Posts

How to make a good first impression in the classroom?
This is it, ladies and gentlemen. August. Back to school vibes. New students. New classes. Oh, the horror? Not really! Watch this short video to learn 5 easy tips that will help you make a great first impression in your classroom.

Grammar up your classes! (book review)
The way I can explain my attitude to English grammar is love-hate relationship. One of the books that helped me enormously was Uncovering Grammar by the amazing Scott Thornbury. I read it years ago, and I’ve just finished rereading it to see how many things I implemented and how much useful it could be to an average EFL teacher.

10 Dos and Don'ts of Teaching Online
0 Comments
/
I'm sure most of you already know what teaching online looks like, and you're getting quite experienced in this field. However, as a teacher, and a DoS observing quite a lot of online lessons, I must admit there are some universal truths worth sharing.

Teacher, do you remember why you love your job?
I believe we all know this feeling of discouragement, with more and more administrative duties, students requiring more individual care and parents who are becoming more and more demanding.
What I want to write about is a short list of things that may help you smile, lift up your chin and remember that we matter, teachers matter, that regardless of what people claim, we do change the world. And we should never, ever, stop believing that.

Dear teacher, vulnerability is not weakness
Imagine an educational system where it's OK for teachers to openly admit their issues and share them with colleagues in atmosphere of mutual understanding. Imagine teachers carrying this attitude to the classroom and teaching it by showing - making the students believe that it's OK to feel insecure, that everyone has issues once in a while and that there are people who are willing to help instead of judging.

Role-Playing Teaching (Part 10:Why RPGs Rock in the Classroom)
I've just realised I didn't write anything about why RPGs are so cool when it comes to teaching! So here we are, a list of seven main reasons you should take your class into one of the Never-Never worlds.

M-education for beginners
Mobile education, also called m-learning, is perceived by some as a kind of e-learning, yet it can be much more than that. By using smartphones in the class, and allowing – or even encouraging – my students to do the same, I bring some real context to the artificial environment of a classroom. No longer a forbidden fruit, smartphones can be useful, entertaining and... motivating!

5 ways to shine at your speaking test
There's always one part of testing English that you hate. Some hate writing, others listening (aye, that would be me), but somehow it's speaking that seems to cause lots of worries. To tell you the truth, I haven't had problems with speaking ever since I came up with some simple steps. I can't claim you'll excel at speaking tests after following my ideas, but I do encourage you to give them a go - maybe they'll work out for you just as they did for me!

6 Useful Apps for Academic IELTS Prep
I want to present my top 6 apps that will help students practise at home and prepare for the test - links will direct you to Google Play Store where you'll be able to download the app. You may also find most of them in the Apple Store as well.

Tell them what we're doing! (guest note by Ewa Torebko)
I met Ewa last August during workshop where she shared her way of lesson planning and sharing it with her students. I found the idea just brilliant, so I asked her to write a guest post for my blog, so that you have the opportunity to learn from the master herself.