How It Works

Middle School Special Person Demo

By |2025-09-27T07:48:54-06:00September 26th, 2025|

I did a demonstration for teachers this week. The students were from a 7th grade middle school Spanish I class. All of the middle school world language team leaders in the school district observed. The students were in the middle of a unit that focused on: Greetings Classroom expressions [...]

WHY THE EMPHASIS ON VERBS?

By |2025-08-09T19:05:00-06:00August 9th, 2025|

Teachers often ask me why I feature verbs so prominently in my training and materials for beginning students. It's because that's where the action is! And using verbs over adjectives can make for compelling storytelling. I try to follow the storytelling advice from the creators of South Park: the [...]

HOW TO WIN FRIENDS AND INFLUENCE PEOPLE

By |2023-10-06T11:05:21-06:00October 6th, 2023|

Dale Carnegie's classic book How to Win Friends and Influence People has helped my teaching as much as anything I've ever read. I can't recommend it highly enough. I've worn out two copies over the last 40 years and I'm working on number three. Get this book! Here are the [...]

PREDICTABLE PASSWORD PROBLEMS

By |2022-12-19T12:14:38-07:00December 19th, 2022|

A teacher I am coaching sent this series of messages the other day: Hi Bryce, Today I had a student that rushed in the room and did not say the password. Has this ever happened to you? I was standing at my door and she just walked in without saying it. [...]

QUESTION-DRIVEN GRAMMAR IN SPECIAL PERSON INTERVIEWS

By |2020-08-31T19:39:52-06:00August 31st, 2020|

(A 5-minute read) This lesson may be easier to read and print out in another format. You can find it in a PDF here:  QUESTION-DRIVEN GRAMMAR IN SPECIAL PERSON INTERVIEWS  The teacher has great power to control student interviews, just by the nature of the questions directed at the student. [...]

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