Six fun little mnemonics
What's the mnemonic to help us spell "field" correctly? A mnemonic is a sentence or short poem to help you remember something. I’ve always been on the lookout for good mnemonics to help in my teaching, and awhile ago I came across a really neat little book called i before e – old school ways to remember stuff. I thought I’d share six fun little mnemonics that you can use in your teaching (well,

Six despised bits of grammar
SMASH THE PRESENT PERFECT CONTINUOUS! Teachers and students just love to hate grammar. Over the years that I’ve taught and observed others teaching I think that there are certain grammar points that are more hated than others. Here are six of the most generally despised and despicable grammar points, in my humble opinion. 1 Have got This isn’t hard to explain in terms of what it means, or even really how it’s formed. No, the problem is when you have to teach it. I always hated spending time on have got with beginner students after they had done

Six activites with camcorders
Recently I acquired a new video camcorder. It’s a Flip Mino, a new generation of video recorders. It’s simple to use and cheap (less than $150 USD). Now just last month I was lucky enough to have a class of students where basically all manner of technology was available to me. We had projectors, laptop computers, internet connection, the lot. I decided to experiment a bit with the camcorder in class. Here are six ideas for video projects, including some actual examples that I did. 1 Film a local attraction, and annotate it You or your students film a local attraction

Six favourite items of stationery
Apart from my work slaving over materials and on this blog I am a regular online tutor for teacher education courses, inlcuding courses with The Consultants-E, and  a Trinity Diploma course offered by Oxford TEFL. At the beginning of the course we get people to share lists of things (surprise surprise!), a bit like here. Well, this month one teacher started a list that was so popular that I just have to do it here. It seems so perfect for teachers, even though it’s a bit sad in a way… These are my six favourite items o

Six times you know you’re an English teacher when…
A(nother) moment of light relief here at Six Things. You know you’re an English teacher when… 1 You spend an inordinate amount of time cutting up bits of paper (yes, even in this technological day and age I’m convinced most English teachers still spend lots of time cutting things up… I still do and I’m pretty into tech) 2 You feel like exploding when you hear someone say ‘It must be great to have those l