So, what’s been going on around these parts? Well, I’m glad you asked. I’ve just got back from celebrating niece number one’s third birthday (cake and muddy dogs and small children – fabulous) and doing the whole international ‘meet the … Continue reading
If you’ve been thinking that it’s a bit quiet around these parts at the moment, you’d be right. However, it’s not that I’ve forgotten about you – it’s just that I’ve been having a busy few weeks. Along with my … Continue reading
It’s the final day of lessons before the Easter holidays. Unsurprisingly, I had very few students in yesterday, and have even fewer today. My boss has dictated that I have to give my teenagers a test, which is disappointing. I’d … Continue reading
There’s the usual babble of noise in the classroom. I pull up a chair and settle myself down directly in front of the five teenagers that have come to school today. With my hands clutching the edge of the seat, … Continue reading
Ma, maestra! Hai i capelli bianchi! Arianna is sitting on my lap, supposedly looking at a clock and telling me the time in English, but actually pointing out the grey hairs at my temples, which are all too obvious at … Continue reading
My students are yelling and leaping up and down with joy. Sadly it’s nothing I’ve done to make them so ecstatic. Well, apart from being rubbish at classroom discipline. It’s Tuesday night and a minute previously we’d been entering the … Continue reading
A game of poker. With teenagers. Hyperactive ones at that. I must be mad. This particular class contains Simone, who had a fabled near-brush with death a few years ago. Had he not had ants in his pants, he’d be … Continue reading
(image by Darwin Bell on Flickr) Fruit Salad. It’s a rubbish food, but a brilliant game. For those of you who were never drama students, Fruit Salad is a game similar to musical chairs. To play, you form a circle, … Continue reading
(Image by Kitsu on Flickr) Bladders relieved, we head into the lecture hall where the written and listening exams will take place and start to set up the room. There’s a feeling of lightness about today, which probably has … Continue reading
One of the cornerstones of EFL teaching is eliciting. Essentially, it’s all to do with trying to draw out the knowledge that students already have. This is for a couple of reasons. Firstly, there’s no point teaching something that they … Continue reading
