Leave Left Left.

So, I left my job. Yeah, that one. The one in the big global organisation I had pretty much grown up in over 16 years. I have to say, I'd had some incredible opportunities and had been trained in almost all things teaching-related, so it might sound weird that it suddenly became so easy to...

(My) Teacher Identity

Like many students, I was a waitress throughout my university years (English and Archaeology, if you care to know). I loved that job. I loved the people and the stories and I loved that it took a shy girl from a rural town somewhere in Northern Ireland and shaped her into a confident people-person. Maybe...

My first lesson of the year. Part 1 (Not quite a lesson plan).

So, our courses start next week and teachers are all getting their first lessons ready. It's also the time of year when we end up dealing with the stream of calls and emails from parents whose child has come back from his/her first lesson and said "That course is too easy for me". It made...

A few brief thoughts on training takeaways

This post comes from a few questions which this recent blog post here by Mike Griffin has had me asking myself. Disclaimer: It's only sort of related and just in case anyone's expecting an equally entertaining and status quo-shaking post, it will certainly disappoint. Anyhow, looking at a few feeds I get through different social media sites,...

I will not hit my classmates.

I got this last week. The lesson before was a bit livelier than usual and I, rarely fazed by boisterous behaviour, had a bit of a wobble because there was nothing I could do to convince this kid to participate in the lesson. He just didn't want to. He wanted to spin on my stool,...

The Creative ELT Experiment Part 2 -The what

So, I'm experimenting with how creative thinking can be used in the EFL classroom with the aim of providing students with a variety of skills which go beyond simply producing  language, to using language to do other things. Here are reminders of what it means to promote creative thinking in the classroom: If creativity is, as...

The Creative ELT Experiment Part 1 – The Why.

I know there are a lot of education buzzwords and fads out there which a lot of you gnash your teeth at, but I think creativity is one which merits more attention from ELT teachers. So what is it? A definition from the International Foundation for Creative Learning says creativity is, "...a wider ability to...

What can I pack into Padlet? (1)

Almost a year ago I published a post about Padlet and how successful it had been with my 11-13 year-olds as a class blog. I talked about this in my recent presentation at Digital ELT Ireland in Dublin and mentioned that the reason I though it was so successful was the fact that students could...

The process of pulling a pint of Guinness and other notes. Digital ELT Ireland 2015

I love Guinness. That creamy white layer, followed by that smooth, dark taste is hard to beat. Many people already know there is a whole process to go through before getting around to drinking a pint of the stuff (beautifully illustrated by this video on Youtube) and, well, it isn't easy to find that kind of...

I saw Seesaw

So, there's this portfolio tool called Seesaw which is aimed at young learners (see more about it on youtube here, their website here or through @seesaw) As someone who has used Edmodo and Padlet as online learning spaces with teens and pre-teens, I thought it would be worth looking at with regards to 'the smalls', (also known...