Blogs and Vlogs from Pavilion ELT

You plan a lesson well, you’ve already done similar things before, you feel confident. You go into the classroom and it doesn’t work at all. Does this sound familiar? Sometimes, no matter how well we plan (and how many good questions we ask ourselves questions before setting up an activity), we can’t seem to produce the results we expect. Chiara was teaching an IELTS class recently when this happened, but despite the frustration, it turned out to be a great opportunity for development. Read her blog post to find out what happened.

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.

Change comes in many shapes and forms for teachers, trainers and people in publishing – the changes can vary from the mundane through to life changing experiences. Kirsten Holt, the Head of Pavilion ELT, discusses the different components of CHANGE.

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.

Looking to expand your career or share your experiences and knowledge? Want a challenge? Like describing techniques and ideas to others? If you have answered ‘yes’ to all three, then perhaps a writing career is for you. Kirsten Holt, Head of Pavilion ELT, shares some thoughts about how you can get started.

After 8 years of continuous blogging for ETp, Chia Suan Chong writes her last blogpost and shares ten reasons why all teachers should blog.

Giving instructions and setting up an activity might seem simple but can be the difference between a task going well and going terribly wrong. Chia Suan Chong reminds us of ten questions we should ask ourselves so that we don’t tie ourselves up in knots giving complex instructions.

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.

Are language rules there to describe language use or to dictate how language should be used? By strictly adhering to the language rules ELT has created have we become inflexible to language variation and change? Chia Suan Chong talks about the dangers of sticking to the very language rules that we teach our students.