I’ve been designing lesson materials for a long time and part of that has been printables for Gif Lingua. Each book has a set teachers can download to use to support teaching the topic of the book. Now, they are all available in an accessible...
Teachers are great. But people have been learning languages for thousands of years without a teacher. It’s not only possible but actually in many ways better and more effective. Not all of these will work for you. There is no “magic bullet”, no “secret sauce”....
I’m a big fan of using video to learn language. “If I only had a dollar for every person who told me they learned English by watching Friends!” Extensive watching works, it really does. Educational video works but it is too often dull, dim, uncompelling,...
I am doing a bit of a U-turn in terms of my interests and career in education. All for the better. Trying to be more “on the ground” and give back more than I receive. Last week I spent a few days visiting schools and...
You may be a construction worker working on a home You may be living in a mansion or you might live in a dome You might own guns and you might even own tanks You might be somebody’s landlord, you might even own banks But...
I do A LOT of hard work to bring great resources to teachers. Over the 12 + years I’ve been creating and sharing resources online – hundreds of thousands of teachers have used the resources in their classrooms. It’s gratifying. So for Black Friday ONLY...
This is not a post about teachers being funny and capturing students’ attention through jokes, humor. Rather, it is about the premise that a teacher can learn to teach in a class. I have changed so much over my 30 year teaching career. My beliefs...
I’ve been working hard, I mean really hard. Trying to realize my dream of a place of learning and literacy – an online library that all students can access for free. That dreams is on the edge of reality. Gif Lingua Books has over 3,000 leveled...
I attended a good number of conferences this spring, online and offline. Like I’ve done previously, I just have to comment on a lot of things I don’t think help the cause of making good teachers. I won’t dwell on those I’ve mentioned before. Read these...
When I was a young(er) teacher, quite cut off and alone in a town in the Czech Rep. — one of the books that were my best friends was “The Dimensions of the Present Moment” – a collection of essays by the Czech immunologist /...
I’ve done a lot over the years to promote the use of music in the ELT Classroom. From my days as a karaoke king in ESL classrooms in Canada to recent articles and research concerning the efficacy of music in the language classroom. Here is...
It’s Valentine’s time and a great opportunity to do a lesson about “love”. Actually, any time of the year is a good opportunity to fashion a lesson on this universal theme! Here below are my most highly recommended video lessons (with materials) about “love”. Please...
My Teach | Learn coursebook has been and is being used in hundreds of classrooms. So happy to get emails from teachers and to promote OER (open educational resources). It’s been a wonderful success. I sold 200 in the first week and that paid for...
We have a great community! Pioneering, always fresh. So much to help teachers. See these testimonials from members. There is a lot of content available to free members. But please consider upgrading to Supporter to download all files, lessons, resources and access everything. Here are...
I attend quite a few conferences. The last year many as just a fly on the wall – attending sessions, taking things in …. I’m lucky, I know – able to travel and experience face to face professional development in many times exotic settings. I...
This lesson has a distinct vocabulary focus and gets students thinking about root words, chunks and collocations/word associations. They gain an awareness of how words can be used in many ways…. It uses the amazing video – Words. (WARNING: use this version, NOT the youtube version....
This past weekend, I was rereading some Tolstoy and an old essay of Isaiah Berlin popped to mind. He uses an old story of Archilochus about the Hedgehog and the Fox to compare Tolstoy and Dostoevsky. The Hedgehog is driven by one idea, knows one...
Writing storybooks or making picture books is a great way to reinforce grammar and vocabulary. It also gives students confidence and pride in “producing” something visible and tangible to measure their English language learning experience. See more bookmaking resources here. There are several steps to...
Summer is a good time for teachers to read a little about their profession, think, ponder and grow. See my list below and please comment and add your own recommendation. The list are books written by a teacher about their life and times as a teacher....
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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