How do you close your last class in a satisfying, summer ESL program?
Class bookends, both beginnings and endings, deserve special attention. This truism becomes more important in short term summer English programs where ESL students have traveled thousands of miles to study English. As so often, I tend to learn by stumbling. Yet, over the years, I’ve developed a rather effective last class ESL lecture around a simple theme: Make Change Your Friend. The...
Read MoreGratitude is heaven itself
A bright college student asked a simple vocabulary question that threw me this week. “What is the opposite of jealous”? What is the opposite of jealous? Generous? Selfless? Confident? I found myself discussing various possibilities with students adding in situations. The simple vocabulary building exercise (create 25 pairs of opposite adjectives) took a more philosophical turn. We...
Read MoreAnother inspiring Huxley quote for English teachers
“There’s only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that’s your own self… Every man who knows how to read has it in his power to magnify himself, to multiply the ways in which he exists, to make his life full, significant and interesting.” —Aldous Huxley I found this quote after grading another pile of ESL papers. Somehow it spoke to...
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