Category: Prof. Development

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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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ELT Professionals LinkedIn: Top Recent Discussions

We have a bang on, great, fantastic, superb group on LinkedIn. Dozens of conversations, hundreds of comments shared daily by teachers. Here’s a summary of the most recent popular conversations. Great professional development and teacher sharing. See the full archive HERE. Spring 2016 1. Teaching Young...

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The Ignorant School Teacher

There has been a lot of debate about the  ideas of Sugata Mitra. He tends to get under teachers’ skins, especially those in ELT.  Find a nice summary of these posts / discussions through this post. I’m kind of confused by all the kerfuffle. I’ve been...

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Top 10 Reasons To Use Music

Teachers by training or usually just instinct, know that music works in the classroom. For all ages, for all topics. I’ve even used a song to teach chemistry! This post is further to my well visited Top 50 ways to use music and song in the...

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May mid month community updates

Dear EFL Classroomers, I hope this update finds you well and humming along in your classes.  Now officially 10 years we’ve been sending out emails and newsletters to teachers! Here are some new things on the community that you might find interesting or use in...

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Gifs: The Perfect Language Learning Object

Over the years, I’ve turned into a bit of a “gif” guru. They are a fascinating material for any course designer or materials developer. Gif Lingua and Gif Lingua Books offer a gif “corpus” where gifs are tagged and learners learn over 50,000 words of...

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I’m a curator.

I am a proud curator. Very proud. Making music from the noise out there. to cure: to make better. curator: someone who makes things better. So yep, I’m pleased to call myself a curator. Really will begin calling myself this rather than “aggregator” (sounds too...

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Making A Manifesto

I’m always keeping up on what’s new in the world of visual text – be it kinetic typography, gif, wordle, tagxedo and loads of other similar applications. They are truly something valuable for us educators – allowing us to add context to text and help students...

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Teaching as a Rube Goldberg machine….

Teaching affects eternity. It really does. Our lives affect eternity but not near as perfectly and precisely, not near as powerfully nor presciently as teaching. I’ve been thinking lately about my own affect – how I stumbled along and began EFL Classroom about 15 years ago...

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Listening Activities That Work

Listening doesn’t get enough attention in our classrooms! It should be the primary skill we teach and one which we devote the most of our time and energy. It is the motor that drives the language acquisition bus. Here are my own simple suggestions for...

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February EFL 2.0 Mid Month Updates

Dear EFL Classroom members, I’m sending out our mid-month update email a little early, so you might use the new Valentines Day resources listed. Make sure to access our two magazines to get full updates to all that’s new on the community and our profession...

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50 Timeless quotes for educators

“Like your body, your mind also gets tired so refresh it by wise sayings.”                                 ~Hazrat Ali I think many of us get inspiration from sharp quotes that strike like a bolt of thunder and get us seeing things anew, with fresh insight. I’m an...

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Commercials in the classroom

It’s Superbowl time and after football that means, “commercials”! I’ll be making a few lessons based on the latest Superbowl commercials – after the Golden Lions, probably the best commercials made on the planet.  Commercials are great to use in the classroom. They are short,...

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Conference commentary …..

I used to go to conferences often as a presenter.  These days, though I still sometimes present, I’m most often on the other side of the podium – an attendee. It’s great and over the last 4 or 5 months in my role as Director...

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Jan. mid month community updates

Dear EFL Classroom members, We hope everyone has had a great start to the 2016 school year. We are sure you are super busy and we’re here to help with a few mid month updates. Make sure to access our two magazines to get full...

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Courses – New and Improved

Over the holidays, I worked hard to update and improve and then launch 2 new and improved courses.  The Basic TESOL Certificate course and a reflective teaching course – Zen and the Act of Teaching. The certificate course is paid. Very low price, lifetime access to...

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My Teaching Resolution – 2016

Every year, I make a very practical, specific resolution for my teaching. Last year, it was to explore and practice the possibilities of using video in the classroom. This year, it is one big, inspiring one that I hope other teachers will join in –...

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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...