Following up from my last post on fostering emotional literacy in the ELT classroom, I want to share with you today a quick and easy activity that can help promote kindness and build a classroom community. With my very young learners I have introduced an appreciation board to make students recognise their own actions and [...]
Little learners can be a big challenge online, but they also can provide the most rewarding lessons. Here are some of my reflections about teaching VYLs online, and what I consider the must-haves in an online VYL or YL lesson
Now that the dust has settled, online teaching is fast becoming the new 'normal' for many of us and the knee-jerk emergency teaching measures are slowly being replaced by a renewed drive for ways of delivering quality lessons. One observation from the last two months of teaching online is that at times the digital platform [...]
Everyone knows it, the most important thing you can gain in the classroom is trust. Get your students to trust you and then anything is possible, barriers will no longer be up, they won't be scared to experiment and risk making mistakes, in a nutshell, you will have created an environment that is conducive to [...]
It's that time of year again, the time when finding time is difficult, when stress levels rise as teachers frantically plan exciting and engaging first lessons to make their students fall in love with them, while managers frantically juggle book orders, student enquiries, entrance exams, and new teacher inductions. It's the nice kind of stress [...]
When thinking about successful learning classroom management is key and in my opinion, the best way of achieving a harmonious classroom is by building a classroom community. Creating an environment where students feel safe and supported means creating the correct environment for language learning. Language learning means growth through making mistakes and that will only [...]
In 2019, we are aware more than ever of how fundamental it is to reduce our environmental impact. To not actively try is simply irresponsible, especially in the ELT industry where we are particularly guilty of using vast quantities of paper. Each and every one of us can do our bit, so here are 10 ways to [...]
Silence is not a word that sits very well with most language teachers. After all, we teach how to communicate, it's second nature to want to fill gaps with words. I know that when I first started teaching I wanted to fill every second of the classroom with some form of noise, whether it be [...]
As teachers our most influential tool, other than ourselves of course, is our board. It is often also the focal point of the classroom and so it is important that we make the most of our space. Let's face it, we're all guilty of classroom cardinal sins and so I'd like to suggest some ways [...]
If you are having classroom management issues, you may find that one of the main reasons behind your troubles is the combination of certain students. Best friends, committed to doing everything except learning, you may face reluctance when trying to split them up. But it's imperative you do. Apart from in a few age [...]
Learning lessons from TEFL 