Modern English Teacher blog from David Dodgson

Why is blogging useful for professional development (PD)? Is it still relevant today? In the last four and half years, David Dodgson has written 52 fantastic blog posts for MET. In his sign-off post, he reflects on how blogging can be a vehicle for PD and on his time writing with us.

We all strive to be the best teachers we can, but what are the key components of being an effective teacher? Is it even possible to master our craft of language teaching? David Dodgson reflects on his career and a recent mentoring experience to explore these questions and come up with some answers.

Education programmes around the world promote literacy as a learning goal, but what about oracy? What does ‘oracy’ mean anyway? Our latest MET blog post explains what oracy is, why it is important for language learners and how it can be used in practice.

With a new academic year starting in many parts of the world, it is time to meet our new classes of English language learners. So, who are our new learners? In this blog, David discusses what ‘get to know you’ really means and how it can set the tone for a course of learning.

Lesson ideas sometimes come at random moments. Inspiration hit David when his day didn’t have the best start … and led him to take a different approach to reviewing present simple for routines with his young learners. How? By simply focusing on real life.

A common question asked to teachers is ‘What can we do outside class to improve English?’ In this blog post for Modern English Teacher, David Dogson explains why his answer is ‘read’ and recommends five original novels that are great for secondary students and older at intermediate level and above.

Writing is a key language skill for our students. So why is it so often left to the end of the unit? How can we make sure it is part of skills development and not just a way to test language? In this month’s post, we share our top tips for focusing on the whole process of writing in the ELT classroom.

After a year with little or no face-to-face conferences or training possible, many teachers are lacking PD and motivation, and memories of attending ones are fading. This blog post shares ideas to re-engage with CPD and revitalise your teaching.

Speaking is possibly one of the most important aspects of learning a language. And yet, speaking is one of the most difficult aspects of language learning to assess. In this month’s blog, David shares tips on preparing students for speaking exams and how to help them get the best results.

Nearly all of us have had to teach live online in the last year, and may have needed to make videos for our classes for the first time. In this month’s blog, David Dodgson shares his top tips for improving the quality of your online video teaching.

2020 was an unprecedented year, and this was represented in the language that dominated the news and our daily lives. In his first blog post of 2021, David Dodgson shares an intermediate+ lesson idea based on the 2020 ‘Word of the Year’.

Assessment often dominates our learners’ lives be it through external exams or internal coursework. What are the pros and cons of standardised tests? Are projects a viable alternative? David Dodgson offers his thoughts on both in this month’s post.

With ever-changing restrictions and regulations in schools due to the ‘new normal’ we find ourselves in, David Dodgson shares an idea for helping students focus, describes a resource to organise digital learning, and explains a challenge still to overcome.

With ever-changing restrictions and regulations in schools due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic globally, teachers find themselves having to adapt and re-adjust like never before. This post takes stock to reflect on which changes to keep and which to improve.

Many students and teachers around the world are now back to school and having to adapt to education in the ‘new normal'. David Dodgson shares his own experience of returning to the classroom and how rules and regulations over distancing and hygiene are requiring him to change his teaching.