Informal drop-in observations are the way forward. Well, they’re the norm in many places. But where they’re not, they should be. Why invest all that time in recruitment, have teachers go through round after round of interview, sometimes do demo… Read More ›
Note: I’m very fond of the British Council and I owe them a lot. This is not intended as a critique – I really want to see them rebuild their operations here in Thailand. This is just my idea. It… Read More ›
This term I’ve tried out a few different ways to introduce a lesson. These ones have worked well. They might be worth reading if you’ve exhausted my previous list! Song lyric gap fill Example: 3rd conditional, regrets Do a short gap… Read More ›
Here are some short activities I wrote for British Council Video Zone last year. They were quite fun to write, quick too. No full lessons, just springboards I guess. I hope you find something useful. Plenty more video-based resources on… Read More ›
It’s the end of an era! I’ve spent nearly five years with the same language school (British Council) here in Thailand, which is a pretty long stint. Overall, it’s been a good experience. I mentioned before that the pay and… Read More ›
This was a context builder for a sequence of lessons on viral videos, viral ad campaigns, viral marketing, etc. It’s similar to the idea I shared for introducing recipes. Anyway, used this with B1+ teens, worked well. Task 1 Find… Read More ›
This review was first published in the Winter 2019 edition of the ETAS Journal. Many thanks to ETAS for allowing the review to appear on this blog. Ready to Run, from Digital Learning Associates (DLA), is a platform providing video-based… Read More ›
My secondary class (age 14+, B1) are exploring education in our latest module. We are building up to a ‘design your ideal school’ task. The first step was to consider what makes a good classroom/learning environment. Step 1: General discussion… Read More ›
I start my PGCEi next month. I’m really looking forward to having an extra reason to reflect on my classroom practice, overall approach, etc, and delving into research about how children learn and develop. I’m focusing on primary level learners… Read More ›
Another ‘making things up as I go along’. This time in my IELTS Teens class. Topic: Environment and the natural world Context: We’d just done some vocabulary review / building activities. We’d also dipped into the book for some listening… Read More ›
ELT Planning 