Category Archives: lesson ideas

A bird in the hand

Posted on April 21, 2018 by

Photo by ALP STUDIO on Unsplash Another quick and simple task with minimal resources. With my current group of teachers, a mixture of content teachers teaching through the medium of English and English language teachers, we have a “cultural curiosity” corner each class.  … Continue reading →

Posted in lesson ideas | Tagged , | 3 Comments

How long’s a piece of string?

Posted on April 18, 2018 by

Photo by Fleur Treurniet on Unsplash Here’s a quick classroom task for upper primary, secondary, teens or adults. I’ve found it appeals most to younger teens. Ask your class a question with “How long” e.g “How long does it take to digest a … Continue reading →

Posted in digital literacy, lesson ideas | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Processing the exam

Posted on February 24, 2016 by

listen by lambda_X on flickr The class I’m teaching at the moment is a mixed teenage and adult class, and all the students are hoping at some time over the next year to take the Cambridge FCE exam. At the … Continue reading →

Posted in exams, lesson ideas, live listening, pronunciation, reflecting on teaching, thoughts on learning | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Walking the walk?

Posted on May 11, 2015 by

(the palm trees that framed our conversations in the gardens at Oxford House) Last weekend I attended the first Innovate Conference at Oxford House in Barcelona.  It was a great experience and one that we all appreciated very much. A big thanks is in … Continue reading →

Posted in class blogs, conferences, lesson ideas, reflecting on teaching, using images | Tagged , , , , , | 8 Comments

Is this flippin’ worth it?

Posted on October 6, 2014 by

shared by carterse on flickr under a creative commons licence In this post I want to look back at a series of activities I used with my beginners class last year with a couple of questions in mind.  First some … Continue reading →

Posted in #eltchat, lesson ideas, reflecting on teaching, thoughts on teaching | Tagged | 9 Comments

An autumn lesson

Posted on September 23, 2014 by

Look at the photo above (shared on flickr by TausP under a creative commons licence) and in your mind’s eye, add a person sitting on the bench.  Pay attention to what they’re doing and what they’re wearing, the expression on … Continue reading →

Posted in lesson ideas, using images | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Three things for a first class

Posted on September 18, 2014 by

I’d like to share a post I wrote recently for the British Council Teaching English blog site. It may be a bit late for some of you, or maybe not really relevant at this time of year, but hopefully some … Continue reading →

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Breaking the silence

Posted on July 21, 2014 by

Sometimes work just gets in the way! I have recently finished the final draft of a project which has been taking up most of my time for the last year or so and I’m hoping to make up (at least … Continue reading →

Posted in lesson ideas, using images | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Stories waiting to be told

Posted on June 15, 2013 by

At The Image Conference at Barcelona last weekend (June 8) I spoke about three types of images I like to use and explore in class. The first was, of course, close ups. Like the one below for example. I think close-ups … Continue reading →

Posted in #eltpics, conferences, lesson ideas, using images | Tagged , , , | 13 Comments

crowd-sourcing: technology in your classroom

Posted on May 23, 2013 by

  This week I’m tutoring on an online teacher development course discussing the use of technology in the ELT classroom. To kick off we’re exchanging some information about our current or recent teaching contexts.  All the participants are teaching, or … Continue reading →

Posted in crowd sourcing, lesson ideas, reflecting on teaching | Tagged , | 27 Comments