I don’t know about you, but I was quite disappointed with the latest Bond movie. I’m a big Bond fan, but I wish we could go back to the pun-filled days of Connery/Moore. Anyway, here’s a fun observation challenge based… Read More ›
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Lesson tip: creative displays
The other day I did a creative writing activity with my teen class (ages 12-13). The activity was based on the teacher resources in English in Mind, and it worked well. Students had to describe the colours, sounds and smells in their… Read More ›
Lesson idea: The planets
Check out this great video – I came across it during the summer school at British Council HCMC. We did an activity where students described what was happening on each of the 12 planets. Then they created a 13th planet themselves, displayed their… Read More ›
Product review: Newsmart
Newsmart is a platform designed to help learners improve their Business English. It provides language learning experiences based on news content from Wall Street Journal. Learners can develop their grammar, vocabulary and comprehension skills by reading any of the six… Read More ›
30 activities inspired by game shows
Game shows and TV quizzes are a great source of inspiration for classroom activities. Believe it or not, I keep a notepad on the coffee table so I can jot down any teaching ideas I get from watching TV! It’s… Read More ›
Getting teens to talk
This post outlines my problem-solving techniques, and offers some tips for improving interaction in teen classes. It’s only a few weeks into term, but I’m revisiting familiar issues with my new teen classes: Why are they so timid? Why won’t… Read More ›
16 ways to improve your whiteboard work
I had my first lesson observation at the British Council Bangkok the other day. I still have a job, woohoo! I got some very surprising feedback from my line manager: ‘your board work was a real strength’. Boardwork? Strength?! I… Read More ›
Punctuation..? – Book Review
Punctuation..? published by User Design Books is a short guide for using common punctuation marks. The blurb actually says it covers ’21 of the most used punctuation marks’, which I found a little embarrassing as I hadn’t heard of half… Read More ›
It’s your move… helping students manage spoken discourse
Helping learners to deal with spoken discourse was a hot topic on my Diploma course. You might encounter the terms ‘interactional talk’ and ‘transactional talk’ when you get to modules on discourse analysis; a possible development task could be to… Read More ›
5 ways to use Shakespeare in ELT
I’ve seen a few things Shakespeare related on the British Council Facebook page. I’ve taught a bit of Will over the years. Here are 5 activities that have worked well.
ELT Planning 