Teaching, Recruitment and Consultancy
Online education is becoming more popular and common throughout the world as technology and educational institutions invest in the possible future of English language teaching. Furthermore, English teachers are now supplementing their income with online English teaching in the evenings or after a summer school has closed their doors for another year. In this blog post, which also supplements a YouTube video, looks at five ways to an online English teacher.
One way to incorporate authentic text in the EFL classroom is to use Newspapers with students. Furthermore, should teachers be located in a country where English newspapers are limited, then the internet is also available to access newspaper articles. However, the issue for many teachers is how they should use newspaper articles in the classroom so that it is accessible and comprehensible for learners. In this post, we look at Five Ways to Use Newspapers in the EFL Classroom.
Those dreaded first lessons do not have to be stressful. Watch the video below for some ideas on five icebreakers in the EFL classroom.
What activities or techniques do you incorporate in your first lessons? Have you tried any ideas in the video?
It has been over a year since I last recorded a video for my YouTube Channel – I cannot believe how quick fast time flies. Nevertheless, I have now focused today on recording and editing a video based upon getting students moving around the classroom with five practical tips and techniques. The video is available to watch below.
Do not forget to leave a comment or a Like. If you have not subscribed to my YouTube Channel and you enjoyed this video, please do.
I leave this question for you: How do you normally get students moving around the classroom? What do you do to keep learners on their toes?
It can always be difficult in prompting learners to talk or respond to questions, particularly if they are not used to it. Teachers can try a number of things: games, rewarding behaviour or input, reminding learners of class rules, offering some form of carrot (a movie at the end of the week) or the threat of homework. For English teachers, it can become quite challenging particularly should one have the same students throughout the year.
There are some reasons why learners can be naturally quiet in the classroom, but encouraging them to interact can improve their progress However, the more the teacher talks, the less the students talk. What is more, you do not want your students to come to class just to listen to you. So Annabelle Fee offers some suggestions: five ways for English teachers to talk less and students to talk more.
A few months ago, I decided to invest in some Story Cubes and have been trying them out with some of my classes. If you are unfamiliar with Story Cubes, they are a collection of nine dice with images printed on each side of the dice. They are stored in a convenient box which is super portable, with them being small enough to just place in your pocket. Anyhow, when using the Story Cubes in class, the students responded positively and created some very engaging and funny stories. If you want to find out a bit more information about these Story Cubes, you can check Rory’s website.
In this article, we look at ten teaching ideas for using Story Cubes in the classroom.
For many newly certified teachers, August signals the end of the Summer School in the UK for many, with thoughts obviously moving towards other opportunities post-summer. The questions arises: “What next after the Summer School?”. There are essentially two opportunities offered for newly certified EFL teachers, after the busy summer months. Either you continue to pick up work wherever you are based in the UK or you consider teaching abroad. Teaching EFL abroad offers additional opportunities such as continuing professional development, learning more about a particular as well as earning an income other than just the summer months.
In this blog post, we are looking at five tips for securing professional EFL employment abroad and things to consider when apply for EFL teaching jobs in another country.
The best EFL teachers are not born but are made. While an innate interest in teaching is required, I have realized over the course of my education and my teaching career that to stay on top of the game, we EFL teachers must always be learning. We cannot afford to lose focus on the qualities we need to practice, the knowledge that we need to acquire, and the learners we need to keep up with. Teaching is far from being a passive role: a professional teacher is always active and observant, even when they are not teaching.
There are some qualities that make a good EFL teacher. Being aware of these qualities, and more importantly, working at it, can turn a competent teacher into a brilliant one! Based on my experience and my interactions with fellow EFL teachers I have narrowed these down to ten.
I have been involved with teacher training for over 5 years now and I had the opportunity, last week, to observe a fellow colleague for the first time since he joined us for the summer. The teacher had previous experience in Vietnam and had been teaching there for many years and has just returned back to England for a short period. Anyhow, there were a few nice ideas which I have now decided to borrow/steal/use next time that I am in class. The biggest thing that I first saw in the classroom was the use of buzzers. You know the buzzers from game shows. You press them and it creates a sound, lighting up. From this observation last week, I have been thinking of creative ways to use buzzers in class and I have suggested five teaching ideas for class.
Earlier yesterday, I observed a lesson which revolved around the worksheet on The Food Blues: BusyTeacher, that also included a song. I believe there is a lot more you can actually do with songs in class, as well as exploiting the resource and make it more engaging. It is a great resource and what the teacher actually did in the lead up to the listening task was wonderful but there are still a few things that you can exploit from the worksheet. This blog post looks at 10 practical ideas of using songs in class.