BE YOUR OWN VALENTINE
This year I’m taking the safest path to discussing love and relationships – the ‘healthy self’ path. As a warm-up, write self-love = selfish on the board, and ask students whether they mean the same thing. Have them come up…
LANGUAGE UPGRADES: ‘GRIDSKAI’
‘Correct’ can’t be corrected because you’ve hit a ceiling.’ Today, I’m sharing an experimental tool I built to help come up with ‘upgraded’ versions of (spoken) sentences. I believe it could be useful for teachers who want to give non-corrective…
MONDEGREEN SONG
This is a song-based activity full of mondegreens, something every speaker of any language has experienced at least once in their life. Have you? For language learners (and enthusiasts), deliberate practice in spotting mondegreens can be a great way to:a)…
RESOLVE, RETRY, REPEAT: RE-WORDS
Every new year starts with a season of resolutions, or re-words. They feel more powerful than hopes because, etymologically speaking, when you make a resolution, you’re not just making a promise, you are already solving a problem by breaking it…
SANTA CLAUS IS…LEAVING TOWN!
Jingle bells, jingle bells. Christmas activities are everywhere. Opposites bring fun. Well, it’s not the best piece of poetry ever, but you get the idea: Christmas is in the air, and here comes a new activity to add to my…
A-MAZE-ING GAME: THE PEACEFUL ALTERNATIVE TO BATTLESHIPS
On days when battle themes just aren’t right for your class, go with the A-Maze-Ing Game. Bringing the classic games we grew up with into the classroom can be tricky. Sometimes we need to tweak them so they support learning,…
‘ESPRESSO’ DIALOGUES
Good teaching ideas often come in espresso size. Sometimes a single word is all it takes to get students talking. Less is more My today’s post is about espresso dialogues. This is one of the best formats for teachers who…
DESCRIBING PERSONALITY: MANY ‘ME’S AND ALL THAT JAZZ
What’s in this post: materials writing, describing oneself with a twist, Poetry Comics, the Many ‘Me’s song, clines, Jazzy Bingo, and other activities for practising personality adjectives Materials writing gets a whole new twist (or an evolution?) with new AI…
DRAWING WITH WORDS…LITERALLY
What’s in this post: The Inner Workbench; the inner eye; the Google AI Studio Challenge; Wordsketcher; and a few hands-on activities for the classroom. Many powerful ideas in language learning get a bit lost in the noise of the ‘C’…
BACK-TO-SCHOOL ICEBREAKER, TWEAKED!
If you’re teaching the same class again, chances are you’ve already gone through your arsenal of tried-and-tested icebreakers and back-to-school activities. So what are your options? A) Find something new (you can find plenty in the ELT blogosphere: on this…
