Creative Teacherette

Dear all,  I just wanted to say thank you for reading my blog this year. It has been a pleasure to write for you. I hope we'll see each other next year as well and I wish you all the best. Sincerely, Eva :)

One of my favorite things at school during Christmas time was listening to Christmas songs, filling out the blanks on the paper and singing the songs afterwards. So, in the memory of that, here are two versions of a well-known Christmas carol " The Twelve Days of Christmas " and worksheets with lyrics for you to use while doing Christmas listening activities. This is the original version of the carol. You can download the lyrics from here . This is the parody of the original carol and you can either use it together with the original, or on its own, but with the reference to the original one. I find this one hilarious and I would use it with advanced learners.  Click here to download the lyrics. What are some of your favorite Christmas songs/carols? :)

A few weeks ago, some of my colleagues at the university had a presentation about learning difficulties , whi ch was really useful and informative. That is the reason I decided to write a post about the two most common learning difficulties - dyslexia and dysgraphia . There are a lot of great resources where you can read about these conditions, so I'll just give you some guidelines which will hopefully help you recognize these difficulties if a student of yours has them.  This is what a simple text looks like to a person who has dyslexia.   Dyslexia is is a reading disability that occurs when the brain does not properly recognize and process certain symbols. Some of the symptoms (according to Dyslexia.com ) are: Appears bright, highly intelligent, and articulate but unable to read, write, or spell at grade level. Labelled lazy, dumb, careless, immature, "not trying hard enough," or "behavior problem." Isn't "behind enough" or "...

Videos can be a great tool for practicing pronunciation and delivering a speech about a certain topic. How? Easy. All you have to do is let a video play, but mute. Your students can then pretend to be TV presenters, or guides or characters in the video and deliver what the characters are saying. Best videos for this are commercials and news or scoops about certain sightseeing attractions and similar.  Firstly, of course, let them see the video (with or without tune) to make them familiar with the topic. If they hear what the person in the video is saying, they can try to catch as much as possible and then reproduce it in their own way. If not, they get to be more creative. Either way, l et them take notes and then give them some time to think of the most appropriate way of presenting what they have written. They shouldn't read from their notes, but maybe just refer to them when necessary. A t the end of the activity, let them see the complete video to see if they were c los...