Teaching in December is a balancing act. Between holiday excitement, shortened schedules, and the countdown to winter break, finding activities that keep students engaged and learning can take a little…
Level: 6-12, A2+ Time: 2 Classes Targets: American Civics Midterm elections are confusing. But don’t worrry I am here with a mock election guide! Who is running? What are all…
Wouldn't it be nice if there was a fun, collective Halloween activity students could do that really challenges them to think?
Rebus puzzles activate meta-linguistic cognition, and your students will love the Haunted Rebus, because it looks like a game show, with creepy music to boot.
A good ice breaker should be simple, yet meaningful. And, of course... it has to be fun! Most importantly, you want your students to trust you, and trust takes time.
But you can get started right away with this icebreaker. It will give you a major boost, right from the start.
When teaching any grammar point, it's helpful if you look for situations where they are actually used in natural conversation.
When I teach conditionals in ESL, I tend to focus on function and usage rather than grammar forms.
Movies are one of the most powerful tools for language learning. They are engaging, memorable, and full of natural language that students actually want to use.
Like you, I'm a huge fan of movies. So when it comes to teaching a film unit in class, I needed a lesson plan that would match my love for the silver screen.
Walk the walk and talk the talk.
An ESL classroom fashion show is one of my favorite ways to teach clothing vocabulary and adjective order because it turns grammar practice into something active, memorable, and fun!
May 26 is National Paper Airplane Day, and what better way to celebrate than with a paper airplane classroom competition! It’s a great way to teach comparatives and superlatives in…
The Endless Struggle To Pronounce -ED Endings in ESL Students of Latin-based languages (Portuguese, French, Italian and Spanish) often have trouble pronouncing -ED endings correctly. For these learners, the word…
They really do grow up fast, don’t they? One minute they’re walking awkwardly into class on the first day of school, and the next, the year’s over and they’re a…
English verb tenses can be pretty cloudy, especially those “perfect” tenses, which are anything but perfect. It’s no wonder our students struggle with them. They mix forms, forget structures, and…
A classroom economy is one of the simplest ways to improve behavior, build real-life skills, and get students more invested in your classroom. When it’s done well, it doesn’t feel…
When your students keep mixing up borrow vs. lend, they’re not just being careless—it’s actually a language pattern. Many languages—such as Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic, and Mandarin—use one word to mean…
Teaching in December is a balancing act. Between holiday excitement, shortened schedules, and the countdown to winter break, finding activities that keep students engaged and learning can take a little…
I often consult my tarot cards when I need to gain insight or make decisions. So imagine my excitement when I realized that tarot cards could also work well as…
The 30-Day English Challenge is designed to improve your speaking, writing, vocabulary and reading, and boost your confidence and fluency. By completing a simple language task every day for 30…
My students know will and going to are both used for future tenses. But it’s often a challenge for them to choose the best one when speaking. Rather than focusing…
When teaching a grammar lesson, most teachers will typically start out with how to form the structure. It’s a good way to start, because students love a good rule they…
If you teach ESL in the U.S., you’ve probably seen the headlines about Florida’s new English-only driving test requirements. The driving test is now English Only — no translations, no…
As teachers, we’re constantly busy—planning lessons, grading, emailing parents, attending meetings… it never ends! Well lately, I’ve been doing something I call “Helping Future You.” It’s a simple mindset of…
When it’s time to put theory into practice, grammar dice is an easy, zero-prep ESL grammar activity that students love. It’s engaging for all levels and language backgrounds, including teens…
As if you needed another reason to love the fab four… Here’s one more: Beatles songs are a gold mine for teaching grammar. The lyrics are simple yet powerful, with…
Ready to time travel through the verb tenses in English? In this post, we’ll explore each tense with examples and key words. Learning all 12 tenses takes a bit of…
Looking for an engaging, low-prep activity that boosts critical thinking and vocabulary?
Geography Rebus Puzzles are a creative and interactive way to challenge students while reinforcing geography knowledge, language skills, and problem-solving.
If you know how to use flashcards in ESL classrooms, they can be fantastic for memorizing irregular verbs. And they don’t have to be boring, either! Here are my favorite flashy ways to use flashcards in online ESL classrooms.
As an ESL teacher, I’m always looking to bring something fresh and exciting to my ESL classroom. My students loved reading the CYOA books, so why not have them try writing one? And that’s how Click-Tales was born. This writing activity is a dynamic blend of a favorite childhood book with today’s powerful generative AI and design software.
If you don’t think bad grammar in English can cost you, think again. In this case, one teeny, tiny, little comma actually cost one company $5,000,000. That’s one expensive error!…
Mastering the pronunciation of words ending in -ED can be tricky, especially for speakers of Latin-based languages. Sometimes the ending sounds like /t/, other times like /d/, and in certain…
You've probably seen it lurking in words like enough, through, and sigh. You might try your best to pronounce it, or, you might avoid it completely. Through? Furlough? Cough. Ugh. What is that sound?!
Learning English can be tricky—especially when it comes to pronunciation. Because English borrows words from many different languages, pronunciation can change depending on the origin, meaning, and speaker. The most…
Experienced ESL teachers will say there are no rules to using prepositions in English. Well, that’s not entirely true. After years of seeing my students struggle with prepositions in, on,…
