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Posts under ‘Teaching’

Individual Differences Count (by Mike Harrison)

Part of the series: Stuff All EFL Teachers Should Know
“Feelings of worth can flourish only in an atmosphere where individual differences are appreciated, mistakes are tolerated, communication is open, and rules are flexible – the kind of atmosphere that is found in a nurturing family”
Virginia Satir, author and psychotherapist (1916-1988)
My experience as a teacher of [...]

Whatever gets them through the door (by Daniel T. Kirk)

Part of the series: Stuff All EFL Teachers Should Know
Over the last twenty-three years, I have taught English to people in every demographic category other than homeless people. Over that time, the issue that continues to pique my interest is their motivation for carrying their feet across the threshold of my classroom. [...]

Sometimes Less is More (by Anita Kwiatkowska)

Part of the series: Lessons Learned from Students
I can still remember my first Christmas lesson seven years ago. My 3rd graders were making little Santas from red paper and we were chatting about the presents they expected to get that year. Foolish as I was back then, I suddenly asked ‘Of course you no longer [...]

Moving Your Kindergarten into Web 2.0 with 5 Different Tools (by Ozge Karaoglu)

Part of the series: Stuff All EFL Teachers Should Know
“If we teach today as we taught yesterday, we rob our children of tomorrow” John Dewey
Kindergarten has always been the place to make friends, paint pictures, tell stories, play games and have fun while learning. Wooden blocks and legos have always been favorites in kindergarten [...]

How to create video activities on a teacher’s blog (by Christina Markoulaki)

Part of the series: Stuff All EFL Teachers Should Know
The focal point of my previous post on this blog were the potential ways teachers can help their students to organize and practice their knowledge by setting up a blog especially for them. Since video activities on a teacher’s blog seem to be the most appealing [...]

Teaching High School in Croatia (by Arjana Blazic)

To teach is to touch a life forever.
I have been trying to enhance my teaching with the new technologies since 1997 when I created my first web page while attending a seminar on New Technologies in Modern Language Teaching in Finland. But everything I did over those twelve years was nothing compared to what I [...]

Flap Books: A Simple Secret for Student Support! (by Lesley Ito)

Part of the series: Stuff All EFL Teachers Should Know
I think what every teacher needs to know is this simple secret to successful ESL/EFL classes: Students can accomplish so much more if the lesson has proper support. It is very difficult for students, particularly at the EFL level, to stand up in front of the [...]

21 days, 5 cities, 1000 teachers, and 20 computers

In February, I talked with approximately 1000 teachers in Fukuoka, Okayama, Osaka, Nagoya and Tokyo as part of the OUP Teaching Workshop Series. Workshop titles were assigned to fit an acronym. I was the “I” in K.I.D.S.—Interactive Ideas for Keeping your English Classes Relevant for the 21st century. The challenge for me was how to [...]

How to integrate blogging in EFL teaching (by Christina Markoulaki)

Part of the series: Stuff All EFL Teachers Should Know
I am pretty confident that a vast majority of EFL teachers relish blogging, but each one employs this practice in his/her teaching differently. I am therefore taking the initiative to write this post to ask and give an answer to this question:  Have you ever [...]

Do It Your Way (by Janet Bianchini)

Part of the series: Stuff All EFL Teachers Should Know
A very good friend, Ehrhard, a retired teacher from the former GDR, recently wrote a letter to me, which made me truly reflect. He told me that he was so happy that he had taught English “his way” successfully for many years, even though his [...]