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’ll never forget watching “Layla” lean over a pile of sentence cards, using her finger to separate them and making that little clicking noise in her throat that always meant she wasn’t quite sure if she approved of something. Her groupmate “Chen” kept picking up cards, then putting them down, and muttering in Mandarin. Then […]
Most adult ESL teachers have a solid collection of worksheets. But task cards? Most have never even heard of them. And I can’t stop thinking about how adult ESL teachers are missing out on them. Task cards are huge in K-12 education. Walk into any elementary classroom and you’ll probably trip over a dozen sets.
“Ming” finished his paragraph before I could finish writing the instructions on the board. He looked up, grinned, and pulled out his phone. Across the room, “Kawther” had written exactly one sentence. A beautiful sentence with perfect punctuation and zero errors obviously by someone with calligraphy skills, but still. One sentence. She wasn’t goofing off.
I haven’t showered or brushed my teeth in three days, I’ve been reusing dirty dishes, and I lost my dog in a pile of used tissues. Hey teachers, how was your Thanksgiving weekend? Why do we martyr ourselves? I used to eye with suspicion any student who spoke with a gravelly voice and keep my
Half defiant and half remorseful, Faisal handed me a mostly blank paper with seemingly random words shoved into something vaguely resembling sentences. This was an EASY assignment, and frankly, I expected a heck of a lot more from him. But, without a thought, I opened my mouth and asked all the wrong questions. Here’s what
“Ask someone a question. Any question.” Rashid pulled out a wooden block, checked the number, then grinned at the guy next to him. “Have you ever peed in a swimming pool?” Dead silence. Then Tan started laughing so hard he nearly knocked the tower over. Within seconds, the whole class was debating pool etiquette in
Stacks of homework papers used to sit on my table, glaring at me. Menacing little goblins. A good teacher would have graded all that already, right? When we became teachers, we signed away our right to have lives outside the classroom, RIGHT? Wrong. But I didn’t know that yet. When “Creative” Becomes “Soul-Crushing” Last term,
Have you ever worked at a place where people had genuine (not coffee-induced) smiles in the mornings? Where people asked about your weekend and listened instead of bemoaning another Monday? If you have, isn’t that what you want in your classroom for your students? If you haven’t, wouldn’t you like to make that part of your life?
“Worksheet time!” I call out, waving a small stack of freshly-copied papers. Students begin smiling as they put away their phones and sit up, talking excitedly to each other. Yes, that really happens! Now, I know what you’re thinking. Worksheets?! But here’s the thing…sometimes you just plain need them. You’re exhausted, you didn’t have time
Your students are scrolling. Right now, someone in your class is checking their phone while you’re mid-sentence. You know it. They know you know it. And yet here we are, pretending that if we just try hard enough, we can out-compete the entire internet. Google “how to manage digital device use in a classroom,” and
