Elimination games with young learners | Super Simple Learning Blog ♫ One potato, two potatoes… ♫ Many of us remember playing elimination games like Musical Chairs and Simon Says when we were young. These are games where you start with a group, and each round, one or more players is “out” and eliminated from the game. As you get closer and closer to the end of the game, the tension builds, and it can be a lot of fun (and beneficial for young learners). However, for some very young learners, these kinds of elimination games can be very upsetting. There are a few ways to handle this. 1) Demonstrate how to “lose” positively If you do play a game where participants get eliminated, be sure, as the leader, to eliminate yourself first. 2) Make getting “out” fun When a child does get eliminated in the game, give her a high five, let her sit in a special chair, make a silly noise, maybe even give her a sticker. 3) Eliminate the elimination For very young learners, often there is no need to have a winner or any sense of competition to make the activity fun.
Beginning the School Year: It’s About Connections Not Content Most classes, starting with about middle school, begin the school year with reviewing the content to be covered, expectations regarding grades, and other academic information provided by the teacher or instructor. The human or social element is often disregarded. What is interesting is that most learners enter the classroom wondering who is in the course. Because of this belief, I begin all classes focusing on having the students make connections between themselves and me. You are the focus of the class not me.You are important as a learner in this class.You will be expected to engage in the learning activities during class time. Based on age/grade level, I have begun my classes in a variety of ways. Team Contract Class members meet in small groups to develop guidelines for making the classroom a safe place to learn and to take risks. Team Building Games There are tons of team building games that can be used in the classroom. All About Me Activities Some example activities I have done:
12 ways of creating stories with your EFL students I’ve been reading a fair amount recently about the value of storytelling – and, in particular, the telling of vivid and emotionally-engaging stories – to memory in general, and vocabulary-learning and grammar practice more specifically. It certainly seems that learning new words from a list is a duller and less efficient alternative to acquiring and retaining new vocabulary than involving your learners in narratives using the target words. With this in mind, here are four ways you can involve your learners in creating stories around particular lexical or grammatical themes, and a list (and brief descriptions!) of eight other methods from various corners of this site: Stories from boxesDraw eight rectangles on the board, with space between each one.Invite student volunteers to come and draw one thing, each in a different rectangle. Note: The two ideas above come from Creating Stories with Children by Andrew Wright. Stories from blank paper Show your students a blank sheet of paper.
Question Cup Objectives Icebreakers/Warmups Group Size Small | Medium | Large Materials Index Cards Cup (a Box hat or other container may also be used) Set Up Directions Each member of the group writes a “get to know you” question on an index card and places it folded in a cup. Variation Write out a numbered list of questions. Sample Questions What is the weirdest thing you have ever eaten? Can you help make this activity better?
The 35 Best Web 2.0 Classroom Tools Chosen By You 100 Web 2.0 Tools Every Teacher Should Know About 44.24K Views 0 Likes We're always trying to figure out the best tools for teachers, trends in the education technology industry, and generally doing our darnedest to bring you new and exciting ways to enhance the classroom. But I wanted t... 20 Free and Fun Ways To Curate Web Content 23.98K Views 0 Likes What's the best way to organize it all into at least some reasonable manner? It’s Time To Crowdsource Your School’s Social Media Policy 12.53K Views 0 Likes Every school has a different policy when it comes to social media. 118 Videos Explaining Each Element In The Periodic Table If you’re a science teacher, you’re going to want to bookmark this as soon as possible. If you’re not a science teacher, heck, you’ll still love this and learn a thing or two. The University of Nottingham has created ‘The Periodic Table of Videos‘ and it’s just what the title would imply. 118 videos that explain each element. Video journalist Brady Haran and working chemists from the University of Nottingham assembled these videos for the world to enjoy. Now, they say they’re going to start improving and beefing up each video with new stories, better samples, and bigger experiments. They also have a new video series, dubbed ‘The Molecular Videos’ which is a showcase of their favorite molecults and compounds.
