New School Year - Getting to Know You Activities for the First Day

September has arrived again! The summer is almost over in this part of the world and many teachers start their classes with new students. It is time to build new relationships, a relationship of confidence between our students and us, but between students and their peers as well. No significant learning can occur without a significant relationship. James Comer. After...

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Useful websites for students - A2+ level

In August, I was very lucky to teach an intensive English course for adults at the Centre d'Idiomes de la Universitat de València. Apart from the traditional resources usually used in class, I encouraged my students to take advantage of the Internet and practise English outside of the classroom using free online resources. I think that an important part of the learning process is to give students the tools that they need to continue learning independently. This is the list that I shared with them: "If you could add any useful online...

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Useful Websites for PET Exam Preparation

These are all the websites I have found to help my students preparing for the Preliminary English test. Some of them do not include PET tasks, but I have decided to include them because I think they can be useful to improve the different language skills. All the links worked the last time I checked them, but please let me know if any of them are broken. Equally, if you...

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Adapting a coursebook.

In most subjects and in any grade level, teachers and, therefore, students are expected to use a textbook as a resource in their classes. However, we have to bear in mind that although those textbooks are produced by experts, experienced teachers and teacher trainers, they are created to be used by teachers who work in different teaching contexts, in different countries and with students who are in the same class, but whose level is not exactly the same. Therefore we need some things that the book doesn't provide: CREATIVITY to adapt the textbook...

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The Sunshine Award

This morning I could hardly wake up, I felt exhausted, it was cloudy in the city of light and just when I switched on my computer to follow the latest news, I read that our "dear" Spanish Education Minister has finally decided to impose an education reform, LOMCE, which has been widely rejected. So, the Sunshine Award came at the perfect time from a talented teacher and blogger...

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