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Mystery of the Abbey - solving a crime in English
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The reason why I love "Mystery of the Abbey" as the beginning of the course is that it helps students to start speaking the language from the first moment and, unlike usual introductory activities, it makes them see that they can actually communicate well enough to achieve something: in this case to solve the mystery.

First classes dictation to boost motivation
I found this poem by Chanie Gorkin, and once I saw it, I thought I could use it on my very first classes, to make my students remember.... well, here's the poem I make my students write down as a dictation, line by line (of course, I'll have to adjust vocabulary to my students' proficiency level, but what's so difficult in replacing convince with tell etc.?):

Teaching insults or Shakespeare? Why not both?
Now we can make our students familiar with old Will and bring some fun to the classroom at the same time. I found this book in Glastonbury and loved it - so when I could get my own copy, naturally, I did.
Well, that's simply a generator of Shakespearean insults. With a dictionary (woohoo). It's funny, it's interesting, it's enriching one's vocabulary. Pure awesomeness!

"First writing" tips
Writing can be one of the most tiresome endeavours of a student - can you recall your own papers, compositions, etc?
I see no reason not to teach some writing techniques to my own students. I've realised that the sooner they get the basics, the better their writing compositions are.

Story Cubes: more than storytelling
We've had fun with DixIt, with Once Upon a Time, but at the moment my most favourite storytelling tool is called the Story Cubes. It may look like a simple set of dice with random pictures on them, but it's in fact a real vocabulary booster.

Let's write a poem!
Yesterday, when I was on my way to work, I was thinking about the lesson - a group of pre-int teenagers and grammar + vocabulary revision. Not necessarily exciting thing, admit it.
Maybe I'll give them a funny warm up at least, I thought - and I decided to make them write a poem, which we had never done before.

10 short warm-ups to revise vocabulary
What needs constant revision, is vocabulary, especially on the more advanced levels - the students learn the words but don't use them regularly. One way to make them revise vocabulary is to do short warm-ups in the classroom. I've got my favourite ten activities that I use regularly

The Little Magic Box of Words
I always have to be prepared when the students finish the task quicker than I expect, and suddenly I end up with 10-20 minutes and no idea what to do (there are days when you simply can't be creative on the spot). To avoid this embarrassing situation I always have my little magic box of words.

Digit-all-love
I'm a teacher who does that only during the tests and I rather encourage my students to use their phones in the classroom on a regular basis. And teach them how to use their phones to help them learn.

Scaredy Cat: roleplay and/or creative writing
Scaredy Cat is a project by Heather Franzen and I must say I fell in love with it the moment I saw it - in fact I'm going to buy this tiny book because it's cute, adorable and I simply want to have it on my own :) Now - it's a lovely story and let me share its sweetness with you.
