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Paperless Dogme aka Aiming for a Miracle
On Monday, I met the class for the first time. It was supposed to be the previous Monday, but due to misunderstandings or misinformation, they weren’t told. This is a group comprising of primary, and...
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What have you got in your handbag?
Second class. Present: 9, but two weren’t present the first time around. I started with the new students. What have you got in your handbag? What have you got in your pencil case? Occasionally, others...
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Building Rapport
Third class. Present: 9 again, but not the same 9! One was new. Now, some people believe that 9 is a magical number, and 3 x 9 = 27, and 2 + 7 = 9. Mmm… In the last reflection, I pondered over the pace...
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How is exam prep class different from non-exam classes?
Two weeks ago, we started a small FCE group; 2 hours/lesson, 3 times a week. I hadn’t had a chance to reflect on their lessons before, on paper (or shall I say ‘screen’?), anyway, so it’s about time I...
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Guided discovery of the passive voice
One of the reasons why I don’t like Christmas is that it causes havoc to my schedules and my classes. Only three students turned up today! I seriously contemplated abandoning my plan to lead them on a...
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TBL on writing a formal/informal email
Today’s class felt somewhat subdued. Perhaps it’s just me, or perhaps it’s the after-effects of all the food and drink over the past two days or so. For the Spanish, it’s just the beginning. The...
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Holiday PACS
Today’s lesson was, in essence, quite simple. The aim was to improve oral fluency and accuracy on the topic of holidays. It seemed quite a logical progression from the orang-utan circular writing...
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Correction, correction and correction
If you’d read the previous post, you’d know that we’d been dealing with the topic of holidays, and also that I’d thought that lesson was somewhat low-key. To introduce a little “fun” and to deal with...
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Testing tenses graphically Part 2
Almost a month ago, I tested the CAE group on the usage of tenses in graphic form. You can read about it here. It worked very well and the students’ response was positive – they believed that it was...
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Food for Thought
Today, I had two new students! The group has been steadily growing; although some have left, because of personal reasons, the class is approaching an ideal size. By now, this group is used to my modus...
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I hate exams! And you?
I hate exams. Both taking and preparing students for them. I wish there were a better and more accurate way of judging learners. Part of the reason for my being “out of the loop” recently is that I’ve...
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Nesting in the south
A man came with his daughter… “We’ve come to check out the setup…” “How do things function here?” Well… “Is this the class?” Yes… “Do you prepare students for the First? My daughter wants to sit for...
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Conversation→Blog post→Lesson
You must have read my recent post on the conversation I had with the father of a prospective student: http://dogmediaries.wordpress.com/2013/07/04/nesting-in-the-south/ To follow up, the prospective...
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No more nomophobia – using smartphones in the class
Nomophobia /ˌnəʊməˈfəʊbiə/. The “mo” is for mobile and not “more”, in case you’re wondering, hence its pronunciation of /mə/ and not /mɔː/. Back in Nov 2012, it was among the finalists in the Oxford...
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Improving listening sub-skills with music
In the summer, I’d done a few activities with music, one of which was blogged about here: We are the Champions. One of my current students who had been in that course asked me the other day if I could...
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