This is a ten minute presentation I gave at the recent International House Teachers' Online Conference (IHTOC60) on the Tai Chi of Reading. The basic premise is that there are certain movements or forms that exist within the Tai Chi... Continue Reading →
IELTS teachers will be glad to know that The Economist has a "Daily Chart" section on their blog pages called Graphic Detail. Featuring "charts, maps and infographics", not all the content is useful for those IELTS Academic writing part one... Continue Reading →
For those that may have missed it, here are the slides (as pdf) from the webinar I gave at the IH Teachers' Online Conference on 3rd November. The session was a look at common problems learners have with writing for... Continue Reading →
There seems to be a lot of anti-testing sentiment prevalent in the teaching world at the moment. There's a particular degree of vitriol that seems to be reserved for standardised testing, but which has tapped a general anti-educational zeitgeist and... Continue Reading →
If you don't know The Onion - you should take a look - it's a satirical newspaper that sometimes hits the nail on the head. It's also a great source of articles for use with classes - the occasionally puerile... Continue Reading →
There is a lot of talk about learner needs, needs analysis and learner centred lesson planning and course planning. But do learners really know what they need? Or do they just tell us what they want? The difference between "wants"... Continue Reading →
On the eleventh day of Geekmas, teflgeek gave to me: 11 tips for writing Welcome to the teflgeek Christmas celebration! Themed around the classic Christmas carol – but going backwards, mostly because it’s more like a countdown that way: 12 blogs worth... Continue Reading →
Trying to come up with new and interesting ways of saying the same old thing is a skill that taxes most of us on a daily basis: "I like your hair." "Your hair looks nice." "Wow! Have you had your... Continue Reading →