I don't worry about complaints
Postbox letter from Mike
As long as the majority of the parents and students in my class are happy, I don't worry about complaints. There will always be parents or students who have something to complain about.
Succeeding with Thai college students
Using Thai teaching assistants and adapting materials, etc
From 2016 to 2018, I worked at a small college in Thailand. Many of my intensive English students came from poor families in Isaan and this was their first experience away from home.
Academic tenacity
Student attrition in ESP courses
A group of Stanford researchers have done some fascinating work on why some students can handle the pressures of study and see the value in sticking with it. Their term for this is academic tenacity.
Three fun warm-up activities
Games designed to get students focused on using English and getting comfortable with their classmates.
Have fun with these games and consider joining in with your students! Great EFL warm-up activities really set the tone for a great class. Enjoy!
Teaching very young learners
Whatever your gender you should feel confident to teach students of any age.
I quickly learned that teaching very young learners requires a lot of energy but it also energizes you at the same time. I was pretty nervous about teaching five and six year old students but in the end I have found something which I really enjoy.
Thai education and TEFL class management
A look at three practical examples to use in your classroom
Class management, although employing techniques, isn't so much a process as a mind-set requiring a separate skill set from that of delivery, a point often missed in progressive education orthodoxy.
‘Sanook’, games and the Thai EFL classroom
Should teachers be entertainers?
One would think that the Thais' love of ‘sanook' would make the EFL classroom an inviting place for new EFL teachers, but the situation can be frustrating.
Discipline in the classroom
The 800-pound gorilla no one talks about
On more than one occasion last semester when I was teaching at the local high school I walked out of classes because I wasn't able to control an unruly crowd of 35 teenagers.
10 go-to games for young learners' classes
Your kids will love them!
With a repertoire of 'fun' activities that are easily executed, new teachers can more easily build a working relationship with their classes. These games are not just a matter of filling time; they help re-engage a distracted class, they recycle vocabulary, get students using the language.
Trump gives himself a 10
The subtle art of self-evaluation
Not a lot of teachers I know use self-evaluation, and perhaps for good reason. There's a worry that students aren't qualified to self-evaluate, that it's the teacher's job (and duty) to allocate and distribute scores in some objective way.
