Author Archives

Teacher and Materials Writer

• Tech tips for new materials writers

  By Pete on August 6, 2018 • ( 2 )

  

  These tips may sound simple to some, but useful to others! As a new writer I reckon you’ll have to do some of the things below, so this primer could help you hit the ground running…

• Developing into a materials writer

  By Pete on August 3, 2018 • ( 4 )

  

  Here are a few general tips for skills to develop if you’d like to write for publishers or big teaching organisations. This is not a ‘How to become….’ post. You can find good tips about how to actually get into… Read More ›

• Review: ELT Lesson Observation & Feedback

  By Pete on July 28, 2018 • ( 8 )

  

  Lesson observations – where to start?! Jeanette Barsdell, the author of ELT Lesson Observation and Feedback Handbook, was thrown in at the deep end and expected to observe a teacher on her first day as a DOS. Despite being terrified,… Read More ›

• Pronunciation priorities

  By Pete on July 27, 2018 • ( 4 )

  

  Uh-oh! Here comes a ‘Teacher Pete thinking something through out loud’ moment. Tut. I hate these… Mark Hancock shared a good article on LinkedIn the other day called ‘Pronunciation Teaching Post-ELF’. It’s got me thinking about my own attitudes towards… Read More ›

• Review: Great Writing

  By Pete on July 17, 2018 • ( 4 )

  

  A couple of months ago we ran a two-week ‘Grammar and Writing’ course for teens (aged 14+). I was scheduled to teach these classes but, to be honest, the prospect didn’t fill me with excitement. I enjoy teaching teens in… Read More ›

• Past continuous: sporting experiences

  By Pete on July 16, 2018 • ( 0 )

  

  More football! Give me more football! I heard it’s less than a month until the start of the Premier League season. Here’s more football related content for the post-World Cup/pre-PL football hungry students.

• Tip: A planning matrix for research (Cohen et al, 2005)

  By Pete on July 10, 2018 • ( 1 )

  

  I’ve been doing some research as part of my dissertation through NILE. I came across an awesome book by Cohen et al called ‘Research Methods in Education’. It wasn’t on our key reading list but I’d thoroughly recommend it.

• Teaching functional language

  By Pete on June 25, 2018 • ( 3 )

  

  A newly-qualified CELTA teacher has asked me for advice about how to deal with functional language. So… this is one of my approaches to teaching functional language! The example is from a lesson I did last weekend about the World… Read More ›

• Training: Improve your whiteboard work

  By Pete on June 11, 2018 • ( 5 )

  

  I’ve written a training session about whiteboard work designed for our CELTA level teachers. After the last round of teacher observations we established that boarding new/emergent vocabulary was an area for development. This session includes some tips to help teachers… Read More ›

• Review: Fluentize video lessons

  By Pete on June 4, 2018 • ( 3 )

  

  I do love a good video-based lesson. Jamie Keddie at lessonstream does them really well. Kieran Donaghy’s lessons on Film English are good for focusing on certain themes. Vocabulary in Chunks and AllatC are two great blogs sharing video lesson… Read More ›