Easy Christmas Shape Poem for Your Language Lessons
Christmas Shape Poetry for French, German and Spanish Lessons Poetry is part of a country’s culture, but poems are not often embedded well or easily into language lessons. I’ll be honest, I don’t enjoy teaching poetry to my language students. I find that it’s tricky for them to understand. I believe they feel disconnected from the poetry they have encountered so far and therefore find reading poems inherently difficult. Particularly since, by their very nature poetry makes meaning by hiding meaning. Okay, so, reading and analysing the language and meanings in poems isn’t for me. However, I don’t see why I can’t use a form of poetry in my French…
Fun Games for The MFL Classroom
Fun Language Games for The MFL Classroom To Engage Learners Games are defined as ‘activities that one engages in for amusement or fun’. Nowadays, when learners think of language lessons, they don’t usually synonymy them with the expression fun. So, why not change their thinking? You can do this, fairly simply, by including some low-prep, fun language games for the MFL classroom into your teaching repertoire. Josh Beattie, Assistant Director at the Department for Education stated in 2018 that not enough pupils are taking languages, because “they either consider them boring, dislike their teachers or think they are too difficult.”ย Although I definitely don’t think that teachers have to have…
Fun Speaking Activity for First Lesson in Language Classrooms
Want to get some weird looks and questions from your family when packing for a new term of college? Get some toilet roll out…! Ready for a fun speaking activity during first lessons in any language classroom. The ‘Loo’ Roll Speaking Activity For First Lessons Today, I started back at college, teaching a speaking and listening course. This ‘loo’ roll activity for speaking was the first fun speaking activity that I learnt during my teacher training course in 2009. I often use it to get students to talk about themselves from the outset of a new course or class. It works for post beginners, intermediate and advanced speakers and allows them…
Great Speaking Ideas for First German or Language Lesson Back
Start As You Mean To Go On with Any Of These 5 Amazing Speaking Activities for the First German Lesson Back (or French, English, Spanish or any other language!) How I do enjoy the first German lesson back after a summer holiday! I also love my first French lessons back and my first English lessons back too at the start of a new term! It’s a great opportunity to show your passion for the language you teach and re-enthuse your students to feel the same way. Who has ever done a ‘find someone who’ speaking activity in their first German lesson back? Me. It meets the criteria of speaking task.…
The Ideal Teacher’s Reflective Teaching – Issue 1
Reflective Practice in Teaching This week was the first week back to school for The Ideal Teacher after the Easter holidays and although it went quickly, it was pretty intense! I came straight home on Monday at 5pm and went to sleep – not the ideal start to the week, but it shows how much and how quickly you can get out of the swing of your normal routine. Despite the shock to the system, I enjoyed my lessons and made some progress in my aim to becoming ‘The Ideal Teacher’ this week. If you’re interested in my journey of reflective practice in teaching, please read on! If reflective teaching…