It is a real honor to be awarded the Best Blog post of the month by TeachingEnglish. Especially since it was voted on by fellow teachers!  I'm not a big one for contests or competition in education but I'll take this one seeing it is from my peers and from an organization I…

“Without music, life would be a mistake.” – Fredrich Nietzsche

We could also say "Without music, teaching would be a mistake!" Music just makes any teaching job, no matter how hard, enjoyable.

We also say, “Music makes the world go ‘round” but it also makes learning happen.  Please…

I will be travelling quite a bit this year to conferences and schools, speaking about a teaching lifelong passion - the use of video as an educational material. It is something I've promoted and developed many language learning ideas around - foremost through my work on EnglishCentral.

So enjoy these practical ideas for using this most "real"…

50  Professional Development Ideas For The New Year

There is never a better time than “NOW” to start working on one’s own professional development as a teacher.  However, often unless by chance you find yourself in the perfect…

Let’s be honest – there are days when as a teacher you are just “overwhelmed”.  Maybe from too many classes in a row over too many days. Maybe because of scheduling changes. Maybe due to being ill or stressed out.  It’s a fact, all teachers get tired and need a quick “go to”…

We have loads of holiday related materials. Get a start on our Christmas page or in our resources. Also some nice full lessons in our…

I've always been "constructivist", meaning that I believe especially with language, students "construct" knowledge and are active participants in the creation of what they know. They don't just swallow and file away ideas but learn through their own filter, culture, personal world as they construct from their own foundation of "knowing". 

My own basic approach for…

Tasks are wonderfully simple ways  for getting students active and engaged in their learning ( and see my previous post of  50 regular tasks for the classroom. ).   

Here are 50 suggestions…

Tasks are great!  They don't have to be large, elaborately planned things. Even more powerful, if they are simple and just about the teacher "getting out of the way".  It should all be about students having lots of time…