S . ESL Teaching

At the beginning of my teaching career I saw this awesome fellow teacher who was a master puppeteer. She knew exactly what she was doing and the kids were literally glued to their seats and listened to e-v-e-r-y word she said and answered ALL the questions the puppets asked them (yea, she had two puppets! :o! ). I was completely hooked and thought "man, this is so amazing! I gotta do this!!" I went out, totally motivated and happy, buying all the stuff I could find to set up a great scene. I got to the classroom with my 3year old kids (18 of them), was sooo looking forward to this and thought they are going to looove this and took out my puppet: "HELLOOOOO, my name is Waldo (it was a dog). What's your name??" What I expected was something like "My name is Maya".. boy, was I wrong! What happened? The kids jumped up, tearing the ears of the dog, hitting it on the head, tearing the tail and hitting some more...  So I silently put it back i...

The Rainbow Fish is an award-winning book about a beautiful fish who finds friendship and happiness when he learns to share.

So the new school year will be starting soon. I know in some countries you are already in the middle of it, but here it officially begins in September. As I was sitting down with "my teachers", we talked about the classroom supplies, making our lists of what has to be bought for the upcoming school year. One of the teachers told me she won't need a binder and said she wouldn't know what to use it for. It is her first year of teaching, so for all of you out there in the same situation, let me give you a couple of ideas on where you should (or could) use binders in your classroom, because you don't want to NOT have them in your classroom ;) 1. The teacher's binder Here you might want to put everything related to you, your students and your lessons. Just some ideas: - copy of your schedule (and maybe schedule of the kids you teach in case you might have to switch classes and have to see about the availability of each student) - copy of the curr...

Songs are a very powerful tool when it comes to language teaching - especially with small children. It makes learning the words so easy, you don't even realize that you are actually learning. Have you ever heard a song in a language that you don't even speak and found yourself singing it? You didn't understand anything but important was only that the words somehow sounded like in the song. It would probably sound something like this: Leddit gooo, leddit gooo and holit back nyoreeeee LEDDIT GOOO, LEDDIT GOOOO hmmm hmm and hmmm the doooorrrr (btw this is Disney's Frozen song: Let it go) Yea, we've all been there, haven't we? But the cool thing about this is ...  melody engages your brain. And imagine what you are capable of retaining with melody when you actually KNOW the words! Amazing! Now, there is a little catch with this. What many inexperienced teachers do is that when looking for songs to sing with their kids, they take song...

On the first day of an ESL class (or any class ;) ), the kids may be pretty nervous and shy, since it is a new setting with new people they may not know. So I always take things easy during the first lesson and put more emphasis on getting to know each other rather than teaching any vocabulary consciously - this will come naturally by imitating you etc anyways. Sitting in a circle is always a good idea. There are different ways that I use to start a lesson. One of them is that I have a box in which I hide a hand puppet (I have a zebra called Marty, like the one from the movie Madagascar). I put the box in the middle of the circle and ask the kids what they think is inside. Then I have Marty appear and have a little dialogue with him. I'm asking him what his name is and he asks me about my name and who I am. Then Marty asks the children what their names are. Another method I use is the microphone. I used an empty kitchen paper role an formed a ball with aluminium foil ...

Hey there! I'm a 30 (*cough something) EFL teacher, teacher trainer, coach and educational manager. I have taught pretty much every age group (from 2 year olds to seniors) and levels (from beginners to Business English and university prep tests) an EFL teacher could possibly get their hands on. But my passion remains to teach children. They are just so full of life, extremely intelligent and give you a super great excuse to behave like a monkey in the classroom from time to time ;) I’m very grateful to be in a career that I love to bits and can pass my knowledge on to others. In addition to teaching EFL learners, which I have been doing now for over 15 years (writing down this number makes me feel so old… or well, experienced, let’s say), I started to teach teachers 4 years ago and got hired as an educational manager at a trilingual school last year, It's really wonderful to be able to help other teachers to learn about their full potential, to inspire them ...

Appreciation for all they bring into our lives Balance somewhere between too little and too much Commitment it’s the little things we do each day that matter Dreams to touch the future Empathy remember what it was like to be a child Family and Friends everyone needs someone to love Guidance actions speak louder than words Healthy Habits to nurture body mind and spirit Inspiration to explore beauty wonder and mystery Joy sprinkle laughter and happiness daily Kindness to learn to care for others as they are cared for Limits set boundaries and consequences together Mentors to give wings to their aspirations Nature to delight in rainbows, butterflies and shooting stars Opportunite s to discover what truly makes their hearts sing Play the “work” of childhood Quiet Time to recharge their batteries Responsibilities to build self-esteem and self-confidence Security feeling safe is essential for growth Traditions keep the family tree ali...

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