A year is a bit like a class session: You plan some things before it starts, but only in the thick of it do you see what you really need to do. So, yes, I do have a classic resolution: to visit the dentist in 2019. (Don’t chortle through your splendent teeth—this is a serious […]
Author Archives: Justin Slocum Bailey
My Outfits Are Ready for ACTFL
Are you? Tomorrow I head to New Orleans to join old and new friends in the CI Posse, a growing group of twenty-odd teachers and content creators working together to boost joy and success at ACTFL 2018 and beyond. If you haven’t discovered it yet, check out the CI Posse blog, which includes my “Why […]
Your Teaching Body, pt 3: Gestures & Facial Expressions
This post narrows the focus of the previous posts on Your Teaching Body (Location & Variation, Movement & Posture) right down to our hands and faces. The uses of gestures as meta-conversation, especially, are easy to learn and much more powerful than I realized when I first began to explore them. This post is the […]
Cut Yourself Some Slack. Actually, Tons of Slack.
Feeling guilty watching screaming goat videos instead of working? Cut yourself some tons of slack. Haven’t exercised since summer? Cut yourself some tons of slack. No time to write “good enough” replies to the emails stacking up in your inbox? Cut yourself some tons of slack. Did something for no good reason? Cut yourself some […]
YOU Are What’s Best for Your Students
Your students are tremendously fortunate to have YOU as their teacher. Don’t let anyone–including yourself–tell you otherwise! No one else cares about your students like you do. This makes you uniquely able to exercise the patience that teaching often requires and to advocate for your students–with the administration, with other teachers, in the community, with their […]
Your Teaching Body, pt 2: Movement & Posture
Your movement and posture can set the tone of your teaching without your changing anything else. If the post on body location and variation felt a tad intricate, I bet you’ll find this one simple, practical, and encouraging! (This post is the fourth in a series on tricks and techniques that observers in my classes at this […]
Your Teaching Body, pt 1: Location & Variation
Do you think of your body as an instrument for teaching? Your physical self is so incredibly versatile and valuable that I have planned no fewer than FIVE POSTS on making the most of it and taking care of it! Here’s a little overview: (This post is itself the third in a series on tricks […]
Your VOICE: a simple, powerful teaching tool
I often invite observers or members of my classes to list things they’ve seen me do that boosted their understanding of the language and their sense of being part of a language-learning community. I do this to help identify a bunch of techniques and skills that are highly learnable and coachable–without highlighting such skills, it’s […]
Cell Phone Retell + Tricks for Centuple Exposure
Back from blogging exile, I’m itching to share a series on tricks and techniques that observers in my classes at this summer’s iFLT and Express Fluency conferences found especially memorable! I’m especially excited to offer an expansive collection of voice and body techniques for joyful, successful teaching. See also: techniques highlighted after Express Fluency ‘17, including […]
Image Imitation (VIDEO) – Brain Break, Buildup, or Freestanding Activity
Yes, this blog is still rolling! I’ve simply just returned from trip number seventeen this calendar year, covering fifteen states and three countries, so my blogging has been more like blah-ging. During those trips I got to learn and try lots of fun and useful things, one of which is the subject of this post, […]
