In many contexts English Language Teachers have been perceived historically as the ‘Cinderella’ of the teaching profession. In some cases they have been required to ‘top up’ their qualifications, as a result of education authorities making calls to ‘professionalise the sector’. This talk will explore the causes of such perceptions, what it means to be… Continue reading Professionalism in English Language Teaching – Silvana Richardson

Edutopia’s Jaren Maynard has published an useful article titled ‘Going Beyond a Diverse Classroom Library. ou’ve diversified your classroom library—now what? We have been inundated with information telling us we need books that allow our students to see themselves in the text. We have created Amazon Wish Lists, DonorsChoose projects, and everything in between to… Continue reading Going Beyond a Diverse Classroom Library

During the ELT Summit 2020 pre-conference workshop on ‘The Challenges of Creating Teacher Presence in the Remote Classroom – What makes a good online teacher?’ renowned ELT expert Nik Peachey shared very fruitful insights on managing to teach – remotely. He shared strategies on how teachers can develop their teacher presence in the remote classroom.… Continue reading Challenges of Creating Teacher Presence in the Remote Classroom – Nik Peachey at ELT Summit 2020

BusyTeacher has published a new article titled ‘Teaching Capitals’. In this post, we will take a look at ten capitalization worksheets for ESL students. While most of the worksheets are geared towards elementary-level students, we have also included a few intermediate level worksheets to solidify capitalization rules with your more advanced students. Let’s jump right… Continue reading Teaching Capitals

Here is an article by OUP’s Charlotte Rance on phonics. If I asked you what the hardest part of learning English was, how many of you would point out the relationship (or seeming lack of a relationship) between how English sounds and how it is written? My social media feeds are full of jokes about… Continue reading Fun with Phonics | Charlotte Rance | OUP

In ELTWeekly (8 Sep 2020), I mentioned two uses of the present simple and present progressive, to talk about the future.  Here are the two examples I used: Plan: “I am taking my holiday in Ibiza this year.”                                Pres. progressive. Unalterable plan: “The train leaves Paddington at 17.42.”                 Pres. simple I’ve already talked about going… Continue reading Two more futures: plans and ‘unalterable’ plans by Nick Shepherd

On Cambridge English, Olha Madylus has published an article on managing teaching time. Teaching is not an easy job and all of us find ourselves managing huge responsibilities and countless tasks, big and small, on a daily basis. It is not surprising that by the end of the week, we feel exhausted, yet still have… Continue reading Time management – practical ways to make your teaching life easier

This Edutopia article spread new insights into learner development. The full article is available here. Book clubs have been a part of my life for a long time: for professional development at my school, for social outings, and for classroom use with students. As uncertainty and unrest grew this summer, the role of book clubs… Continue reading Using a Book Club to Navigate Challenging Topics

This BusyTeacher article on ESL games will surely be helpful to every English teacher. The full article is available here. Review lessons can be boring enough, but grammar reviews are precisely the type of thing that makes students want to skip class and reappear only for the test. Now, what if you were to give your students… Continue reading 6 Super ESL Games for Grammar Review