What are coursebooks to you? This question prompted plenty of discussion on our materials development course. We were given various metaphors to choose from – a springboard, a straitjacket, a recipe, a compass, etc. I opted for a crutch, as… Read More ›
I took a course on materials development recently. It was really good – plenty of input and ideas I could apply in my current context. Here’s a link to the course if you’re interested. The role of teaching materials (as… Read More ›
Ball ball ball, footie footie footie! I’m a bit obsessed with the beautiful game, and I’ve taught plenty of students who are too! You may have come across Premier Skills English before, the British Council/Premier League site dedicated to teaching… Read More ›
I wrote a post a while back comparing learners to different birds. Svetlana at ELT-cation requested more, so here I’m comparing teachers with sea creatures. Which one are you? For a quiz version of this post click here. (Note: this… Read More ›
I think it hit home about five minutes before the lesson: ‘Am I really going to base a 30 minute activity around this bottle of murky water? Surely this can’t work…’ Most of the activities I’ve tried from ‘Teaching Grammar… Read More ›
Finally, some time to reflect on CamTESOL, which was held on 18-19 February. It was my first ever teaching conference (both attending and presenting), so thought I’d jot down a few reflections. Presenting is tough but rewarding… Teaching and presenting… Read More ›
Looking for a way to teach/review conditionals? A former colleague at LTC Eastbourne (cheers Angel) told me that football was his ‘go to’ topic for conditional structures… Show the students a league table (or part of it): source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/football Use actual… Read More ›
Young learner classes at our school are mostly organised by age. This means there can be quite a range of abilities, and differentiation* is an important part of planning. I generally find that our materials can be a bit on… Read More ›
I’m on good form! It’s been a fun weekend of classes. Today I tried out a new task for practising the present perfect (life experiences). Well, it wasn’t exactly new, just a variation on a few well-known tasks. Still, it… Read More ›
I had a brief chat with TalkTEFL after class about how some activities we make up during class work better than the things we plan! Today was a prime example. My teen class were really lacking a bit of get… Read More ›
ELT Planning 