It's tiiiiiime. (day 12)

 

Did you know that Krampus is punishing bad kids in the German-speaking world? While St. Nikolaus is rewarding the good ones with presents?

Here is a reading activity in both German and English

Click here! 

It's tiiiiime! ( day 11)

 

Who is Barbara? Who is Lucia? Why are they important to the German-speaking world?

Here are some reading activities in both German and English (level B1) that you could use with your students

(ideas are mine - text written by AI)

Click here to get the activities

It's tiiiime! (Day 6)

 

A wonderful game to play in class, but you can play it with your private students and online students as well! All you need to do is describe a word or a phrase with your hands and body! It's so much fun! Especially when the Christmas days are coming. It could be a great activity for your last lesson before the holidays or on your School Christmas party!!!

Here are some cards from ISL Collective! 

https://en.islcollective.com/english-esl-worksheets/grammar-topic/word-classes/christmas-activity-charades-games/102354

It's tiiiime!! (day 10)

My all-time favourite Christmas story is A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. I read the book eery year and I watch all the movies that have to do with this story!

But how about reading time in class?  

I have found a wonderful simplified version of the story that you can do in class, and you can also find activities on the site as well!!

Here is the link!

https://www.ego4u.com/en/read-on/literature/christmas-carol

It's tiiiime (day 9)

Have you ever played pictionary? 

The idea is to draw a word and the other peiple in the group have to guess! IF you have a class you can do that on the board, if you have a private student, you can take turns and write on the notebook or on your whiteboard.

Here is a link with some Christmas words you could use!

 https://en.islcollective.com/english-esl-worksheets/vocabulary-practice/pictionary-picture-dictionary-or-picture-matching/christmas/christmas-pictionary/62153

It's tiiime! (Day 5)

 

Start the game by having a caller randomly draw calling cards from a bag and announce the picture to the players. Mark the corresponding picture on your card if it appears on the calling card. The first player to get a pre-determined pattern of five pictures in a row (horizontally, vertically, or diagonally) wins by shouting "Bingo!". 

Find your free bingo cards here!

It's tiiiime! (day 4)

 

Santa Claus is coming to town!

Here is a reading FCE type activity for B2- C1 level students. Where did Santa Come from? Does he really live in the North Pole? Does he really wear red?

Do you believe in Santa? Tell me in the comments!

In the meantime click here to get the text!

It's tiiiime! (day 3)

 

One of my most favourite activities with my teen students is Taboo. This is a card game, and one player has to describe the word that is written on top without using the other words that are on the card. You can play it in different versions, depending on the language level of your students. For example,  if they are still beginners, they can use the words or if you have a class, you can play it as the TV show (RuckZuck), putting the students in teams. Either way it's lots of fun and you can also translate it and play it with your friends!!

here are the cards

It's tiiiime! (day 2)

 

One more day, one more activity!

This time, it's for our older & higher-level students, B2-C1 level to be more exact. 

Let's go around the world and find out more about Christmas traditions.

Here is a full lesson plan and worksheet with text, vocabulary, grammar and follow up activities!

Click here to find it!

(image made with Sora) 

It's tiiiiiiiime!! (Day 1)

 

Christmas is around the corner and yes, I'm back blogging, although it's not trendy anymore!

It will be a series of posts with Christmas activities for my students and my colleagues as part of my Christmas vlogs on YouTube and TikTok.

I have lots of ideas, I don't know if I'll have the time to post every day, but I will try. 

The ideas are mine, but I am also going to use AI, since it is going to be every day for the next 24 days!

I am starting with something for my younger students. What more fun than creating ornaments for the tree with carton, glue and markers?

This way we can practice shapes, colours and the imperative by following the instructions.

You can find the lesson plan and worksheet over here.

I am also sharing a wonderful page with cut out Christmas sweaters, so that students can also have some fun  with colours! Over here!

Then & Now: A Teacher’s Tale of Chalk, Change, and Charging Cables

 inspired by a webinar by my friend Bobby Zlatkov

Today's students bring more technology to class than we did as a whole. Their attention spans? They Google more quickly than I can say "open your books." Assume that they can quickly transition from TikTok to quiz mode, but only if the Wi-Fi is strong.

In the past, educators carried a red pen, overhead transparencies, and unwavering determination. Like mules, we would lug stacks of photocopies around and hope the one functional printer wouldn't jam—spoiler alert: it always did. You were essentially an influencer if you had colored chalk.

Students used to use their Nokias, which felt very high-tech at the time, to play Snake, take (some) notes, and sit (mostly) still.

These days, smartwatches that vibrate like slot machines compete with me.

There were no online resources, smartboards, or "click here to assign" when I first started teaching. I created worksheets from scratch, complete with clipart, if I wanted one. I worked as a tech support, researcher, editor, and graphic designer for a computer that sounded like it was getting ready to take off.

These days, teachers must be everything, everywhere, at once: content producers, Zoom specialists, feedback machines, and subliminal psychologists, all while navigating apps with names that sound like Pokémon evolutions.

Things have changed. Neither worse nor better. simply changing. Additionally, I'm incredibly impressed by how adaptable we've become, even though I occasionally miss the simplicity of the past (and the paper smell of freshly copied worksheets). From "write on the board" to "share your screen," we've managed to stay afloat somehow.

Inspiring this reflection was a recent webinar led by my friend and colleague Bobby Zlatkov, who reminded me that behind every update and upgrade, a teacher is still doing their best to make it all work.