Start your own #startup
You’re going to teach your learners how to start their own #startup – how cool is that! Uber-busy teachers can download the lesson plan. There’s also a powerpoint. Introduction This … Continue reading
10 Minute Warmers (4) World ball throw
This is a variation on that old chestnut ‘Ball Throw’. In my version I use a ball with a world map on it – then learners talk about which countries … Continue reading
Marker pens and kryptonite
Want to set up your own grassroots teaching association? Feel like organising your own Lesson Jam? If yes, then read on… Uber-busy teachers feel free to download ‘How to set … Continue reading
10 Minute Warmers (3) Red Herring questions
In this activity learners rearrange mixed up questions and ‘tinker’ with words. This raises their awareness of question forms in English and it’s fun! Uber-busy teachers can download the full … Continue reading
10 Minute Warmers (2) What mood are you in today?
Here’s another 10-minute warmer tried and tested with my learners! This one is called ‘What mood are you in today?’ and can be used with all levels. Uber-busy teachers can … Continue reading
10 minute Warmers (1) Unusual Statistics
I’m going to provide a series of 10 minute warmers – all of them tried and tested with my learners! This warmer is called ‘Unusual Statistics’. It can be used … Continue reading
Food, glorious food!
In this post I give you a lesson to use with your learners on the topic of ‘Food’. Everyone has their own memories of school dinners. One of mine is … Continue reading
Decentralised dialogues: a materials-free lesson plan
In this post I talk about some problems when using dialogues in the classroom and give you a fun activity to use with your learners. Dialogues are a great way … Continue reading
What annoys you about this website?
The first post on this blog went up on the 23rd of September last year, so ‘Decentralised Teaching and Learning’ will be one year old next month! Yippee! All presents … Continue reading
Anger is an energy!
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x20iu1_public-image-ltd-rise_music After criticising an established ELT website last week I wasn’t prepared for the negative reaction I would get. My criticisms were not all valid, but I believe that some … Continue reading
Office Space
People love to talk about where they work. Over 200, 000 years we’ve gone from running across the African savannah to staring at a computer monitor in a white, airless … Continue reading
Starfish and Teachers
Starfish facts – True or False? – They can change their gender whenever they want – They can regenerate a lost arm – They are not actually fish – but … Continue reading
Communication lets me down…
…and I’m left here This is a shorter post describing a lesson I recently gave on the topic of ‘Communication’ at B2/ C1 level. This lesson provides an interesting introduction … Continue reading
3 things to help you start Decentralised Teaching
In this post I give a general overview of the last 12 weeks, share some of the learner’s comments and encourage you to decentralise your teaching too! Background I started … Continue reading
Week 11 – Turn-taking and the Soup Nazi
In this post we continue with Week 11 of our Decentralised syllabus, chosen by learners. In this lesson I use my favourite episode of Seinfeld to provide a focus to … Continue reading
Week 10 – Appraisals and discourse markers
In this post I’m going to talk about a lesson I did on Appraisals, chosen by the learners as part of Week 10 of a Decentralised syllabus. For busy teachers … Continue reading
Week 9 – IF sentences…and other animals
Introduction This post is about IF sentences or Conditionals. This is also Week 10 of the syllabus that was chosen by the learners. In this post I will share a … Continue reading
Week 8 – Effective ways of Reporting Speech
Introduction In this post I’m going to talk about reported speech, which learners often struggle with. What prompted this topic? Well, after a particularly confusing lesson on Reported Speech and … Continue reading
Week 7 – Job interview Simulation
Intro First of all, I sat round with two of the learners while we waited for others to turn up and we just talked about work, how things were going. … Continue reading
Week 6 – CV’s and Job interviews
1) I’m a hard worker, etc. 2) Languages: I speak English and Spinach. 3) Analytical & Problem Solving skills: As a child, I always enjoyed building jigsaw puzzles and was … Continue reading
Week 5 – Refugees discussion lesson
This is one of my favourite lessons of 2013. The topic was chosen by my Business English learners, as there has been a lot of debate in the German media … Continue reading
Week 4 Skype phrases
In this post I’ll explain what we did on Week 4 of Decentralised Teaching and Learning and introduce Quizlet as a learning tool. You’ll also get free Skype vocabulary cards … Continue reading
Week 3 – Sherlock and Spoken grammar
Introduction In this post I’m going to talk about week 3 of my Decentralised Teaching exploration. In this lesson we have a class discussion on the first episode of Sherlock … Continue reading
Week 1 Making and Montessori
Revision In the first part of the lesson we revised ‘Giving Updates’ which we had done previously from Business Result Upper Intermediate. I gave them cards with Key Expressions on … Continue reading
Decentralised Teaching in Action – The Beginning!
I was late for class, didn’t have the correct security card to pass through the door and arrived sweating and out of breath. There were 5 learners waiting for in … Continue reading
Decentralised Teaching and Learning 