A tip for teachers that struggle with TPR

by David | Tips, Training

A while back I wrote about Total Physical Response (TPR), and its importance in the very young learner classroom. Some teachers are great at creating TPR actions for vocabulary, others really struggle. Here’s a tip I learned from Vanessa Reilly, author of Very...

Some great phonics videos and a pro-tip

by David | Phonics, Tips, Video

Here’s the tip: kids love watching kids. I try to incorporate this idea, where appropriate, into my classes. In this sense, I think a video like the one above would work very well for break times. Its fun, it has an adult and a child, and most importantly,...

How to find great songs online for teaching preschool English

by David | Songs, Tips

Developing a collection of high quality songs to play in your Kindergarten English classes takes time and work. Here’s a few ways to speed up the process. Ask fellow teachers An obvious one, ask your fellow teachers what songs they use. Enough said. Ask your teaching...

How to make a blindfold

by David | Tips

Here’s a couple of quick ideas for making a blindfold (where you don’t have one), that you might need for an activity in your VYL class. One potential source of blindfolds is the eye masks they (still?) provide to you on airplanes to help you get some...

A free tool for removing image backgrounds

by David | Software, Tips, Tools

Sometimes you have an image in a JPG format where you want to remove the (usually white) background, in order to make it transparent. You might want to do that in order to make mini flash cards, or so that you can layer the image over the top of another (and still see...

Free Printable EFL + ESL Flashcards

by David | Phonics, Templates, Tips, Tools

I’m currently in the process of making new flashcards for my classes, and just discovered a useful resource of free EFL flashcards. EFL Flashcards has a few dozen lexical sets of flashcards, that cover a broad range of topics. While I want to continue to create...