Puppet talk

I had a great idea to use puppets in the classroom

At present my English Club members are working on a show that will last for 15 minutes and hope to present this at Christmas or on Children‘s Day. Try puppets in your own classes. It will make your teaching very enriching, so interesting, and really entertaining.

The teaching game

Games - I love 'em and I use them in my classroom in every way I can.

Don't be dismissive of games or underestimate their value. The resultant effect of these light-hearted activities may have more than just the 'learning' benefits.

Too many games!

Beware of turning your class into gameaholics

"I'm really starting to take a dislike to this class," my colleague complained in the teachers' room. "All they want to do is play games, and it's not even like they're a bunch of kids.

Advantages of team teaching

Working with a co-teacher who becomes a valuable assistant

When I taught with my partner, the Thai teacher would translate everything I would say. When I modeled all the oral activities, the Thai teacher would explain. But the flow of the lesson was in the hands of the Thai teacher.

How to motivate your students

An extract from a new book on teaching English to Thai students

Many studies have been undertaken to determine the reasons why South East Asian students have problems learning English. I would add to the list: weakness of the curriculum design, limited school resources, class sizes, poor course design, and course-books not always being relevant to the student's own environment.

Work with the tools you have

Postbox letter from Khru Mark

On the topic of Thai classroom assistants and are they useful to a foreign teacher? I have six teachers with me. (One for each level that I teach.) They are all different and they all need to be treated differently.

Notebook concerns

How to get your students to use their notebooks effectively

Friends of mind say that they give importance to student notebooks by grading them, giving stickers to those who have a complete set of notes , stamping them with positive comments - and giving points as part of their grade to those students who have complete, neat, and beautiful notebooks.

#atweetaday

Organising a social networking project for students

Wouldn't it be great if students could use some of thier social networking time to develop their English? This was the thinking behind a project I started with my Mathayom 3 students - 'A Tweet a Day'.

My first year as a teacher in Thailand

The highs and the lows and what I've learned.

Now that this academic year is winding down, I reflect on my first year with a lot of mixed feelings. There have been a lot of awesome moments where I really felt like a teacher. I really felt like I was getting through to the students and I was the getting the job done.