Tackle that awkward getting-to-know-you moment with these 6 fun ESL icebreaker activities. Whether you work with ESL beginners or more advanced students, children or adults, these icebreakers are sure to make the start of your year great!

The greatest gift parents can give children are skills that last a life time. A life time of good habits is worth every challenge a parent encounters. Life time skills begins one day at a time. One step at a time. One foundational good habit at a time. Like brushing teeth, done the right way […]

How to be patient in a relationship? If you’re struggling with this dilemma, these insightful tips will help you learn the ropes of perseverance

This list of the most frequently used adjectives in English is a good place to start expanding your English vocabulary.

In this post, we look at a scene checklist to help you write your stories.

Download This Worksheet (PDF) Interesting character quirks are responsible for some of the most memorable characters in fiction, but I think new writers sometimes forget that a quirk doesn’t make a character. It’s a good place to start though! The first page of this worksheet gives you some questions to develop character from quirk. If your…

Section speaking tips. Teaching English online has become more and more popular in recent years. Through the following courses below, we will show you how to adapt your existing skills and knowledge to suit this specific area of the teaching world.

English verbs, Verb 1 2 3, V1 V2 V3 Verb Form List in English Verb Forms v1 v2 v3 pdf V1, V2, V3 Pdf When learning English you need to know the meaning of certain words first, and then sort the words appropriately according to grammatical rules. Verbs in a regular structure can be transformed with a simple rule, whereas in irregular verbs, this situation is slightly different. It may be a good start to make some memorization and learn how to use the verbs in the right places. Here are Verb Forms v1 v2 v3 pdf In English there are

How do you write a good first chapter to captivate agents and readers? Use this checklist to master your book's start.

What greater way is there to learn about spirituality than to literally become a spirit and have experience in the astral planes? You are a spirit once you leave your body, and you’re neither material nor observable in the physical realm. Spiritual growth through astral travels isn’t something impossible to achieve fo

Time for another scene-by-scene retelling of an entire Shakespeare play! This time around I'm going to try my hand at adapting my first comedy, and it's one of my favorites: Twelfth Night . Let's get thing started with a good old who's who...

I’m sure most of you are doing the same thing I’m doing right now. Spending time with family and friends, watching football, catching up on that book you’ve been dying to read, eating too much Chex…

Power words and action verbs give your resume or story life. Find the right words in this list of relevant synonyms for your book, title, or blog.

When you first start dating someone new, you're usually mainly focused on chemistry and how they treat you. But as time goes on and things start to get more serious, you may start considering how this person is going to fit into your plans for the…

Here are some useful websites that you can share with your students to teach about web literacy and critical thinking. Can they work out which websites are true, and which are fake?

Here you will find a useful list of common sentence starters that you can use in an English discussion as well as in essay writing. Learn these sentence starters to improve your English speaking and writing skills.

Expand your vocabulary with this list of positive words, A - Z. We think in words, and those words shape our lives. What are your words to live by?

Time to start binging some documentaries, I guess.

A good listener can be defined by how the listener learns to listen. This anchor charts breaks down the characteristics of a go...

A leaving group is a nucleophile acting in reverse; it accepts a lone pair as the bond between it and its neighbor (usually carbon for our purposes) is broken. So what makes a good leaving group? Good leaving groups are weak bases.

Starting a blog or business can be an emotional rollercoaster. I've outlined the top 5 lessons I learned in the first few months of blogging in hopes of he.

