Free storytelling webinar

I really enjoy workshops run by those gifted in the art of story telling, and watched this one recently in order to pick up a few tips. My favourite tip is at the beginning, in which the presenter describes how she tells her own (life) ‘story’ to students....

All of the Jolly Phonics TPR actions demonstrated

Continuing the Jolly Phonics theme, here’s videos of all of the Jolly Phonics TPR actions (organised by group), demonstrated. Click on the drop down menu (with the triangle) at the top far side on the video to navigate between individual letters. Or, if you...

A free letter boxes tool

Here’s a tool for creating word-shape resources for Starter kids. While you can create word boxes in software like Excel, or even PowerPoint, a much easier way is to install a font that automatically makes a box in the correct height and width for each letter. I...

Free YL Online Grammar Training

Teaching grammar is one of those things that I think challenges a lot of teachers. Here’s a link to a useful video training on teaching grammar to young learners in a real world context by one of my favourite English teacher trainers, Joan Kang Shin, author of...

A Phonics Primer for New Teachers (Part 1)

When I first started teaching, I knew nothing about phonics because I wasn’t taught using phonics at school. Initially, the training I received made phonics seem really simple. Having begun a deep dive into literacy and phonics, I’m not so sure I feel that...