Teacher Nik's English Teaching & Foodie World

Dad joke alert! but a nice segue into this weeks blog looking at how a mobile can help in the world of ELT. Oh hello, did you miss me? What and when was your first phone? Do you remember? Mine was the Nokia 232 (1994), it was the phone that Alicia Silverstone's (dream girl alert) character had in Clueless! before like everyone else in the 90s I 'upgraded' to the 3210. Back then it wasn't that common to have a phone, nowadays you would be hard pressed to find someone without a Mobile, with the cheapest smart phones available from as little as £29 in the UK. Of course, this can be somewhat of a drawback, how many times have you been teaching a class only to note some plucky upstart sniggering away at their mobile? More than once I dare say.  Yet, mobiles are not going away, like it or not- they are a part of every day life and will be for at least the foreseeable future. So how can we utilise this to improve the classroom experience for these mobile wielding scamps? There...

Oh hello you- I hope you enjoyed my Moira compilation last week and welcome to this weeks blog. Today I'm taking a look at Padlet. An online tool which can be used in class (pending T'internet access) and set as a (short) homework.  So what is it? In essence, it's effectively a noticeboard. You can post a topic/subject (a padlet) which your learners can then respond to. You will need to sign up for an account - you can do this using your google, Microsoft or Apple email address: Now it's important to note there is both a free and paid version of Padlet- The free version only allows you to post up to 3 Padlets- (you can delete and post new ones consistently of course) or you can pay $8 a month to be able to post unlimited Padlets- this is of course worth doing if you intend to make Padlets a regular part of your teaching. But should you? Let's  take  the Padlet adventure together and find out! Being a very poor student, I was unable to get the old moth collector out,...

  Well hello again, today I want you to consider what is inevitable, death, taxes, Thanos (pictured) and of course 'change'. Everything changes over time whether we like it or not. One recent change and coming at us (Humanity) was, much like the villainous Thanos (when he tried to wipe out half the population) the dreaded 'Covid 19'  Sadly, we don't have The Avengers to fight this battle. So we need to adapt and change. Given how the pandemic has blighted the world of Teaching, it's no surprise to see the rise in use of various online technologies.  Today I am going to look at one of these technologies, namely 'Edmondo'  https://new.edmodo.com/  Now instead of me going through all the initial screens (signing up etc) here is a short video from Russell Stannard for complete beginners to Edmondo (note- Russell has a full playlist on Edmondo if you find this interesting) So the first thing to note is you can sign up as a teacher and as a student, I signed m...

 Oh hello, me again. Second blog time. Today I am taking a look at Kahoot! a game based learning platform. Not to be confused with 'Cahoot' the online internet bank, which coincidently I used work at in the early 2000s, which sadly for the second blog in a row, reveals me to be an 'old git', anyway- on with the review. A Kahoot! put simply, is a multiple choice quiz that the user can create, in my case for learners, but this can easily be utilised by parents for extra learning or even social trivia nights with friends, (already I am planning a Lord of the Rings/Buffy Kahoot for my fellow nerds!)  But let's take a more in-depth look at the site: Organisation and Layout When I first clicked onto the Kahoot website, I won't lie, my initial reaction was "eww" what a dreadful home page, it's colourful, it's busy, it's packed with links. Once you have recovered from this initial visual onslaught, and started to navigate the site, you will find lo...

 A Blog about a blog, are you crazy? Firstly, welcome to my blog, I hope you will enjoy reading my (hopefully unique take) on various things. In this first blog post, I will be looking at  and reviewing the blog of Sandy Millin, who currently works freelance in the world of TEFL/TESOL.  Sandy has been active in the world of ELT since 2007, whence she completed her CELTA at Durham University.   To note- my review system will be a Nik-knack rating out of 5, with 5 Nik-knacks being a perfect score Upon first clicking on Sandy's blog, it has the unfortunate habit of 'auto scrolling' down the page, which is a somewhat of putting experience, regardless of the content. This happened on both mine, and a peer's laptops so does seem to be an issue with the blog sadly, anyhooo on with the review Organisation and Layout Following the initial hiccup, I looked at the organisation and the layout of the blog, with a colourful splash across the page and below Sandy's name, what ...