The Cambridge Young Learner's Flyers exam includes two different types of cloze activites where the students' grammatical and lexical knowledge is tested. Activities such as this one below will help students to think carefully about language patterns and to notice the most common ones which regularly come up in these cloze exercises. Download pdf version [...]
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 [...]
I have already underlined how crucial I think the reflection process is in both the development of a teacher and language learning in general. I know I am guilty of spending so much time discussing, planning and crafting materials for my lessons that I can be guilty of not dedicating enough time afterwards to deconstructing [...]
This academic year has been unconventional for me because for the first time I didn't start the school year in September, thanks to the arrival of my beautiful daughter Sofia at the beginning of September. When my maternity leave finished I found myself back in the classroom gasping to keep up with everything that was [...]
This is a classic, quick activity which can help your students focus on their cohesion when they speak, to reduce repetition and to think about the range of language they utilise when they are speaking.
Any successful teacher will readily admit that they are still learning. This is what attracted me to this profession and what motivates me and encourages me to improve after a particularly taxing lesson with a class of boisterous 13 year olds. I truly believe that to develop as a teacher you need to invest in your own growth and the growth of CPD sessions on a variety of topics in order to keep our teachers engaged and to ensure quality lessons. But what happens if your teachers don't want to learn?
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 [...]
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