Hello again! Last time I wrote about this topic, I told the story of how I acquired my home lab computer and the humble beginnings it had. This computer is a 2010 MacPro, or in technical terms, a MacPro 5,1. It’s a beast of a computer, weighing in excess of… Read More »Adventures of a Computer Geek Part 2
I’m writing this because I had mentioned I was into computers before. When I tell people this, they usually ask if I code, which I don’t. I used to dabble in coding when I was a teenager – I programmed mainly in BASIC and assembler for the x86. It was… Read More »Adventures of a Computer Geek
Present simple and present continuous are hard sometimes. When do you use one and when do you use the other? Think of two different types of time: temporary and permanent. Temporary means something that changes, permanent is the opposite. Actions that happen right now are temporary. The action changes or… Read More »Present Simple and Present Continuous
To my pre-intermediate (A2) students: A vocabulary journal is important. You can write new vocabulary you don’t know in a notebook. You write new words you hear and read. Where do you find the definitions? Not google translate. Not Turing. Don’t look for Turkish translation. Use a learner’s dictionary Is… Read More »Vocabulary Journals
So yeah, I lived in Ghana for a few months back in 2014 as an exchange student when I was at UC Santa Cruz. My experiences in Accra, Ghana were quite eye-opening. The bubble of American privilege in which I had obliviously spent all my time up to then was… Read More »You went to Ghana? Why?
Future-related grammar structures are useful because we can talk about plans, predictions, make promises, and extend offers. With the first conditional, we can also make threats. Initially, talking about the future can seem daunting to the beginner, because there are multiple ways of doing so, and while each way may… Read More »The Future
Gerunds and infinitives are perhaps one of the most difficult topics to teach. This seemingly simple concept of turning a verb into a noun is riddled with convention, and the rules that apply are sparse. There are very few guidelines and only through the expansion of one’s vocabulary does one… Read More »Gerunds and Infinitives, a starter
An Ad Blocker of your choosing I am an avid user of ad blockers and I think anyone who might share their screen should be too. First, it just looks cleaner and is easier to navigate than a page full of ads. When I’m sharing my screen with my students,… Read More »Apps, Extensions, and Websites that Make Distance Teaching Easier
Obligation modals, while simple to use, can be tricky for A2 level students. For example, have to and don’t have to while on the surface seem like opposites, they mean entirely different things, unlike must and mustn’t. There is also the concept of internal vs external obligation, yet must and… Read More »Modals of Obligation
An intermediate-level student typically has a good grasp of the fundamentals built upon in A2. While pre-intermediate students struggle with production, intermediate students have much less problems speaking and writing, but their production is prone to error. This is the level where bad habits picked up in the lower levels… Read More »Project Based Assessment for B1 Students