Discover ESL teaching tips that will make your job easier as an ESL teacher. They range from classroom community to classroom management to behavior management. No matter how long you have been an ESL teacher, there is something here to help you.
I need to tell you something that might make your day easier. You know those gaps your students have? The ones where you’re teaching present perfect and suddenly realize half the class is shaky on simple past? Or you’re doing passive voice and someone raises their hand to ask what a past participle is? Those […]
I’ve been going through all my blog posts, fixing where images exploded into huge sizes and formatting got weird after I changed my site theme when I found this “gem” from September 2017: “3 Ideas for Inspiring Shared Gratitude in the Classroom.” I cringed while reading it. Not because it’s badly written or because the
So, here’s a confession…I once wore expired Halloween face paint to class. Not just expired. Wrong kind of paint entirely. (This wasn’t on purpose.) Eight days. That’s how long I had a blue and red tint to my face despite aggressive scrubbing. My students thought it was hilarious. I did not. Learn from my mistakes,
Picture this: You wake up with your throat on fire, your head pounding, and the kind of fever that makes you question whether you’re still a functioning human being. You need a sub. You need one NOW. And you have approximately zero brain cells available to create a lesson plan that makes sense. Or maybe
“What’s your goal for this class?” “I want to learn English.” Cool. Super helpful. That’s like saying “I want to get healthy” and then wondering why nothing changes. I get it. Your adult ESL students are motivated. They showed up, didn’t they? They’re juggling work, family, maybe multiple jobs, and they’re still sitting in your
Your student walks into class late again. She’s got her toddler with her because childcare fell through. Another student is checking his phone constantly because his family back home is in crisis. Someone else looks like they haven’t slept in days because they’re so stressed about passing this level. This is IEP teaching. Your students
I’ll be honest: when I first started teaching in an IEP (Intensive English Program), I had no idea how to assess my students effectively. I mean, I gave tests. I graded assignments. But was I measuring what mattered? Was I helping students understand their progress? Was I using assessment to improve my teaching? Probably not.
It’s 10 am on a Monday. Your intermediate reading class has 15 students from 9 different countries. They’ve already been at the language school since 8 am, and they’ll be here until late afternoon. Then they’ll be back tomorrow for another full day. One student is stressed because her conditional admission to the university depends
I once taught multiple classes at the same time with students at completely different levels in each class. It was a bit of a nightmare. How do you keep everyone engaged when one student needs help with basic present tense while another is ready for conditionals? How do you give individualized attention when every single
I’ll never forget walking into my first intensive English program and watching experienced teachers hit the ground running on Day 1. Syllabus distributed, attendance checked, textbook opened to Unit 1. Go, go, go. I thought that’s just how it was done. There’s so much to cover and so little time. Barely four weeks to get
