How different is your English from your students L1?

This post from the TESOL blog is about how we as teachers think about how the English language has developed and not so much about how other languages develop and how this impacts our teaching. Click on the link below.  

http://blog.tesol.org/how-different-is-english-from-my-students-l1/

Free publications in professional development for English language teachers

The British Council has down-loadable books that are free to educators. This book has research from a wide range of geographical areas about professional development. I am reading it now and it is very interesting. Click on the link below for more information.   

 


 http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/innovations-continuing-professional-development-english-language-teachers?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=bc-teachingenglish

A brief introduction to digital literacies

Technological advancements in the language learning classroom are changing rapidly. This post from International House is about the basics of digital literacies. Click on the link below for more information.


 

 http://www.ihlondon.com/blog/posts/2014/a-brief-introduction-to-digital-literacies/

Writing for the ESL classroom

Here is a post from the TEFLEXPRESS website. Of the four skills in English, I think writing is the hardest for ESL students to engage in. The article gives links for writing templates which the author will email to you. 

http://teflexpress.co.uk/blog/engaging-tefl-writing-activities/ 


 

Five ways to spark a conversation in an ESL classroom.

Here is a post from FluentU to help motivate students into a conversation. Click on the kink for more information. 

http://www.fluentu.com/english/educator/blog/conversation-questions-for-the-esl-classroom/

 

The Real Deal

Whenever possible let your students experience the real things you are trying to teach them! Here is a post from ALLTHINGSELT.COM that discusses "realia" in the classroom. 

http://blog.allthingselt.com/authentic-material/

High Tech vs. Low Tech

Here are two posts from Ontesol that demonstrate the use of the internet and regular white boards in the language classroom. Click on the links below for more information. 

 http://how-to-teach-english.ontesol.com/using-the-internet-in-tesol/



 http://how-to-teach-english.ontesol.com/use-board-different-stages-lesson/

 

Something for teachers of younger learners

The Benefits of Play in the Education of Young ELs. 

 

Here is an article from the TESOL blog demonstrating how play in the classroom helps in later education. Click on the link below for more information. 

http://blog.tesol.org/the-benefits-of-play-in-the-education-of-young-els/

 

Here is something for your creative side.

Here are a few websites that will help you make your classroom a colorful and engaging place!

 http://www.teachingideas.co.uk/


 This post reminded me when we had a healthy boy English camp at our school and the teachers had all their doors decorated differently. 





 http://www.buzzfeed.com/weareteachers/29-awesome-classroom-doors-for-back-to-school-h0xt?utm_content=buffer2a644&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer

Continuing Professional Development

I have found two websites for Continuing Professional Development. They are both free. The first is Future Learn sponsored by the BBC and includes several subject areas at different levels. I am taking one of these now called " Professional Practices For English Language Teaching" So far it is interesting. Educators can easily track their own progress through the course and can move at their own pace. Registered users can purchase a certificate which could be used to fulfill the requirements for renewal of the Thai teacher license. 

 https://www.futurelearn.com/


 The second site is from the University of Texas at Austin. It is geared towards Foreign Language Teaching at the high school and college levels. It is co-sponsored by COERLL the Center for Open Educational Resources and Language Learning. The site hosts how to videos from expert instructors demonstrating theories and methodologies. I did not see any geared towards Asian Language Learners, but some of the techniques can be applied.

 https://coerll.utexas.edu/methods/

 

 http://coerll.utexas.edu/coerll/