Very Young Learners

Using virtual reality in the young and very young learner classroom

I recently discovered virtual reality / 360 degree view videos on YouTube. Similar to drone footage, I think these types of videos would make a wonderful way to introduce a new theme or topic. Simply search for your topic and virtual reality and/or 360...

Many classroom teaching strategies (like the ‘growth mindset’) aren’t as effective as we think they are

by David | Training

Yesterday, I was watching a video about how the ‘growth mindset’ isn’t working – yet – as growth mindset advocates would say. One trend I’ve noticed recently, is that a lot of ideas from the self-help movement have moved into our...

It’s not your fault!

by David | Kindergarten, Lessons

I recently started teaching a brand new Kindergarten 1 class. Its my first such (regular) class in around 18 months, and I have to say parts of it have been challenging. Children crying and being upset doesn’t really affect me anymore, that is to be expected...

NXPowerLite Desktop Review – A powerful Microsoft Office file compression utility for Mac or PC

by David | Tools

A while back, I wrote about how I had to compress a PowerPoint document to less than 10MB in size so that I could share it on my website. It is a workflow I’d hadn’t needed to do before, so I was surprised to learn that it was possible to...

An interesting idea for teaching shapes to young learners

by David | Games, Kindergarten, Starter

Shapes are one of my favourite sets of vocabulary to teach young and very young learners. There are so many fun ways you can work with shapes, whether that’s with Play Doh, making shapes with the student’s bodies, with fingers in the air, or one of many...

What do do when children don’t like music in your class

by David | Songs

In the last article, I talked about some of the songs most children tend to enjoy in the very young learner English classroom. Sometimes, however, children don’t respond to the music you’re playing. I remember in one of the classes early in my teaching...