Check out this great blog for teachers. It has tonnes of info, everything from classroom tips and teaching supplies to information about training and professional development opportunities. Take a look!
Recommended Website: Bright Classroom Ideas
Category: Recommended Websites
Podcast Recommendation: What on Earth is a Noun Phrase?
If you’re an English teacher or linguist, check out the great new podcast What on Earth is a Noun Phrase? by Oxford Language Performance. In each episode they speak to a different practitioner in the field of EFL or linguistics and interview them about their area/passion. The episodes are short, insightful, and full of great tips and tools for teachers. You can find them wherever you normally get your podcasts or sign up through their website below:
You can also follow them on Twitter @whatonearthisa
Freeed: The Online Teaching Community
I’ve recently made an account and started connecting with other teachers on freeed.com a great new platform and online community for teachers. It’s completely free to create an account and it’s full of useful lesson plans and other resources created and shared by teachers all over the world. The types of content range from ready-to-use class materials to book reviews and blog posts. It’s an easy way to share materials and make connections with like-minded teachers.
Myles Klynhout is a member of the Freeed team and here he is talking about the origins of the platform and giving advice on how to get started:
“Teachers already face many challenges and pressures. Good practice now means working with efficiency, consistency and creativity. The problem is that too many teachers are working alone, adapting authentic and published materials, or developing their own.”
“Too often, these materials never see the light! If more educators shared their great ideas, everyone would benefit. Freeed’s mission is to make that happen, by ensuring that the process of sharing is as quick and easy as possible.”
“We understand the importance of teachers connecting and developing materials locally. Freeed’s first community in Finland has achieved just this and now has more than 3000 active users – primary and secondary school teachers, all sharing lesson ideas and teaching tips.”
“Since then, communities have been established in the Netherlands and Tanzania. As our number of teachers grow, what we want to do next is link these local communities to one another, creating a global network of educators.”
“The new ELT community is a great opportunity for us to understand the challenges teachers face in different contexts around the world.
“How can I join the Freeed ELT community?”
Step 1: Go to the Freeed website and Get Started.
Step 2: Quickly create your free account and join the ELT community (Freeed will always be free for teachers!).
Step 3: Start sharing ideas with other English teachers. You might even find the perfect materials for tomorrow’s lesson.
The situation Myles describes definitely resonated with me and it was that urge to share and swap materials that initially got me started with this blog. Check out the full blog post here. Then create your account and dive straight in! See you there!
Smart Classroom Management
Just stumbled upon this great Classroom Management blog by Michael Linsin, full of great tips for dealing with troublesome classes and students.
IELTS Practice Tests from Magoosh
Follow me on twitter @RobbioDobbio
Check out this great set of IELTS practice tests and tips from Magoosh blog:
U-Speak: Calling Barcelona-based Autónomo English Teachers
A quick shoutout to my friend Paul O’Brien from U-Speak who’s looking for professional, committed autónomo English teachers to get involved in this exciting new language centre.
- Are you an autónomo English teacher?
- Would you be interested in becoming part of a new English language centre?
At “U-Speak” we provide a comfortable and supportive environment where students can develop their English level through speaking.
We are looking for teachers with their own students who would like to have a comfortable and convenient location for their classes.
Facilities
- Fiber optic broadband (ideal for Skype classes)
- 5 classrooms for one-to-one classes and groups
- Kitchen facilities
- Waiting room
- Printer
- And much more
You can check out our location at: www.uspeak.eu
If you are an established teacher who would like to take their business to the next level, we would like to hear from you!
Contact
- Email: paul@uspeak.eu
- Tel.: 616108026
Habitica
Image credit: habitica.com
Follow me on twitter @RobbioDobbio
A few weeks ago a friend introduced me to this amazing app designed to boost personal productivity. It’s kind of a cross between a role-playing game, a tamagotchi and a to-do list. It’s pretty damn geeky but it works a treat!
Want to go to the gym or write a blog post every day? Habitica can help.You simply put all the good habits you’d like to start doing (and all the bad ones you’d like to stop) into the app and then every time you do them your avatar receives experience points or gold. As you level up you can equip yourself with better weapons, armour and pets that you can ride into battle against the bad habit monsters. You can team up with friends to do battle together and earn more rewards. As I said, it’s pretty geeky and probably not to everyone’s taste but in the week I’ve been using it I’ve flossed every day, written 5 blog posts and taken up a new sport!
Obviously you have to be honest about what you have and haven’t done but it has definitely given me a push to do things I would often put off or simply not do.
Applying it to language learning
It could be the push you or your students need to study some vocabulary or read for pleasure in their L2 outside class. Advise your students to set a target of 10 minutes reading or studying a day and see how they get on. I’ve done it myself and I’m currently on a 7-day streak of reading for pleasure in Spanish!
Check it out at: https://habitica.com
Playphrase.me Amazing Video Resource
Credit to my colleague Katy Wright for this great online resource.
Check out this amazing site. It allows you to search for specific phrases in a database of video clips from popular films and TV shows, like an online corpus of authentic spoken English. I can see tonnes of uses for this, primarily for presenting new vocab; can’t think of an example sentence for some vocab? Stick it in to playphrase.me and Doctor House, Ross from friends or even a Game of Thrones character will come out with one for you! Below is a search for the phrasal verb “put off”:
http://playphrase.me/en/search?q=put%20off&p=544841c309bd000ab757c725
Englishwithjo.com – Conspiracy Theories
Follow me on twitter @RobbioDobbio
I’ve just recently found the excellent englishwithjo.com. It’s a great site full of engaging video based conversation activities. I’m going to do her new one on conspiracy theories with a proficiency class tomorrow. I’ve made a little worksheet with some extra vocabulary for higher levels. Download it below:
Sandy Millin: Getting started as a materials writer
Check out this great post by Sandy Millin on how to start your career as a materials writer.