The value of professional networks is so frequently touted that it seems almost abusive to mention it again. But I will, because this fortnight has been especially fun, illustrative of the quirky connectedness in the world of teaching and learning. If the references or connections are insignificant to you, no problem! I’m thankful for and honored by them for their […]
Category Archives: Teaching
Standardized Testing according to The Little Prince
I don’t know if our friend Antoine had testing in mind when he wrote Chapter 4 of Le Petit Prince / The Little Prince, but he could have. I’ll simply quote part of that chapter, with a rough English translation, as food for thought on standardized testing: Les grandes personnes aiment les chiffres. Quand vous leur parlez […]
Rising Above School Politics (#Teach2Teach Question 2)
This is a response to #Teach2Teach Question 2 from Carrie, about school politics (full question below). Special thanks to Amy Lenord (whose response is here) and Karen Tharrington for starting the #Teach2Teach movement and to those who have responded to their call! Here is Carrie’s question: “How do you stay inspired and not get bogged down by the politics of […]
Preparing a Lesson vs Preparing yourself (#Teach2Teach Question 1)
This is a response to #Teach2Teach Question 1 from Garrett, about balancing “teaching” and “planning” (full question below). Special thanks to Amy Lenord and Karen Tharrington for starting the #Teach2Teach movement and to those who have responded to their call! Here is Garrett’s question: “How do all these teachers balance the workload between teaching and planning? Now that I am […]
Teachers: Visit Each Other!
There are lots of ways to connect with colleagues: professional conferences, email groups, web forums, blogs, social media, . . . . Teachers should take advantage of these to whatever degree is reasonable. But one of the easiest, most rewarding types of teacher-teacher interaction is simply to visit a colleague’s class, or even to get […]
Why All Language Teachers Should Be Language Learners
Next time you meet a language teacher, ask, “So, what language are you learning?” You should find out what the person teaches, too–and a wise answer might include whatever the person teaches–but a good language teacher should always have at least one other language she is learning herself. Why? First, a teacher should learn languages […]
Your Language-Learning Happy Place
Your Happy Place is a mental state or a physical setting in which you are most at ease or most energized. You may have a general Happy Place, or you may have a host of Happy Places for different activities or purposes. Do you have a language-learning Happy Place? Mine are (a) just after breakfast, in […]
Pre-Reading and Three-Reading
The last post celebrated the benefits of rereading texts. This post delivers the promised rereading activity that you can use on your own or with a small group if you are an autodidact, or, if you are a teacher, can conduct in class or assign to students. If you’ve tried adding a bunch of different sounds […]
Rando Mitem, Your Friend and Mine: using random items to spark conversations
Note: this article is for both teachers and learners. If you are learning on your own or in a small group, you can easily adapt the ideas for your purposes. How many things can you say in your target language about the item in the first picture? What kinds of things can you say? […]
What You Can Do, I Can Talk About: Using students’ quirky skills to generate language
In the last post we talked about using party tricks as something to talk about in a target language. In a classroom setting, students’ special skills, including party tricks, are a compelling, useful source of content. Just like with a picture, movie, or story, the teacher can use students’ non-linguistic skills either to target specific linguistic […]