summer; it’s something I put together to […]
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Regreso a clases! Ciudad on sale
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It’s back to school time and also feeling like time for me to ease back into doing what I love, while I enjoy the memories of my dad who was the conduit of love for Spanish in my life. The events of this summer have delayed several things, including new Black Box Podcast episodes and […]
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July 24, 2014
Oso de Mantequilla: A tribute
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I grew up in a fundamental Christian church in the South, where everyone referred to the men as “Brother” and their first or last name. My best friend as a toddler could not pronounce my father’s last name – “Brother Blair” – and it came out “Butter Bear.” And so my mother’s favorite nickname was […]
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July 9, 2014
It’s coming!
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I haven’t been blogging much lately and am dropping off the radar for about a month and I feel the need to explain why. If you’ve ever used the “Recent Popular Posts” section on the right side of the blog, you’ve probably noticed that one very not recent post stays up there. I really ought […]
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June 30, 2014
Well, last Friday came and went and the first official Camp Musicuentos is a wrap! I had the great privilege of working with 20 outstanding teachers from across my own region and even beyond – I was joined by teachers from Kentucky, Ohio, Tennessee, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Missouri, and Virginia! Our learning, for […]
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June 19, 2014
Hello this time from Merillville, Indiana, where I’m learning with a group of teachers from that school and other schools across the region. What fun! This workshop’s focus is proficiency-based lesson planning. We can say that we’re proficiency-based teachers but where the evidence of that can really be found is in our lesson plans. Do […]
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June 18, 2014
How do you mark student writing? What kind of corrections do you make? What kind of corrections work, that is, help students do better next time? The authors of a recent article in the journal System address these questions. They compare two models of corrective feedback: explicitly telling a student there’s a problem, and implicitly coaching a […]
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June 16, 2014
Don’t smack me here, I know school JUST got out, but you know it’s true – it’ll be back before you know it! And one of our most important jobs in the first days of school is educating (and selling!) parents and students on proficiency-based teaching. I’m being hosted by The Webb School of Knoxville […]
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June 12, 2014
It’s a busy season for Musicuentos, can you tell? I feel like I just said that. I’m breathing a huge sigh of relief as an excellent cohort of teachers and I wrapped up a year-long project to lay the groundwork for something that has not existed in entirety before: an elementary curriculum map for the […]
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June 10, 2014
Have you ever stopped to think about why we teach the past tenses separately? When I first started investigating TPRS as a teaching method, a lot of things clicked with me (and some didn’t) but one of the tips that made the most sense was that it didn’t make sense to teach past tenses one at […]
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June 3, 2014
Time for you to get feedback?
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For many of you, especially in the southern U.S., this is coming a little too late, but some of you may still be in school and have a chance to do this. If you haven’t thought about surveying your students, it’s a great way for you to get feedback on the one thing that really […]
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May 28, 2014
The Merrillville (IN) High School is hosting me for a professional development workshop and is inviting teachers across the region. Here are the brief details, and you can view the description more in-depth in this flyer. Where: Merrillville High School, Merrillville, IN (near Gary in the greater Chicago region) When: Thursday, June 19, 8:00 A.M. – […]
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