While correcting my students' pieces of writing, I found many errors related to word order. So I began looking for material that helps students to understand the structure of sentences in English. 

This video provides clear explanations and examples of SVOMPT order. Students can watch the video and then be asked to put  some sentences in order.  

Reading for Pleasure

Sometimes we focus our attention on teaching reading for specific porpuses, or as a way to learn something else. But reading for pleasure has many benefits and there should always be an opportunity to encourage our students to become independent in order to choose what to read, and to read just for pleasure. That's why I share with you this article, which provides some ideas that can be applied in our lessons. If you have other ideas, feel free to share them here! 

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.smh.com.au/culture/books/why-is-it-too-easy-to-forget-about-reading-for-pleasure-20191009-p52yxu.html

I want to share with you this video I have found inspiring and true. The speaker is Jordan Peterson, a Canadian psychologist and Professor of psychology at the University of Toronto. In this video, he explains the importance of self-sacrifice in our lives and how we can contribute to shaping a better future. 

I wish you all a very happy students' day! Teachers are also students and I have learnt a lot thanks to my kids. This is a great example of reciprocity. So, thanks! 

Giving and getting feedback starts with being open to change. That means, being open to learn form other people's experiences and point of view, and also from our own weaknesses or mistakes. But the process of giving and receiving feedback can be quite difficult sometimes. Here is a video that provides useful ideas to make the process more constructive and successful.

Happy Teacher's Day!

I think that teaching is like watering a plant; the water (the knowledge) is very important, but also the love and patience that are involved in the process. Our contribution as teachers is crucial in the development of our students, as learners and as human beings.

This beautiful plant was a present from one of my students last year, and I am happy to take care of it and to see how strong and nice it is growing.  

Something that is important to teach our students is to paraphrase something they have heard or read, especially when they are about to deliver an oral presentation. They can start with paraphrasing sentences, then paragraphs, or just explaining briefly what a text is about. Then, when they are preparing for a presentation, you can ask them to write down what they want to say but in different ways. By developing this technique they will show a real understanding of the message they are transmitting, and they won't depend on memorizing everything. 

Let's play a detective's role like Sherlock Holmes and use our problem-solving skills. 

Problem:

 Delfina goes to artistic gymnastics every Wednesday at 7 pm. Today is Wednesday. Thus, now she is doing gymnastics.

1) Is the conclusion correct? Why? Why not? 

Comment: Activities like this one can help our students to develop their thinking skills while they use logic to solve problems and reach right conclusions. Adjust difficulty according to their age and level and enjoy a moment of collaborative reasoning. 

Let's have a review of the pronunciation of English vowel sounds with this video! 

A good way of improving your own pronunciation is pronouncing the sound aloud. You can also  record yourself when doing it so then you listen to you and compare your pronunciation with the one in the video. 

A bit of humor now, that we are going back to school! I am eager to see my students again, and I wish you all a great re-start! 

Hi everyone! I want to share with you this game I have prepared for my students of secondary school. The game is similar to "chinchón" where each player aims to collect two sets of three cards. In this case I used the game to make students practice sentence structure, so each card contains different types of words: nouns, auxiliary, and verbs. Each player then had to collect a set of 3 cards that formed a sentence, and another set containing three words from the same category (noun, auxiliary or verb).

Of course you can adapt the game  and prepare the cards according to your teaching needs. My students and I had a nice time playing it! 

Some years ago I began to implement an activity that one of my teachers used in a class I was part of. It consists in asking students to write a short text giving their opinions about some aspects of their English lessons. I used to ask my students to do this at the end of each year, but this time I prefered to do it at this moment of the year since I can make improvements before the end of the course. Some aspects students can be asked to write about are:

- An activity they liked / didn't like and why

- A topic / content they feel that wasn't clear/ they understood

- A kind of activity they would like to do / a topic they would like to study or practice more.

Today my students wrote really constructive comments and I am happy to see that they have become very critical thinkers. I believe it is good and necessary to make students take part in the teachers' plannings and encourage them to be reflective and constructively critical. 

Well, finally I want to wish you all a wonderful winter holidays!