You probably use tons of expressions, idioms, and slang phrases every day that don’t make literal sense. If you ever thought long and hard about why you say something a certain way, you could probably make a guess. However, some English expressions are so crazy and unusual that it is impossible to guess where on earth it originated from — unless you know...
It is the first day of a new school year and your students have just unveiled their shiny new books. As they eagerly flip through the pages to familiarize themselves with the characters and feel of the book, you prompt them to turn to the first lesson and get things going. A few moments later, the enthusiasm on everyone’s faces slowly drifts away and is...
The teaching of English in the pre-primary classroom is often characterised by a blended whole-child/academic approach to learning. What is the difference between the whole-child and more traditional language-focussed or academic approaches?
The whole-child approach, rather than directing teachers in their explicit academic instruction, seeks to promote...
After having spent quite some time looking for the most suitable textbook for our student(s), we feel satisfied that we have eventually made it! Now, we are looking forward to showing the material to our students: A textbook with all its state-of-the art components boastfully advertised as the most update, engaging and exciting in the market. If this is...
How many times have we given the instruction ‘please work together’ or ‘in groups’ to our students? How many times have we expected from our students to work together, cooperate and collaborate with their classmates in order to do a task? But what about us? Are we open to collaboration and working with other teachers? Are we open to a collaboration or a...
I have a new morning routine: cycling around the hill in my neighborhood, listening to podcasts. It makes me forget about the struggle of cycling and it gives me fantastic ideas! Only problem? I can’t take notes so I might forget some of the wonderful things I learn or some of the things I seriously disagree with (which is again a learning process).
By...
The first thing that comes in mind when we think of supplementary material in class is the GOOGLE. How about going back in time when GOOGLE was not around? How about keeping the young generation connected with the trends of the previous century? Why not show them what an envelope looks like and how the Post Office in the street corner works? Wouldn’t it...
Like most teachers, I use the first lesson for a ‘getting to know you’ period to establish a harmonious classroom community. There are three activities that we do at this time:
By Helen Papadopoulou, EFL Teacher
1. Play 10 questions
Before the students enter the classroom, I write five statements on the board about myself. Two of them are true; the...
In 2020, we saw a growing number of MOOCs offering online learning opportunities. While this trend existed before the pandemic, there is an even stronger appetite to ‘come out stronger’ post-Covid that’s resulting in doubling down on these opportunities. If you’ve sought out, or been the recipient of one of these opportunities, you likely felt excited to...
