It’s summer in the Northern Hemisphere and that means schools are close and we are on holiday. That’s good because it gives us a chance to relax, read and have some ‘me’ time. That’s also good because during this time we can do something for professional development just attending some workshops, reading books, even cleaning…
I believe from the moment we enter the classroom, our aim should be to help our students see where their learning journey is taking them to so the first day activities are important to give them some clues too. You can adapt the activities below according to your classes. If they are new comers this…
I’m thinking about a new challenge. This year thanks to twitter and my PLN, I and my students experienced wonderful things. We had global projects and skype chats now I’m thinking to move it one step further. Sometimes we organise debates in the class. I thought maybe we could do it using skype but then…
Well, I’m not happy with the look of my blog. I used Blue Zinfandel Enhanced by Brian Gardne which is very modern,simple and easy to look and read. However, I wanted something more energetic and decided to make a change. Changes are sometimes very good and they save us. Don’t we change our hair colour…
Can you finish the following sentences so that they will be true for you? I love using sentence starters as a warmer, filler or a grammar/vocabulary activity. Whenever you feel you’re stuck in the lesson, dictate some sentence halves and ask your students to finish them so that they will be true for them. Then…
Beauty is a fat black woman walking the fields pressing a breezed hibiscus to her cheek while the sun lights up her feet Beauty is a fat black woman riding the waves drifting in happy oblivion while the sea turns back to hug her shape Grace Nicholls Since Jeremy Harmer read this poem at…
Motivation is what you get started. Habit is what keeps you going. Unknown We think that motivation is very important and it really is. It is one of the key factors to achieve our goals. However, it isn’t enough. Although you want to change the world, although you want to go one step further, you…
One of the skills that our students must improve is writing. I believe if you have something to say it is easier to write. Usually the students do the reading tasks, vocabulary and grammar exercises eagerly but when it comes to write they can’t produce. I think it has many reasons but I still…
I’m thinking aloud … Every year we graduate groups of kids and they just fly away to the real world. Some of them manage to enter the best universities in the country, some of them are luckier with some financial support from their parents, some of them have no support at all, other than the…
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…
When I read Emma Herrod’s post on planning a lesson, I started thinking about my own style. Emma’s post asks a lot of useful question to the teacher and there are wonderful contributions to the post in the comments sections. I really do agree with most of them and I had some more ideas how…
We all talk about the privileges of having a PLN and we agree that twitter is one of the most powerful tools for the educators to build your PLN. If you have a PLN, it means that you have a constant professional development network. However, if you think that twitter is just for professional development…