All Things Grammar - Home Free Collaborative Writing Tool No limit Banish Blithering Blabber: 6 Must Have Components to a Perfect Conversation Lesson There is little worse for a teacher than walking away from class feeling as though your lesson has been a flop. It doesn’t happen often, but it does happen. And perhaps the most challenging ESL class to feel good about is conversation class. How do you know if students really got the point of the lesson? 5 Must Have Components to a Perfect Conversation Lesson 1A Clear GoalWhat do you hope to accomplish in your lesson? Feedback- the 6th Element You want to make sure your students know how they did in a conversation lesson. You can feel confident about your conversation class when you make a point of including these six elements. That way you will know what you want to accomplish, you will give your students the tools to accomplish it, and you will see them reach the goal right before your eyes. Enjoyed this article and learned something? Want more teaching tips like this? Get the Entire BusyTeacher Library Warning: only if you're serious about teaching English. Show me sample pages →
A Free Way To Easily Create Your Own Classroom Social Network The following is a sponsored post by Bitrix24 , an easy way to create a social intranet for your school and work groups to collaborate on projects and tasks, get feedback, and keep up to date with communications. The end of August marks back-to-school time, and for most teachers, that means that its time to start managing syllabi, calendars, homework and projects for each class you teach and group you advise. Add in some departmental meetings and school-wide events, and keeping track of it all can get pretty hairy. Time Management 2.0 In this age of Education 2.0, we also have Time Management 2.0. Teachers, administrators, and students are pushed for time as it is, so adding in a large number of ‘useful’ task management tools can be less than helpful sometimes. Bitrix24 is a company that offers cloud-based online collaboration space, which can help teachers, administrators, and even students to keep all of their ducks in a row. How Is It Useful For Teachers, Administrators, and Students?
Giving Opinions - ESL EFL Teaching Resources Really? ESL EFL Speaking Activity - Elementary - 35 Minutes In this enjoyable group activity, students play a guessing game where they give true or false opinions about famous people or things. After reviewing how to ask for and give opinions, the students are divided into groups of three or four. Really.PDF Exclusive Controversial Statements ESL EFL Speaking Activity - Pre-intermediate - 40 Minutes In this challenging teaching activity, students give opinions and argue for or against a set of controversial statements. Controversial Statements.PDF Exclusive Four Corners ESL EFL Speaking Activity - Pre-intermediate - 25 Minutes In this fun class activity, students practice expressing and defending their opinions. Four Corners.PDF Free How to improve your English ESL EFL Speaking Activity - Pre-intermediate - 30 Minutes This engaging activity helps to teach students how to express opinions and ask others for their opinion. How to improve your English.PDF Exclusive Our Opinions I think that...
10 Fun Tools To Easily Make Your Own Infographics People love to learn by examining visual representations of data. That’s been proven time and time again by the popularity of both infographics and Pinterest. So what if you could make your own infographics ? What would you make it of? Below are my two favorite infographic-making web 2.0 tools that I highly recommend. Click the name of each tool to learn more! Visual.ly One of the more popular ways to discover infographics, Visual.ly actually just launched a design overhaul of their website. Dipity Want to get a beautifully simply visualization of data over time? Easel.ly I absolutely love Easel.ly. Venngage Venngage (likely named for Venn diagrams) is a double threat. Infogr.am One of the most simple tools, Infogr.am lets you actually import data right into the site and then translate it all into useful visualizations. Tableau Public Made for Windows, Tableau Public lets you (like Infogr.am) bring your actual data into the world of visualzation. Photo Stats What About Me? Gliffy Piktochart
Directions to a Restaurant: ESL Role-play Purpose and Audience: The purpose of these materials is to get the students to practice giving directions to a restaurant based on street names and other buildings in the vicinity: It's on Pine Street next to the post office. This is a fairly simple role-play intended for false beginners (or perhaps even beginners). In short, students will call up their classmates and ask if they want to go for a bite. The student who receives the phone call will suggest a restaurant and give directions on how to get there. This activity also reviews the superlative (best, tastiest, hottest) and nationality adjectives (Korean, Italian, Japanese). Warmup or Preclass Activity: Go over the pair worksheet for directions. Class Set-up: The class is divided into two groups: callers and receivers. As a challenge, have the receivers face away from the callers (callers tap them on the back and say, "Bring!
The Adventures of Ned the Neuron by Erica Warp There is a crisis in science education in the U.S. We need to get more kids excited by science. We started Kizoom to do just that. Is to... inspire kids by presenting the most exciting scientific subject of our time: The Brain!make science fun and accessible using relatable characters and cool technology. educate the next generation about their own Brains, promoting life-long learning and creativity. The Adventures of Ned the Neuron is an electronic storybook (App), packed with integrated educational content and interactions that explores the science of the Brain. Here are the details: 34 pages of full color story illustrated by Andy WarnerRead to Me function with voiceover and soundtrack Interactive educational diagrams Three mini-games Over 30 neuroscience concepts introduced For Apple and Android tablets Ned is a cartwheel-loving, action-oriented young neuron training to work in the motor cortex of the Brain. Erica Warp is a Neuroscientist on a mission. Go Brains!