Creativity is key! (book review)
As Alan Maley says, I passionately believe creativity to be central to learning, including language learning. When I saw his 50 Creative Activities published by CUP, I knew I had to take a look at the book.
Entries by Monika Bigaj-Kisala
Memome for everyone – practising comparatives
When a friendly neighbourhood Teacher’s Corner introduced a new game called Memome, I thought, it’s basically just a typical memo activity. And to be honest, I was right… but it turns out to be much more versatile.
That is Evil! Valentine’s Day
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.
7 Free Online Courses in February
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.
Aliens vs Humans (lesson plan)
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!
I Like to Move It, Move It (lesson idea)
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.
Perfect Tips for Teacher Development (book review)
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.
7 Free Online Courses in January
This month I’ve found some really classy courses that will definitely help you start the year with a boom:
7 Tips to Get Ready for 2020
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!
StoryBits Kids
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.