When you play a game, instead of keeping score with boring marks on the chalkboard, use play money! Download some HERE. Cut and crumple up and put in a big bag. Appoint one student the banker who walks around and allows winning groups/students to reach into the bag and pull out “their score”. After, everyone can scream, “How much did you make?” . 

When the game is finished simply count the money the team hands you to verify who is the winner!

Also, get many more spinners/counters and other things to make games more interesting on EFL Classroom’s practice page under Teacher Tools.

This post was submitted by Greg.

Students need to know how long a task will take and a timer is a perfect way to let them know! Especially for writing exercises and tests.

Further, I’ve even seen teachers use it as a classroom management tool. Simply set the time for the length of the class. If students are off task – pause the timer. Students won’t be able to leave the class until the timer has finished so they will be sure NOT to want the timer to stop! Might work for you however first try other things!

You can get timers of all sorts, for your computer, HERE on EFL Classroom 2.0. This is a quick download of the one shown here but also try this groovy online timer with music! I really like the powerpoint timer on EFL Classroom because you can change the background picture to a class picture. Cool!

If you don’t have a computer in class, just use a “timer box” and write down the time left in the box, every so often.

Now get ticking!

This post was submitted by David Deubelbeiss.

Simply generate with the class your vocabulary list. It can be recent vocabulary from your book/lesson/unit.

Then, the teacher describes one thing/place/person on the board and students try to guess. Only one guess / student or team ( or you will have some students just saying a hundred guesses!). Erase or mark out each correct guess and play until all have been guessed.

Finally, let the students write down the vocabulary and do the same in small groups or pairs.

Other variations include snap (where the teacher says a word and students must be the first to “snap/slap” the word) , pictionary (some students draw and others guess the vocab item), charades (students act and other students guess the vocab item).

For more vocab groups like the above , see these powerpoints  Lots of great wordlists in picture form…

This post was submitted by David Deubelbeiss.

Backdoor is a technique where in pairs students sit back to back. One student watches the screen and describes the action. The teacher can write vocab. on the board to prompt student talk. Continue for a few minutes then pause the video and the pairs switch positions.

Continue and then watch the end of the video together, describing without the sound.

This works well with 3-7 min videos and more so if they are funny!

I use Mr. Bean and get them all in this great Mr. Bean player.

For more ideas about using short videos, see my recent blog post. Lots there…

This post was submitted by David Deubelbeiss.

So the recipe is to get a wide selection of reading for students. (you can get lots of printable books on EFL Classroom resources – click Reading!). Students for 5-10 minutes every class select a book or magazine, comic  or newspaper (I used to bring in the Metro from the subway, in stacks. My ESL students loved them!). They then quietly read. That’s all. No book reports, no presentations or talk. Just enjoying the books/reading!

IMPORTANT! The teacher should read with the students!

Track your student’s “DEAR” reading by getting them to log their reading into a notebook, noting title, time spent and how they felt (just a happy, blank or sad face will do).

This post was submitted by david.

It goes like this. For each word, point to a student.

Mickey – Mouse – built – a – house. – How – many – bricks – did – he – use?

The student where “use” occurs, now states the number of bricks. Any number. The teacher then can

a) continue counting ahead that number. That student is chosen!

b) continue continue back that number. That student is chosen!

c)  continue counting in any direction but every second person.

This avoids the students trying to guess “exactly”. If a student says a very large number like 1,000,000 – simply count 100,000, 200,000, 300,000 etc…

Teach your students the Mickey Mouse chant and they can do it themselves.

For those interested, here’s Einie Meanie Minie Moe!

This post was submitted by David Deubelbeiss.

The best and easiest way to “teach” a story is to tell it through prediction. Get the students in a comfortable area if possible and read them the book, showing the pictures. You can also use all the great stories on EFL Classroom 2.0, if you have a computer and screen.

Start telling the story and at a good point stop and ask, “What’s going to happen next?” Let students tell each other or the class. Then continue to see if they are right. Stop again, and ask them to predict….continue doing this until the end of the story.

A good extension would be to have the students rewrite the story in their own words. Or stop the story before the end and have them write their own ending! Then share the “real” ending. 

A great story for this, available is The Eyebrow Story. Students love this one!

This post was submitted by David Deubelbeiss.

With a laser pointer, you can be helping a student and very quickly point to what you are talking about: spelling, a picture, a thing and facilitate student understanding. Like other forms of modification – using pictures, underlining key vocabulary, dictionaries, highlighters, a laser pointer effectively helps students understand and learn.

If you really want to get spiffy, get a pointer that also works with power point. Then you can move around the classroom while controlling the presentation.  Students at the back of the class will love you!

This post was submitted by David Deubelbeiss.

1.  For the first month use name tags/name cards. Make them decorative. Here are some really neat ones you can download.

2.  Use a seating plan for each class. Make your own or use this handy online printable version. Keep it at the front of the class and refer to it when you call on students. Laminate it like it is gold or make it so you can also add notes to each student’s name box.

3.  Play name games the first week of class. Find someone who is a classic. Also the circle game where students go around and introduce each other and try to remember the people before them.Ex. Hi, my name is “David” , this is …… and this is ….. and this is ……..

4.  Have the students make name flags using chopsticks! Collect them and keep in a can at the front of the class. When you call on a student or for games, draw one flag at random! Keeps things changing and helps you remember names.

This conversation and this site have lots of info. for the first week of class!

This post was submitted by eflclassroom.

Every teacher staying in EFL / ESL should have a picture library, a folder of photos (laminated if you can) of interesting people/places/things/events. Start cutting from newspapers and magazines and you can build a great library pretty quickly.

When you have to teach a lesson without much preparation or warning, just pull out your library! Students in groups can write stories, can talk about the pictures, brainstorm vocabulary, the list of what you can do with them is endless.

Get working on your picture library!  Here’s a nice slideshow of the world’s most famous pictures to get you inspired. Get the ppt and pictures on EFL Classroom 2.0 along with hundreds of other presentations with amazing photos!

This post was submitted by eflclassroom.