PAT Builds Classroom Community

One thing that I have noticed lately is that the PAT time on Friday is actually building the community in the class. I didn’t know this was going to happen, but I am very pleased about. Now, I did mention something about being a good sport and encouraging the other team, but I didn’t know [...]

PAT game of the week

Today, I took another page out of the Bryce Hedstrom handbook and used el bebé malo for my PAT game. I still gave them a choice between different games, but all the classes chose el bebé malo, except one. I didn’t actually have a baby, so I had the classes choose a prop. They kept [...]

Tighter leash with PAT

This week my kids earned a ridiculous amount of PAT points. They were really good and it is so interesting to see how the English has pretty much vanished. I am glad that I can tighten the leash a little to make it more challenging for next week.
The thing that I have noticed the most [...]

Keep your professional distance

I have a few small classes this year and one really small class of 5. I was reminded that you have to be careful with the smaller classes to keep the professional distance. It can be easy to let it get really informal and not follow the procedures, but these students need the procedures, too.
I [...]

I started PAT this year

At the end of last Spring I had the opportunity to visit Bryce Hedstrom teach for a day. Man, am I glad that I did that! I am headed into my second year of teaching and also my second year with tprs. It has been life-saving to learn from these guys who have done it [...]

Discipline Preceeds Instruction

Recently I have been getting too lax with my discipline. I never knew that it takes discipline to apply discipline. It really does, though. I decided to start fresh today with a new seating chart. That improved things incredibly! Then I started enforcing my rules again and it had an immediate effect.
One class was really [...]

It can get too weird

One thing that my wife has mentioned is that I am weird. Okay… I confess. It’s true! I love to have fun with certain situations. Well, this can be a good thing, but in teaching it can also not be a good thing.
I learned that when things start to get too weird, then you start [...]

Keeping it Personalized

I have discovered that it is essential that a language is personalized. As soon as I start talking about something that they are not interested in I begin to loose them. When I add a new detail, it sparks the interest again. I need get better at circling so that I don’t loose the kids [...]

Following the rules

I realized today that rules are brilliant when you enforce them. It can be easy for teachers to just let it slide, but today in class I really enforced the rules. When I did this, it wasn’t in a harsh way. I simply just stated the rule to class when I saw that someone was [...]

Just try to enjoy yourself

I was watching a movie the other day and there was a scene where two guys were playing golf. The first guy was having a really hard time and was not placing the ball where he wanted. The second guy had no trouble and was putting the ball exactly where he wanted. The scene ended [...]