Monthly Archives: January 2014

Fab idea #4 – Action Comprehension

Posted on 31/01/2014 by fabenglishteacher

  How about trying something different to check reading or listening comprehension? Get the pupils to stand in a line facing the front, I get them to line up according to age – lots of practice of “When’s your birthday?” … Continue reading →

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Fab idea #3

Posted on 28/01/2014 by fabenglishteacher

Practice vocabulary with a word train, give them the letters and get them to organise themselves into the right order, a great way of watching group dynamics and learning to work together:   Don’t forget if your pupils are camera … Continue reading →

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Observations on observation

Posted on 27/01/2014 by fabenglishteacher

Today I watched a Maths lesson given by a colleague. I now nothing about Maths or teaching Maths and it was my first “out of subject” observation so I was interested to see what I would learn from the experience. … Continue reading →

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Do I have to teach grammar for them to learn grammar?

Posted on 22/01/2014 by fabenglishteacher

I experienced two “moments” while teaching this week, both related to teaching grammar. In the first class the present perfect +ing was introduced in a text about music. I asked the pupils who played an instrument and elicited a few … Continue reading →

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Being bleargh

Posted on 18/01/2014 by fabenglishteacher

Although I’m supposed to be reflecting on action, in action and for action, I appear to have had a job reflecting anywhere near action at all this week, it has just flown by. When I finally pause for breathe and … Continue reading →

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Take your students on a tour of the white house

Posted on 15/01/2014 by fabenglishteacher

In our coursebook we have a reading comprehension on the White house. While vaguely interesting, to me more than my 12 year-old pupils, it is a bit flat to say the least. So this time I wizzed up the class … Continue reading →

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App of the week #2

Posted on 13/01/2014 by fabenglishteacher

This app came in really handy this week as the younger pupils were learning about animals and the 3èmes about music and instruments. In the free version you get exactly that, whereas for a couple of euros more yu get … Continue reading →

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Fab idea #2

Posted on 11/01/2014 by fabenglishteacher

  For those days you just want to play games or when you don’t want to start something new at the end of a lesson;  just write some ideas on post-its, laminate them (everything looks better when laminated) and put … Continue reading →

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It makes me mad when…

Posted on 07/01/2014 by fabenglishteacher

I spend (relatively) ages thinking of a fun way to introduce the passive and my pupils just won’t play ball. For some reason my pupils always seem to find the passive challenging ( answers on a postcard please), even though … Continue reading →

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Is thinking working?

Posted on 06/01/2014 by fabenglishteacher

It’s the first lesson back after the holidays, 8:15 – 9:05a.m. It’s the troisième – 20 odd fifteen year olds. As anticipated a quarter of them were absent. Not wanting to spend the whole lesson writing ( -we only have … Continue reading →

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