There are two main tools for creating little, easy-to-access databases of resources that you can share with students or other teachers. One is Blendspace, which you can see in action here.
The other, whose design and editing menus I like more, is Pearltrees, which I've embedded below. Pearltrees works in the same way, and has better design-related capabilities. However, it cannot be embedded by HTML into other pages and blogs.
Presentations, by robertabas
Presentation tools online
There are a lot of available web services for creating presentations. Everyone seems to know about Google Slides, an example of which I have here, and which is an online version of Microsoft Powerpoint, which is faster, smoother and more exciting.
Fewer people seem to have heard of Spark Adobe, which I tested here, and Canva, both of which provide you with plenty of free images to choose from. Spark Adobe also has transition and sound effects.
Below is a presentation sample made using Canva:
Travel presentation (sample)
BONUS! A way of doing mind-maps, which can also be used for presentations of sorts, is Mindomo, seen below:
Make your own mind maps with Mindomo.
Fewer people seem to have heard of Spark Adobe, which I tested here, and Canva, both of which provide you with plenty of free images to choose from. Spark Adobe also has transition and sound effects.
Below is a presentation sample made using Canva:
Travel presentation (sample)
BONUS! A way of doing mind-maps, which can also be used for presentations of sorts, is Mindomo, seen below:
Make your own mind maps with Mindomo.
House plan
Drawing and describing house plans is a popular activity for lower level students. This lesson combines that with question structures in an interactive manner
Objectives: revision of furniture vocab; revision of question structures in the present tense.
Step 1: As an open-class activity, have students brainstorm the different rooms in a house and the furniture that goes in them. A spidergram/mind-map diagram is best for this.
Step 2: Give students the exercise below to match.
Step 2.5: While students are working on Step 2, write the basic question words on the board. If students are working together on the interactive whiteboard, then do that right after they are finished.
WHERE
WHAT
WHO
WHEN
HOW
WHY
Step 3: Ask students:
Where do you eat?
Some expected answers can be: kitchen, dining room, bedroom. There is no correct answer, as long as the given answer makes sense.
Next questions to students should be:
What do you eat?
Who do you eat with? / Who do you eat?
When do you eat?
How do you eat?
Why do you eat?
The point of the activity is to form grammatically-correct questions and give them corresponding answers.
E.g. Why do you eat? --> Because I'm hungry. / Because I'm bored.
You can then repeat step 3 with the following verbs and any other verbs you choose:
Read
Drink
Cook
Watch TV
Write
Sleep
Objectives: revision of furniture vocab; revision of question structures in the present tense.
Step 1: As an open-class activity, have students brainstorm the different rooms in a house and the furniture that goes in them. A spidergram/mind-map diagram is best for this.
Step 2: Give students the exercise below to match.
Step 2.5: While students are working on Step 2, write the basic question words on the board. If students are working together on the interactive whiteboard, then do that right after they are finished.
WHERE
WHAT
WHO
WHEN
HOW
WHY
Step 3: Ask students:
Where do you eat?
Some expected answers can be: kitchen, dining room, bedroom. There is no correct answer, as long as the given answer makes sense.
Next questions to students should be:
What do you eat?
Who do you eat with? / Who do you eat?
When do you eat?
How do you eat?
Why do you eat?
The point of the activity is to form grammatically-correct questions and give them corresponding answers.
E.g. Why do you eat? --> Because I'm hungry. / Because I'm bored.
You can then repeat step 3 with the following verbs and any other verbs you choose:
Read
Drink
Cook
Watch TV
Write
Sleep
Office life
There are different sides of office life that our students may need to be able to deal with in English. This lesson will focus on building up their general office-related vocabulary.
You can start by linking your students to the following exercise, which can be done for homework on their own devices, or collaboratively completed on a class interactive whiteboard.
Next, get students to describe what each item is used for, and how often they use it. It would be interesting also to check whether they have any personal preferences when it comes to office supplies.
Do your students deal with office supplies? Well, they now have a problem. They are out of sticky notes, highlighters and staples (all at the same time!) and this impedes their everyday functioning.
They need to write an email to the relevant person, requesting the missing supplies.
First, they can test out their email-writing knowledge through the following exercise:
After the students have picked the correct answers, discuss the basics of a business email: greetings, opening sentences, closing sentences, register.
Then have students respond to the above email from Joe's perspective. Alternatively, have students rewrite Linda's email with a different request, matching their own business context.
You can start by linking your students to the following exercise, which can be done for homework on their own devices, or collaboratively completed on a class interactive whiteboard.
Next, get students to describe what each item is used for, and how often they use it. It would be interesting also to check whether they have any personal preferences when it comes to office supplies.
Do your students deal with office supplies? Well, they now have a problem. They are out of sticky notes, highlighters and staples (all at the same time!) and this impedes their everyday functioning.
They need to write an email to the relevant person, requesting the missing supplies.
First, they can test out their email-writing knowledge through the following exercise:
After the students have picked the correct answers, discuss the basics of a business email: greetings, opening sentences, closing sentences, register.
Then have students respond to the above email from Joe's perspective. Alternatively, have students rewrite Linda's email with a different request, matching their own business context.
Airports
Then launch them into a quick discussion activity to get them into talking about any of the following:
1. Travel
2. Travel problems
3. Problems in general
4. Fun activities
It can also be used as a warmer to a reading text about crazy shenanigans, with a focus on their impact on the city infrastructure, for example.
An actual text that can be linked directly to the above warmer is from the Financial Times and can be found on this link.
An actual text that can be linked directly to the above warmer is from the Financial Times and can be found on this link.