Send us Fan Mail What if challenging student behavior is not always simply a discipline problem—but sometimes a sign of overwhelm, anxiety, or disconnection? In Episode 202 of Growing With Proficiency: The Podcast, I’m joined by French teacher and teacher educator Hélène Colinet to explore classroom management through the lens of nervous system regulation. This conversation is not about excusing behavior or removing boundaries. Instead, Hélène invites us to pause before assigning motives, con...
Aug 10
46 min
Send us Fan Mail El regreso al aula viene acompañado de muchas ideas, actividades guardadas, screenshots, recursos y recomendaciones. Pero tener más actividades no siempre significa sentirnos más preparados. En este episodio de Growing With Proficiency: The Podcast en español, comparto cuatro ideas fundamentales inspiradas en las sesiones de nuestra Conferencia de Verano dentro de Growing With Proficiency: The Spanish Teacher Academy. Más que darte una lista de actividades, quiero ayudarte a ...
Aug 3
49 min
Send us Fan Mail We all want students to participate. We want them to raise their hands, share their ideas, react, ask questions, and bring that energy that makes a classroom feel alive. But what happens when they don’t? It is easy to assume that the activity is not working, that students are not motivated, or even that we are doing something wrong. In this special 200th episode of Growing With Proficiency: The Podcast, I sit down with Justin Slocum Bailey to explore another possibility: Mayb...
Jul 27
48 min
Send us Fan Mail Planning the first week of school can feel overwhelming—especially when you have a phone full of saved ideas, conference notes, activities, and resources you want to try. But a successful first week is not about doing everything. It is about choosing what will help you build the classroom you want to sustain all year. In This Episode, you will learn: Why more activities do not always create a better first weekHow to connect your first-week plans to your long-term classroom go...
Jul 20
40 min
Send us Fan Mail What if the reason your class feels hard to sustain is not because your activities are wrong, but because they are standing alone? In this episode of Growing With Proficiency The Podcast, I’m talking about routines that support language acquisition—not classroom procedures like entering the room or turning in papers, but pedagogical routines that create the spaces our students need again and again. We’ll look at how routines can help us provide more comprehensible input, buil...
Jul 13
42 min
Send us Fan Mail En este episodio en español de Growing With Proficiency, converso con tres profes de nuestra comunidad de Growing With Proficiency: The Spanish Teacher Academy: Ángela Johnson, Mariem Silva y Audrey Ramírez. Aunque enseñan en contextos muy diferentes, las tres comparten cómo han transformado sus clases al entender mejor la adquisición de la lengua y al crear clases más comprensibles, comunicativas, culturales y sostenibles. Hablamos de cómo empezar el año escolar con más inte...
Jul 6
1 hr 15 min
Send us Fan Mail What if some of the most common beliefs about language teaching are actually getting in the way of acquisition? In this special episode of Growing With Proficiency, I sit down with Dr. Bill VanPatten for a powerful conversation originally livestreamed in the IFLT Facebook group as part of CI Reboot. Dr. VanPatten helps us unpack two foundational myths about second language acquisition: the idea that learners internalize grammar rules and patterns, and the idea that children a...
Jun 29
1 hr 6 min
Send us Fan Mail Have you ever looked at your students and wondered: "Why aren't they communicating in the language?" In this special episode of Growing With Proficiency, the tables are turned as my friend and fellow educator, Bethanie Carlson Drew, steps in as host and interviews me about my journey from lawyer to language teacher, the challenges that transformed my classroom, and the lessons I've learned along the way. Together, we explore what happened when I realized that despite teaching...
Jun 22
47 min
Send us Fan Mail At the end of every school year, I ask my students one question: What activity or strategy helped you grow the most in Spanish this year? This year, their answers surprised me. Some students chose Daily Personal Questions. Others selected Silent Sustained Reading. Some preferred podcasts, cultural articles, Calendar Talk, Star Student Interviews, content-based units, or creating stories. What stood out most? Nobody agreed. And that led me to an important realization about lan...
Jun 15
32 min
Send us Fan Mail What actually helped students learn this year? As language teachers, it's easy to spend our end-of-year reflection focused on what didn't work. In Episode 191, I shared some of the challenges I faced this year. In Episode 192, I reflected on behavior, classroom culture, relationships, expectations, and the lessons I learned from a particularly challenging freshman class. But reflection isn't only about identifying problems. It's also about paying attention to what worked. Aft...
Jun 8
34 min
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