So my bloggy friends... apparently on Friday someone decided to take my well mannered, extremely wonderful class of 25 third graders and replaced them with some loud, unruly, rude children. I'm thoroughly convinced there is NO possible way those kids that were in room 127 on Friday are my kiddos. I'm horrified at what 8:50 a.m. will bring my way. I pray to the school Gods that they bring back my normal children for the next 4 days. Heck, I don't even care if they get crazy on Thursday, be my guest. I'll trade an INSANE Thursday for a normal, calm Monday-Wednesday. Please. I'm begging you! On another note, I'm so jealous of everyone already on break, but with that said, I'm ubber excited to not be on break until Friday. I feel like when we used to have the week before Christmas off, you spent all of your break getting ready for the holidays, then only had a few days to recoup. I will get off Friday and not return until January 9. I'm a million times excited about it! So here's a few things we've been busy creating. I've been doing all projects with my wonderful neighbor/teammate (so no, I don't have 60 kids in my class LOL) Mrs. Jumps Snowglobes (via 3rd graders) {we modified/enlarged them a bit to fit more writing} They did a fabulous job!! Here's the dictionary project!! They did AWESOME!! :) I'm not really sure where "He's like a little ruler and a little king" came from... {idioms central} {truthfully I'm embarrassed to put these on here - but these are both things I couldn't find much help with, so I thought maybe my ugly little charts can help someone out there in bloggy land - yes I'm a perfectionist who can't stand anything handwritten} So that brings me this... My kiddos are going to be making their handprint ornaments for their parents tomorrow. I know, I know they do it every year, but I think it's cute to see how your kids hands have grown over the years. I am also making the parents an ornament for them to have. So here is what I made... it's hard to get the full picture because I blurred out the kids faces, but you get the point! {24 clear ornaments - Hobby Lobby} [plus I have a child that doesn't celebrate Christmas so I'm making his Mom a frame!] {boys got green background paper, plus green/black ribbon} {girls got red background paper, plus red/white ribbon} After trying to make some last night in the dark, I gave up and left a mess on the floor. I returned to them this morning when there was a lot of light and quickly finished all of them. I was getting very frustrated last night though!! I also got each kid a copy of Sideways Stories from Wayside School because they were $1 each from Scholastic. Can't beat that!! On a side note, we have a radio station here in Chicago with a morning show called "Eric and Kathy" I absolutely LOVE them. I get very upset if they're not on in the morning. So I'm a "fan" of them on Facebook. They randomly post things on there, like questions about holidays and things. I always look, but hardly ever respond. Well I took an afternoon nap, yes I adore napping! When I woke up {usually I'm grumpy as it is when I wake up from anything} I see a post that says something along the lines of "Has everyone's children brought home their homemade ornaments yet?" I thought cute! Let's see what kids are bringing home. The responses I saw ENRAGED me!! People were complaining about their typical "foam" picture frames, and "all 3 of my kids brought home the same ornament, they did every year!" People then proceeded to say teacher's lack creativity and some said, "well I guess they won't put much thought into the gift, I won't put much thought into their gift either." So I went into a rage-ful post back to those people about how I spend thousands of dollars on my classroom, plus $30 on books, plus probably another $30 or more on the ornament supplies for them, and me to make. I also said I have to pay for presents for my own family and I don't make a ton, so I do what I can. I mentioned that it takes an hour or 2 to make ornaments for 30 kids. Needless to say I was NOT happy! I couldn't believe how ungrateful they were being. So the point of this is that even though I don't have kids, I appreciate everyone who takes the time to make things with their kids, even if it is a "thoughtless cheap foam frame" {ugh, angry posting this now!}. Please don't let anyone make you feel as under appreciated as I felt when I read that post!! Anyway peeps :) I hope you are enjoying your vacation or last week before the holidays! I wish you the best of luck with your kiddos behaving! If anyone wants directions on the ornaments let me know and I'll make a post, it took me a few tries to really figure out what I should do in order to get them to work! Night lovelies! ;-)

Time for another scene-by-scene retelling of an entire play! This time around it's that classic (i.e. one you probably all had to study in school at sometime in your life) Romeo and Juliet ! Let's start, as always, with a look at the dramatis personae:

a blog of all things teachery and me.

Want to know what your kids are really thinking? These Conversation Starters for Kids will help you find out.

Creative Writing Worksheet – Fighting (PDF) Conflict is great for the plot in general, but nothing’s better than a good fight scene to increase tension and provide the perfect opportunity for a try/fail cycle. This worksheet will help you brainstorm some ideas for your fight scene, whether it’s verbal, physical or something in between. >…

Piano success depends on great piano posture. Sound and feel your best by following these ten tips for good piano posture, plus download a piano posture chart.

Expand your vocabulary with this list of positive words, A - Z. We think in words, and those words shape our lives. What are your words to live by?