Thinking on your feet-Carol Gaab and Kristy Placido

I love watching these two together!  They are a laugh a minute!  Here's what I got:

• Circling is like salt: great for seasoning, but it shouldn't be the whole meal.
• Introduce each vocabulary item as excited as if you were bringing a favorite item to show and tell.  If you have to fake it, do it!  You are just trying to one-up the others.
• Use emotions to engage your students
• Look at twitter feeds of current events with your students (Carol's example was tweets about the winner of the Home Run Derby who was being criticized for not speaking English)
• Do things when they are timely-doesn't have to be the day they happen, but don't wait a week!
• Search "Just for Laughs" on youtube to get some great wordless videos to teach structures.
• Some structures don't lend themselves to PQA, so don't try to force it if it's not happening!
• Have kids ask questions about a story if you already have it planned.
• Use Poll Everywhere in your class (Carol's example was "If you found a wallet, would you return it?" and students texted in Yes, definitely!, Maybe, No way!)
• Use videos with different goals to increase novelty
• If the video has an utterance of the target structure, pause it and ask "What did s/he just say?"  You can also then rewind and hear it again.
• Count the number of (girls, times he misses something, objects she picks up, etc)
• Create a narrative to go with a silent film (you can also record the dialogue and put it with the movie using Movie Maker or Garage Band)
• Come up with one line of dialogue for the next 30 seconds of film
• Ask me a question about what you just saw and it can't be an "is" question.
• I need to find French mimes to bring some comedy to my class
• Use lingro.com to support students with authentic texts on websites
• If you have a musician in a story, don't just use Justin Bieber: ask your students at the door to give you the name of their favorite musicians.
• Respect your students and listen to them.  Even if it takes 5 minutes away from the TL...it validates them and your relationship with them.
• Use pictures of your students as visuals to support your stories (this reminds me of Betsy's visual story...)