The original activity is described here and the poem ‘Go and Open the Door’ by Miroslav Holub is here. This is a very powerful poem and I think it will work really well with teenagers and adults on the first week of the term. Here is a variation with the poem for the new comers….
Don’t you sometimes find yourself thinking ‘Why are my students lazy?’ or ‘Why don’t they want to learn?’ Big problems to deal with, aren’t they? So why not starting to find out more about your students by asking questions considering to make your problems solvable? How? Well, instead of complaining ‘Why are they sooooo…
Lyric Race is a fun activity I’ve learned recently which can be used with songs. It sounds it will work well with young learners yet sometimes the teenagers also would like to do something like this. • Choose some words from the song you will use in the class and prepare word cards. Stick the…
Energisers are great activities and can save lives when you feel your students are not in the lesson anymore. These quick games can be used to bring your students back to classroom. A little bit movement, mingle, laughter will break the ice, will help to get rid of the boredom. Maybe the focus is not…
Sometimes questions are more important than answers. Nancy Willard I sometimes feel one of the most ignored area in my classroom is practising asking questions. When I started teaching English, there was a trendy activity to ask questions. That was Find the question for the underlined answer which was very mechanical and boring and while checking my…
When I read the tweet about last year’s conference and learned most of the presenters and educators whom I admired were coming, I was thrilled. The conference sounded very promising and it was a great opportunity for the teachers who can’t go to conferences very often as it would also be live broadcasted. ELT VIPs, enthusiastic teachers,…
Lemon Tree: Activities for Prepositions, Present Continuous, and Adjectives Lemon Tree truly is one of those songs that keeps giving, no matter which structure you want to focus on. I was reading Vicky Saumell’s Eltchat summary on Teaching English through songs in the digital age (part 3 of 4): Specific songs and their uses, I…
Improvisations part 2 Sometimes I adapt activities from TV shows, games, etc. The following activity is from a drama group called ‘Mahser-i Cumbus’. While watching their performance, I usually find great ideas for my classes. It sounds a bit confusing but it really is fun. Student A stands up and mimes. While miming she makes…
I realised I mostly wrote about quick games, fillers or warmers that may help the teachers to motivate the students or change the phase or the pace of a lesson. I believe these activities are great to present and practice a new language. During the activities, students will be more involved, enthused and eager to do…
In the session, I talked about why we should use songs in EFL classes. Music is everywhere in our lives. We listen to songs when we are happy, angry, sad or when we need inspiration or when we want to relax. We go out of our homes with our songs, we travel with them, we wait…
I’ve been thinking about this for a while. What not to bring to class in May? Mother’s Day? It’s difficult Some kids are not as lucky as others. Some homes are not as comfortable and cosy as the others. My daughter came home today and said how much she missed me when the teacher taught…
I really love ‘Go and Open the Door‘ by Miroslav Holub and when I come across with it in Creative Poetry Writing with a great activity and as we were doing conditionals, even if, as long as and some other conjunctions I wanted to do the activity with my students. I’ll quickly summarize it. Tell your students…
