Modern English Teacher blog from David Dodgson

Group work is a staple of the modern classroom that promotes efficient collaboration and encourages effective interaction and communication. But what about when it is neither efficient nor effective? When does group work not work? How can we avoid such things? Read this blog post to find out.

We all know the value of reflection for our development as teachers. It helps us learn from experience and focus on key areas. But do these reflections always need to be recent? What can we learn from revisiting our past reflections? That is the focus of our post this month as David Dodgson offers a retrospective on his first blogs from a decade ago.

The last few months have brought unprecedented challenges and changes to the way we teach and learn. In this month’s post, blogger David Dodgson reflects on some of the successes and difficulties of this term and how they might affect his future teaching.

Even as COVID-19 lockdown restrictions ease, many students still face a gap of several months without face-to-face language learning contact. In this month’s post, David Dodgson shares some ideas for independent language learning ahead of a (hopeful) return to class in September.

Remote teaching has impacted class dynamics around the world. Communication may be limited to written comments and the occasional interactions possible in live lessons. So, I reflect on how using a variety of feedback has been key to maintaining class relationships and improving online lessons.

Many teachers across the world are facing a drastic change as schools close and learning shifts online due to the Coronavirus pandemic. Here, David Dodgson shares 7 tips on managing your online workload and taking care of yourself while doing so.

We live in an age when technology opens up all sorts of beneficial learning possibilities: access to multimedia materials, instant file or note syncing, collaboration that knows no borders... and yet, the humble notebook remains a classroom staple.

Love it or hate it, assessment is part of almost every language course. Here, David Dodgson explains why he's learned to love it - and how he uses test scores to track progress, support students, and keep stakeholders focused on the bigger picture.

20 years is a long time in English Language Teaching. To mark two decades since taking his Trinity Cert TESOL, David Dodgson shares 20 ideas and reflections he has had in that time. From the need to experiment and reflect to the importance of considering different points of view and challenging established ideas, whilst not forgetting some classroom basics, he has compiled a thought-provoking list. What would you add?

As the festive season draws nearer, our usually jovial MET blogger David Dodgson, goes all grinchy on us with a rant against superficial Christmas-themed lessons to finish off the year. He then explains why in their place he prefers either more reflective activities or simply regular lessons.

Having looked at useful study skills and habits to encourage amongst secondary students in October’s post, this month our MET blogger, David Dodgson, shares with us some of the work he has been doing in collaboration with other academic departments in his school: Developing Effective EAL Support. Rather than focus on finding thematic links, he describes how identifying common skills across subjects has resulted in improved performance from his EAL learners.

In many parts of the world, a new school year is beginning, which means starting over with new classes and new students. In this month’s post, our resident blogger David Dodgson shares some of his favourite activities to get a new academic year or course of study underway and highlights the purpose behind each one.

Having now moved back to the UK after working internationally for almost 20 years, our resident blogger David Dodgson takes time this month to look at current trends in ELT. In particular, he focuses on two positive trends that must continue to develop as our profession moves forwards while also highlighting work that still needs to be done.

Having focused on making the most of the feedback we receive in last month’s post, David Dodgson this month turns his attention to an equally important part of the process – giving feedback. He discusses some of the pitfalls to avoid when discussing an observed lesson and advocates a seemingly simple but subtly skilled approach to ensure teachers get the most out of the process.