The aim of this brief activity is to talk about different New Year’s Eve traditions from around the world. It is a great idea for the first class after the holiday break and is suitable for all ages and levels. It is based on this Buzzfeed article.
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Video-based Christmas activities
The last class before the Christmas break might be a challenge as even adult students expect it to be light and holiday oriented. This short video issued by WestJet airlines in 2013 has inspired my Christmas conversation classes with more advanced students. I then came up with different activity ideas for all levels, focusing on speaking and listening.
Phrasal verbs about food: writing activity
This writing activity helps students learn and practice different phrasal verbs about food. It is a perfect fit for classes about nutrition, diets, health, and fitness. It might be used with groups and individual students, levels intermediate and higher.
Speaking prompts for advanced students: photos
How far would a conversation class go if the only discussion prompt was a single photo? No topic, no questions, no pre-determined outcome. Just the picture. Does it even make sense? This post describes how I decided to find answers to these questions.
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Classes with young learners
I’ve always considered myself a flexible person, able to adapt and roll with the punches. Still, when my school asked me to teach weekly 90-minute classes to a 12-year-old (whose level of English was unspecified before our first lesson) I got a bit nervous. Actually, I got very nervous. Preparing and teaching my first class made me re-examine everything I thought I knew about dealing with so-called young learners. Continue Reading …
Overcoming my teaching rut
Finding some teaching methods, approaches or activities which we can refer to as tried and tested gives a great sense of comfort. It lowers the preparation time and boosts our confidence. Isn’t it convenient to have a nice, little routine that guarantees a successful lesson? Isn’t it also dangerously easy to miss the difference between our positive teaching habits and being stuck in a rut? Continue Reading …
Phrasal verbs about sport: speaking activity
This speaking activity helps students learn and practice different 7 ways to create interest in the lesson topic
This post describes 7 ways to create interest in the topic of the class and introduce it in an engaging way which will help increase students’ motivation to participate in the lesson. The ideas below might be easily adapted for different group sizes, levels, and ages. Continue Reading …
How to make FCE speaking practice fun: Part 4
How to make FCE speaking practice fun presents an alternative way to go about preparing your students for their FCE speaking exam. The objective here is to introduce different activities that make FCE speaking practice fun and at the same time help students perfect skills and strategies which the exam requires. This is the last in the series of four posts and it focuses on Speaking Part 4.
5 free tools to create your own teaching resources
This post features a list of 5 free tools for teachers who enjoy making their own teaching resources or would like to start and don’t really know how. Below, I am talking about online tools you might use to create visuals, presentations, animations, comics, and quizzes.
