A tool for helping students to create more complex sentences

This is another blog post from Nik Peachy, well worth the read and with clear ideas about how to use it in class.

What kind of teacher are you?

A fun quiz that tells you which animal(s) you are and the type of activities you'll enjoy using in class! The quiz was inspired by Howard Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences which suggests that different people learn and do things in very different ways.


You can do this quiz either on facebook or on the TeachingEnglish website (where you don't need to log in to facebook),

Life not sweet enough? The answer: a lesson plan on chocolate mousse

Here's the lesson plan for upper-immediate upwards and featuring a video by Nigella Lawson..

Thanks to Jon Brown for this one. Enjoy!

words and pictures

Storybird is for kids (of all ages), there are some magnificent efforts, individual and collaborative. And then there´s this rather rubbish example.

It looks great, is fun, free and easy to do.

Plus! there´s a January Challenge to enter. Win a prize. ave a butcher´s.

it´s sticky!

register free		sticky4U click on image or here	and here's a restricted example no sticky4U

Pronunciation Insett: web resources

Here are some of the web resources for teaching & learning pronciation referred to in the Pronunciaiton insett on December 10th. Please add in the comments section and I'll incorporate them into the post. Thanks.

Howjsay Simple. Write the word in the box and listen to it being said.

Ship or sheep

Iowa university phonetics detailed diagrams and videos of mouth.

Stress Monsters the most popular of English File's pronunciation pages

English Central good fun for learners. Students listen video clips and mimic what they hear. The programme allows for students to record themselves, for which they get a score! You have to sign up but it's very straightforward.

Accent Archive compare English-speakers from different places.

Getting students to use Spanish when they're working on online tasks

This is one I've been knocking my head against ever since I got interested in using ICT in my classes. The students get so engaged in what they're doing that they automatically switch back to their first language - and you as the teacher end up sounding like a record stuck in the same groove; reminding them to talk in English.

Here's an idea that I've tried out recently and which seems to have had positive results: get them to talk in Spanish.

Set a time limit of, say, 15 minutes and tell them to get on with the task and talk in Spanish, but to note down the phrases they use while they're working.

At the end of the 15 minutes get them to take turns writing their phrases on the IWB and getting other students to help them translate them into English. In this way they build up a really great bank of useful English which they can draw from.

I follow this up with a flipchart meter which I constantly update while students are working on the computers so that they're aware that I'm listening to and taking account of what they're saying.

If you want to do more work on computer vocabulary here's a site which provides basic vocabulary with images and quizzes.

Have fun!