Tag Archives: teaching language
Full of Win
My high-school students had the word fiasco on their vocab list today. I asked if anyone already knew the meaning, and they defined it as epic fail.
In The Same Boat
I gave one of my classes a lesson on idioms, as part of my ongoing guest to eliminate certain abused phrases (like overuse of what a pity or using not at all as a response to thank you) from my … Continue reading
Apathetically Playing Charades
I played Secretly Eating Pizza, an adverbs/verbs charades game with my teenagers yesterday and today. I put together this one for my Yantai drips, asa reward for all their hard work learning the difference between adjectives and adverbs. The game … Continue reading
My Sister The Pirate
My sister Bethie just returned from three months of sailing the high seas, so naturally when I got to talk to her tonight, I asked her all about her pirate life. “Did you call your friends, ‘me hearties’? Do you … Continue reading
Adventures In Tutoring
I met Joe about a month ago when he asked me to sub for Christina’s class one day, and he’s offered me occasional tutoring and substitute gigs since then. Subbing in an American middle school looks like torture, but subbing … Continue reading
I can feel the wrinkles already…
I was tutoring a teenage student last night, and we did a reading about finding jobs in America. The passage talked about looking in the paper to find a new, and I mentioned that it’s a bit out-of-date, and people … Continue reading
Teaching Little Ones
My first two days of classes were great, but also overwhelming. I have 6 classes of 25ish kindergartners per day. Fortunately I only work 3 days a week, oddly enough it’s Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, which were the days I … Continue reading
Meanderthal
Meanderthal — 1) n. A dull-witted student moving through his workbook at his own special pace. 2) v. The behavior of such a student. Usage: John’s parents were so wealthy and well-connected that he meanderthaled through three years of English … Continue reading
Portuguese Igloos
I gave my students a writing warm-up exercise today. A lot of my students come straight from work, or from picking up their kids, etc. and I thought it would make a good transition into English class. And it rewards … Continue reading
Academic Triage
Some of my students will learn English whether I’m a good teacher or not. They are the most fun to teach, and they ask the most interesting questions, but I spend most of our class time on the middle of … Continue reading
