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Have fun with a lesson plan :)
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When I was a student, my professors emphasised the importance of making lesson plans, but then they referred to people who were about to start teaching. Well, I have been teaching for more than a decade (oh, gosh!) and I still write a short lesson plan for every lesson I have. I'll try to share my ideas here, but be careful before you follow me and turn into a creepily well-organised pedantic nightmare.

"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.

Tenses review - a quickie
To make my - and my students' - life easier, I've decided to make a cheat sheet for all the tenses & aspects, their uses and syntax. I'm happy to share it with you.

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.

Merry Crimbo :)
When a student of mine showed me this video, it actually inspired me to bring my students at least one Christmas-related activity - and with Christmas approaching, I thought I may share it on my blog.

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.

Lesson preparation & young students
Teaching teenagers is usually fun - at least for me, I really enjoy teaching the group unfairly claimed to be the most difficult (but I'd never ever take up a group of children aged less than 10 years old again!). One of the things I've learnt so far is that with teenagers you have to be prepared for everything.

Homework? Smile in the morning!
Have you heard that even if you fake a smile, you genuinely start feeling happier? At least that's what American scientists say, but is it true?
Me and my B2 group have decided to give it a try, hence the homework, perfect for grey November:

November - the grim month
Don't you find November the worst month in a school year?
To cheer you up I've collected some grammar-motivational pics and I thought that, if you're overwhelmed by November, you may use them in your classroom. Have fun!
