Category: In The News

Comments about news items, education policy etc…

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ELT Buzz

I’ve been around English language teaching (ELT) for 30 years now.  From day 1 in teacher’s college I was known as a “resource” and a “go to” guy for X or Y or Z. Back then it was VHS educational tapes or coursebooks, blackline master...

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Community mid month updates

Dear EFL Classroom 2.0ers, Here below are a few new or updated things on the community. Hope you find them useful. Also, on a personal note – I’d like to invite all members to do a summer trial on EnglishCentral. Sign up as a teacher and...

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Together: Olympic Inspiration

The Olympics will be here upon us in no time.  So much excitement and its a great topic to harness student motivation. This is a very inspiring and poetic promo video for Rio.  One of 4 promo videos. the others are Respect, Breath and Counting...

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Using photos when teaching

My work building EnglishCentral and Gif Lingua have convinced me how images are so important for teaching language. The future of language learning and teaching is visual, is controlled reality.  We teachers can provide so much context to teach direct and also the most salient features, points of...

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Happy Holidays EFL 2.0ers

Gif Lingua will soon have Quizlet style games and study materials for each book! Teachers, copy books and make them your own and edit. Download all books as ppts or epubs. Looking forward to building this tool in the new year and running a huge readathon...

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Where’s Travolta?

I’ve been busy building Gif Lingua on my weekends and evenings with a strong team of developers and content editors. Slow but sure. Over the next month, we’ll complete the first 4,000 words of English in Gif book form. See the first dozen books here....

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EFL Classroom Oct. Updates

Hi EFL Classroom 2.0 members, Here is a quick list of updates, new things on the community so far this month!  Hope all goes well in your own classroom and you find resources here that will help you out. View our updated magazine for all the...

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Gif Lingua is now open for business!

It’s beta but Gif Lingua is open and ready for teachers and students.  I hope you enjoy it and we are just taking the first steps in what’s going to be a wonderful journey building the site. We’ll need everyone’s help in doing so. Teachers...

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In Praise of Teaching

What would the world be like without someone teaching another? You make the world a better place. Let’s pat ourselves on the back and be happy that we make a difference. This video is for YOU. Find more videos like this on EFL CLASSROOM 2.0...

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August Mid Month Community Update

It’s back to school time and we have lots of new and old resources to help you get back at it. Here are a few updates and news on the community. 1. Magazines We have a new resources magazine and a professional development magazine for...

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Back To School Advice – Let Go

It’s a quiet Sunday morning and I’ve spent the weekend so far both working on a new project and during that process, thinking hard and deep about “doing it well”. I put “doing it well” in quotes because this is primary, our presence day in...

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Singers & Vocabulary Size

At least according to this news report and this study. What do you think? Does it really even matter? Isn’t it how you use it that counts? It does with our students. Size is overrated a bit, me thinks ….. This is what I’ve written...

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I wish my students knew ……

I’m sure you’ve heard of it unless you’ve been hiding in your classroom, overwhelmed.  Teacher Kyle Schwartz asked her students to finish the sentence, “I wish my teacher knew ……” The answers are heart wrenching and more important than just what they reveal about their...

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EFL 2.0 Feb. Updates

There has been a lot of new things posted for members this month so far. Here are just a few of them. If you missed the February newsletter, find it here.  Also the recent edition of our online news magazine. 1.  Friends Furever.  You’ll love...

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Beatles Resources

The Beatles are the number one band students prefer to learn English by, according to a Pearson survey (and see other musical preferences at that link).  I’ve recently put up the ultimate resources for teaching with Beatles songs. Available for purchase individually or join EFL...

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Teaching English Magazine

For those who don’t know yet or haven’t stumbled upon it – I’ve been curating a cool magazine that is available free to all. I spend a lot of time reading and this magazine shares only the best articles about the teaching profession. It’s a...

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Stories from the trenches 4

This story comes from my time teaching at Bloor and Bay, 5th floor, N.E tower – Language Connections International. I was teaching new immigrants to Canada part of the day, foreign students the other half. Small classrooms with one wall all windows facing busy Bloor...