In this post: 1. You Can’t Out-Candice Candice (reflection+video) 2. Sane Saturday (May 9), a perfect mix of relaxation, camaraderie, and PD 3. Low Prep | High Success online workshop (Saturday, May 16) You Can’t Out-Candice Candice The summer between when I was hired to create a Latin program at a school in Los […]
I’m a martial artist. Most of my training is in Japanese and South Asian martial arts, but in the fall I started studying Tai Chi as well. My teacher has a phrase that his teacher would say whenever a student was worrying about whether their hand should be turned like this or like that, or […]
In this post: 1. New guided relaxation video+audio in simple French with Cécile Lainé 2. By popular demand, Saturday section opened for Spanish for Latin Teachers La Flamme: guided relaxation in simple French I’m thrilled that Cécile Lainé has helped create a French adaptation of free guided relaxation video+audio already published in Spanish and […]
My sleep and general well-being have benefited from guided meditation and other calming audio in several languages for quite some time. I quickly came to find it also incredibly useful for language learning and teaching, for a whole lot of reasons. This week I released samples of calming audio in simple Spanish (recorded with Abigail […]
I hope you are safe, healthy, and even finding some ways to flourish in an unprecedentedly restrictive environment. I want to say Thank You to the many of you who have gotten in touch to encourage me as I’ve lost much of my income to the virus, and I want to encourage you with five […]
How students perceive our presence in the classroom has a huge impact on everything from their trust in us to their ability to learn efficiently. This is partly due to mirror neurons and partly because how we feel (or act like we feel) affects our communication, our enthusiasm, our attention to students’ needs, and even […]
How Did This Get Here? is a simple, no-prep interaction that can be a standalone activity or a recurring routine. Inspired by “Thank the Farmer,” an activity in Susan Kaiser Greenland’s Mindful Games (p. 47), it invites students to ponder the provenance of an item they take for granted. Channeled through my language-teacher-brain, it also fosters […]
Both during my summer travels and in online teacher communities a recent pattern has stood out: anxiety for the new school year, often in spite of—or perhaps because of—extensive prior experience. Others experiencing anxiety are new to the profession or, like you, are boldly trying new ways of teaching. I identify so strongly with this […]
Sometimes I use guided meditation to relax or to help me fall asleep. Because I enjoy it and in order to get a bit more out of life, I usually listen in a language other than English. (My partner recently said to me that the fact that I use even sleep meditation to get more input […]