With this collage I am summoning all the Harry Potter nerds! Wake up from your long slumber, comrades!

So I've got a little hair-brained idea to analyse the lessons in Harry Potter movies and evaluate them. I have not the foggiest as to how to teach Transfiguration (alas, I am not a witch... well, debatable), so I will be judging the lesson as if these amazing characters are teaching English.

What do you think? Should I go for it?

Ok, this part is not up for debate, I am doing it either way. But you can help me if you wish...

#methodology #funsies

If you want to watch it in better quality, I'll be posting a link in the comments as soon as the video uploads to my Yandex drive.

#methodology #funsies #harrypotter

❓❓❓ What are questions? You know what questions are, don’t you? I wonder if you also know all the ways of practicing them in fun ways... ❓❓❓

Well, even if you know all of them, I am still going to remind you about some.

⭐️ Interview Level 1️⃣

Prepare a list of questions and have the students answer them in pairs. Make some simple yet relevant questions for lower level students. Or some strange and interesting questions for higher level students. Or both. Make sure they keep track of their partner’s answers to report back to you/class later.

⭐️ Interview Level 2️⃣ (based on facts)

Say, your topic is inventions. Give your students some information about inventions, have them read it. Then give them time to prepare an interview role-play with one student being an inventor, the other – a journalist. Don’t forget to tell them what kinds of questions they’ve got to use, how many from each person and, of course, how long the dialogue should be.
Make sure to let them know they can interview anybody in the story, even a ghost or an animal (for instance, my students interviewed a stolen chick – if you want to know the full story, let me know).

⭐️ Interview Level 3️⃣ (based on imagination)

Have the students invent a topic. You could use some flash-cards (I use a game called Story inherited from a lovely colleague – hey, Yulia!) to give them some ideas. Follow the same procedure as above.
You might wonder why it is level 3. Well, it’s a tad bit simpler for you, but might be a lot more difficult for them as they need to make the story from scratch.

⭐️ Interview Level 4️⃣ (based on research)

Give your students a whole list of questions that might fit some kind of vocation. Have them transform the questions into the type or types you wish them to practice. Then make them do research. It’s a whole project!
After that, your students can interview a «real» person, as well as learn something new. Maybe even get inspired by someone. Win-win all around.

I’ve done all of the above mentioned activities with my B2 level students. I can rest assured that now they can use indirect and tag questions quite well.

In the comments you will find some beautiful (I am not humble in the least) question sets for the last activity. Enjoy!

If you want to find out more details about how to organize the Level 4 interview, react with some kind of emoji to this post.

Thanks for reading!

#methodology #activities_ideas #speaking #grammar #materials

The photos from Trendy St.Pete are here!

Can you imagine I was worried I wouldn’t have any? The thing is I didn’t even notice the photographer… I wish I could say that the reason for my absent-mindedness was that I was extremely focused on my talk, but… mostly I was too terrified to pay attention to the nice lady taking pictures.

If you are interested in my experience as a speaker, you can find my insights using #conference

#methodology #conference #workshop

Which meme cat are you today?

I guess I am 5 - hurtling towards the weekend at top speeds

Have you got any exciting plans? Care to share?

#meme #funsies

А у вас как с этим дела обстоят? Радуетесь каждому успеху?

Спонсор этого видео и поста на русском - один мой ученик (на самом деле - многие из моих учеников).

Для контекста: парень печально известен срывами уроков и неудобными вопросами. Но умный, чертёнок.

И за этот год у нас с ним было много мини-стычек, бесед, в общем, всяческой воспитательной работы.

В последнее время он был озадачен сдачей IB экзаменов для поступления в зарубежную школу. В один из дней на этой неделе он пришел на урок и начал рассказ о том, как он сдавал английский, и поведал, что одним из заданий было эссе.

И, глядя на меня своими огромными голубыми глазами, спросил:

- А знаете, по какой теме?

Конечно, я уточнила: - По какой?

- The best teacher I have ever had. I dedicated it to you. (Лучший учитель в моей жизни. Я посвятил его вам).

Мое лицо надо было видеть, но я быстро взяла себя в руки и пожелала ему в дальнейшем учителей только лучше.

Уж не знаю, лукавство это было, или нет, но он сделал мой день 🤭

И я уверена, что у всех моих читателей не один десяток таких учеников за годы работы. Спасибо вам за это, дорогие коллеги! Вместе мы делаем этот мир лучше ❤️❤️❤️

Любая благодарность - бальзам на душу и дополнительная запчасть к огнетушителю - от выгорания.


#burnout_resistance #random_musings #work_at_school

Which cat are you today? I am a mix between 2 and 7...

What’s logic for you, guys?

Probably something along the lines of “a particular way of thinking, especially one that is reasonable and based on good judgment”. The defininiton is picked ad verbatim from Cambidge Dictionary, btw.

I am going to introduce you to my special brand of logic.

Yesterday evening I received an amazing piece of information: I will have extra students in my B2 class.

Why is that bad? Well, because I had originally been planning to have my group write an article during both lessons. Alas, the extra students hadn’t been taught how to write articles 😱😱😱

Therefore, I had to change my plan. Too bad, right? 😭

But my colleague said that she had ready-made materials for a movie. 💥💥💥 Problem solved? I had thought so too until I saw the materials. In the exercises for the movie the teacher is supposed to talk to the students! The horror! 😵Rest assured, I wasn’t in the mood to talk to them.

And what do I do? Obviously, I go and make my life much harder! (go, me!) Firstly, I make an Alias game out of all their vocab and… 🥁 drum roll! 🥁 I compile a quiz game out of their final course test, some game I found on Quiziz and original tasks!

🍒 You’ll never guess what the cherry on top is… In the end I had to talk to them even more than I would have had to had I taken the movie tasks. Le GASP!

So here is my brand of logic… 🤒

🤔 Why did I do that? Well, frankly, I recalled that the movie is a tad bit boring, and the tasks were with Russian translation (I am not a hater of Russian in English classes, mind you. But my B2 students are genuine B2, they don’t need it, really, especially for movie comprehension tasks). What’s more, I knew that the extra students, as long they are not actively engaged, might misbehave.

🫠The morale of this story is: as long as you can rationalize even the most hair-brained decisions, at least to yourself, go for it! As long as it’s not anything illegal, obviously.

The B2 Grammar Quiz is in the comments.

UPD. Let's make this more logical. My life doesn't follow rules, at least the post will.

If you want tips for organizing such activities online and offline, react with 👍

#work #work_at_school #lesson_materials

My burnout resistance collage. I am on my last legs 🫠

1. A very tasty salmon sandwich and a delicious beverage (some kind of newish coffee-based strawberry-flavoured concoction).

2. My outfit today matching the vibes of the book I am reading.

3. The 9th grade adorable invitation.

4. How the evening sun hits the peonies I got for myself just because I wanted.

#burnout_resistance #life #hobby

More methodology? You are welcome.

Here is the recording of the first (and maybe the last) Little Teaching Crimes workshop.

Apparently, I can't do anything properly on the first try, so I forgot to turn on the microphone... The second time was ok. However, I am horribly stressed now, and quite proud of myself for not giving up. 🥹😅😇

Please do share your opinion in the comments. Have I told you anything new? Should I continue with this series of workshops?

Thanks in advance! ❤️

#methodology