If your preferred shade of red is rouge de Tarantino and you do appreciate love stories with a little bit of a twist, I’ve got something for you – a collection of evil (well, sometimes not so evil, just a tiny bit malicious) Valentine’s songs I collected on Spotify.
All the people who are currently enjoying proper winter – I’m really jealous! In my place we’re more likely to see snowdrops than snowflakes and it’s really sad. Fortunately you can learn something new regardless of the weather. I found seven interesting online courses that are useful, enjoyable and free.
I think teaching is pretty much like discovering aliens, getting familiar with them and trying to communicate with them – and as a bonus, aliens are a really nice topic to talk about in the classroom. After all, there are no good or bad answers, and everyone can share their wildest ideas!
Have you ever taken part in something we call YouTube Party? It happens when you meet friends, chat a bit and suddenly someone goes like “have you seen this video on YouTube?”… and you’re doomed; you know that for the next two hours you’ll be watching random stuff telling you more than you want about your mates’ interests. The curse (or the blessing) of a creative teacher is when you see such material you know it’s literally ready to wrap it up in some more or less educational principles and you’re ready to go with a lesson.
You may already know I’m a fan of CPD. The more I teach, the more I realise I have to learn. The more experienced trainer I am, the more people I meet who show me how to improve and develop. When I saw Jack C. Richards’ 50 Tips for Teacher Development, I loved it from the very first moment.
This month I’ve found some really classy courses that will definitely help you start the year with a boom:
December is definitely a month to sum things up and plan something new, close some chapters and embrace changes and opportunities. If you don’t know how to start – here, I prepared a short “to-do” list for your winter break!
Some time ago I wrote about StoryBits, a simple yet creative tool to implement storytelling into your class. I found it a pretty nice “last resort” tool as you can use it when your class gets awkwardly silent – just pick a card and think about something you can use it for. This autumn brought a much-welcome variation of the original game, StoryBits Kids.
Naturally, relaxing means taking care of one’s body and mind – and what’s better than learning something new? My pro-tip for online courses in December is watching online classes and baking cakes or cookies at the same time. Bliss! If you want to give it a try, I have a batch of seven free online courses to accompany your culinary endeavours.
It took me half a year to finish one book – seriously, and it’s not because I’m a slow reader, quite contrary. It’s a book addressing one of my greatest problems (apart from procrastination and struggling with taking over the world) which is time management, something a work-from-home person may have issues with – I sure did.