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 […]
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
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
Afaf threw a pencil at me once during a pronunciation lesson. She missed on purpose (I think), but still. That’s what minimal pairs can do to your feistier students. They’re frustrating as heck, but hey, that frustration means they’re working. So what are minimal pairs, and why should you care? The Basics: What are Minimal
Have you heard of the game I Have…Who Has…? It’s everywhere in elementary schools, but most adult ESL teachers have never heard of it, which is wild because it solves so many everyday problems. You know how most speaking activities put students on the spot one at a time while everyone else zones out? Or
You know that moment when you assign a speaking activity and your students look at each other like “Again? With YOU?” Yeah. That moment. They’ve been paired up with the same classmates for weeks (months?), and the spark is gone. They know each other’s stories. They’ve heard each other’s opinions on everything from weekend plans
I’ll never forget my first attempt at a “free talking” session with my A1 class. I had twenty questions printed out. TWENTY. I’d spent the better part of an evening finding good conversation starters, organizing them by difficulty, and feeling pretty smug about my preparation. These were just backups, you know, in case there was
I used to stand at the front of the classroom, waiting. Just…waiting. I’d asked a simple comprehension question about the text we’d just read. The answer was RIGHT THERE. Third paragraph, second sentence. I could see it from where I stood. And every single student was re-reading the entire text from the beginning. For E-VE-RY
All right, picture this…you’ve carefully arranged your discussion groups ahead of time. You’ve balanced your chatty adult ESL students with the quiet ones, mixed high and low levels thoughtfully, and you’re feeling so good that you gave yourself a literal pat on the back. Overconfident much? (I was.) Class starts. You look around and realize
