How I Became a Teacher — Building Your Teaching Identity
1. What is a reflective journal for? To notice patterns in your teaching — what you repeat, avoid, improve. Evidence-based self-development.
Tag: celta
The Silent Student — Managing Mixed-Ability Classes
1. A strong student finishes the task in 2 minutes. What next? Give an extension: 'Now do the same with a different example', 'Can you think of an exception?', 'Explain it to your partner.'
When Mistakes Help You Learn — Error Correction
1. Student says 'I goed to the shop' during a speaking task. What do you do? Note it. Feed back after the task — don't interrupt fluency unless it blocks communication.
Three Seconds Before You Tell — Eliciting
1. Why is eliciting better than telling? Students process and produce the language actively — it sticks better. The 'generation effect'.
Don’t Say ‘Do You Understand?’ — 5 Better Tools
1. What is an ICQ? Instruction Checking Question — checks students understood the task instructions (not the language).
The Question That Changed My Teaching — CCQs
Target: 'You must wear a seatbelt.' — Is option A or B better? A: 'Do you understand must?' B: 'Is this a rule or a choice?' B — it checks the concept (obligation vs choice)…
Task-Based Learning: Teaching Through Doing
My best lessons during my 120 supervised teaching hours were the ones where learners were so busy doing something real — deciding, debating, creating — that they forgot I was teaching them language. That is…
Lesson Staging: A Lesson Has Stages, Not Just Activities
One observation feedback I received during my 120 supervised teaching hours stayed with me: 'The activities were good, but I couldn't see why they were in that order.' A lesson is not a pile of…
Error Correction: Fix It Now or Let It Go?
I made errors in French every day for three years. The best teachers let me talk first and corrected me after. The worst interrupted mid-sentence and I'd lose the word, the idea, and the confidence.…
Eliciting: Teach It Without Telling It
The best moment in any class I taught was when a learner produced the language I was trying to teach — before I had written it on the board. That is eliciting: drawing language from…