Tour around the ELT conference circuit as our team shares conference highlights and session reviews.

Conferences

Stay up-to-date with ELT trends and ideas with articles from experts and teachers in the field.

Articles

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This September 15 and 16, 2022, we&rsquo;ll be hosting&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/conference/2022" target="_blank">ElliiCon</a>, a free, two-day virtual conference to explore simple, effective, and practical strategies that will help you build stronger relationships with your students and engage them in a more meaningful way. This article is part of a series of posts introducing some of the conference&nbsp;speakers.
</div>

Nik Peachey is a two-time British Council ELTons award winner for innovation in English language teaching and has been short-listed six times. He&rsquo;s also the founder and director of pedagogy at <a href="https://peacheypublications.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">PeacheyPublications</a>, an independent digital publishing company based in the UK that designs digital learning materials for English language&nbsp;classrooms.

To say Nik is familiar with the education sector would be an understatement. Since 1990, Nik&#39;s&nbsp;worked as a teacher, trainer, and educational consultant. He also has more than 25 years of experience with online, remote, and blended learning&nbsp;environments.

He&rsquo;ll be joining&nbsp;us at ElliiCon2022 on September&nbsp;15.

Something you may not know about Nik is that he&nbsp;studied music in university and taught guitar at a prison. That&rsquo;s when he realized how much he enjoyed&nbsp;teaching.

But it was only after spending time in Egypt that he discovered just how deep his passion for teaching went. While in&nbsp;Egypt, Nik&nbsp;received his CELTA (Certificate in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) certification and taught English to&nbsp;refugees.

&ldquo;I enjoyed helping people in that way and meeting people from other cultures,&rdquo; said Nik. &ldquo;I got hooked on&nbsp;teaching.&rdquo;

For 10 years, Nik taught English all over the&nbsp;world.

In 1999, he became interested in technology. This led him to go back to school to get his master&rsquo;s in educational&nbsp;technology.

<h2>The story behind PeacheyPublications</h2>

PeacheyPublications grew out of Nik&rsquo;s desire to write a book about educational&nbsp;technology.

He spoke to publishers about his idea for the book, but,&nbsp;unfortunately, they were limited on what they could do in book form. At the time, no one was interested in publishing a digital&nbsp;book.

That&#39;s when Nik decided to take matters into his own&nbsp;hands.

He wrote and published the book himself using the money he had raised from crowdfunding on Indiegogo. Later, he entered the book for a British Council ELTons award and&nbsp;won.

<img alt="" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/2630/content_ElliiCon2022-Speaker_Nik-Peachey.jpg" />

Nik Peachey is pictured here&nbsp;holding his 2016 British Council ELTon&nbsp;Award for Innovation in Teacher&nbsp;Resources. He&#39;s&nbsp;also won the&nbsp;2012 British Council ELTon&nbsp;Award for Excellence in Course&nbsp;Innovation.

At the time, Nik thought to himself, If I want to keep [publishing books], then I have to find a better way to do&nbsp;it.

To write more books and publish them quicker, Nik founded PeacheyPublications.

Today, PeacheyPublications&nbsp;has 180 products, from lesson plans to books to online&nbsp;courses.

&ldquo;We get great feedback from the teachers who use our products,&rdquo; said&nbsp;Nik.

<h2>In the classroom</h2>

As someone who&#39;s passionate about educational technology, Nik believes that technology shouldn&rsquo;t just be used by teachers. Students should be using it too, and it shouldn&rsquo;t just be about replacing homework either.

&ldquo;Technology should be connecting them to people and enhancing their abilities to be creative,&rdquo; Nik&nbsp;said.

He also believes&nbsp;students should come away from a lesson learning three&nbsp;things.&nbsp;

&ldquo;They should learn something about the language, something about the world around them, and something about themselves.&nbsp;The goal isn&rsquo;t language learning; language learning is the means to the&nbsp;goal.&quot;

<h2>Learn about intentional listening with&nbsp;Nik at&nbsp;ElliiCon2022</h2>

On September 15, Nik will be joining us at ElliiCon2022 to talk about how to develop understanding through intentional listening. You&rsquo;ll discover activities that will help your&nbsp;students&hellip;

<ul>
	<li>empathize with others</li>
	<li>listen with the intention to better understand on a more emotional&nbsp;level</li>
	<li>build dialogue and find common ground with those that hold different worldviews than their&nbsp;own</li>
</ul>

<blockquote>
Join us at ElliiCon2022!

Want to attend Nik&#39;s presentation?&nbsp;<a href="https://www.airmeet.com/e/0ee877b0-e369-11ec-b1b2-394b94cc9521" target="_blank">Register for ElliiCon2022</a>&nbsp;(it&#39;s&nbsp;free!).

To learn more about Nik, follow him on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/ICT4ELT/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Facebook</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/NikPeachey" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Twitter</a>, or&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikpeachey/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">LinkedIn</a>.
</blockquote>

ElliiCon2022 Speaker Spotlight: Nik Peachey

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This September 15 and 16, 2022, we&rsquo;ll be hosting&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/conference/2022" target="_blank">ElliiCon</a>, a free, two-day virtual conference to explore simple, effective, and practical strategies that will help you build stronger relationships with your students and engage them in a more meaningful way. This article is part of a series of posts introducing some of the conference speakers.
</div>

Shelly Sanchez Terrell is a digital innovator, international speaker, author of Hacking Digital Learning Strategies,&nbsp;Bammy Award winner, and the 2014 National Association of Professional Women&rsquo;s Woman of the Year. She&#39;ll be joining us at ElliiCon on September 16.

After graduating with an English degree, one of Shelly&rsquo;s friends asked her to work at a university-run summer camp for middle-school-aged kids from other countries. Since Shelly knew Spanish, she was a huge asset to the team. In addition to working with the campers, she was also able to translate for their Spanish-speaking parents.

After that summer, Shelly worked at&nbsp;a high school&nbsp;as an ESL teacher. She taught there for a few years before moving to Germany to teach English to kids and adults. She also spent two months teaching refugee students in Greece.

Currently, Shelly is a teacher in Texas. In addition to English to newcomers, she also teaches English language arts. Her favorite part about being a teacher is having &ldquo;the ability to give students a voice.&rdquo;

<h2>On using technology in the classroom</h2>

As an award-winning digital innovator and&nbsp;author of numerous education technology books, it&rsquo;s no surprise that Shelly believes it&rsquo;s important to integrate technology into the classroom. She believes technology works best in conjunction with authentic, non-digital materials.

&ldquo;Brainstorm on paper or with a dry-erase marker on a whiteboard or with others. Then tie that into technology. Take what you brainstorm and produce a book, video, presentation, or broadcast,&rdquo; said Shelly. &ldquo;The whole entire process mimics the real world. It&rsquo;s about using technology in a healthy and responsible way.&rdquo;

<img alt="Shelly presenting at TESOL in Texas." src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/2610/content_ElliiCon_Speaker_Shelly-Terrell.jpg" />

Shelly is pictured here presenting at the 2015 Texas TESOL State Conference.

As an international speaker and someone who has trained teachers in more than 20 countries as a guest expert, consultant, and ambassador for the US Embassy, Shelly helps other teachers&nbsp;not only teach with technology but also design a virtual learning environment.

&ldquo;It&rsquo;s important for students to have a digital home that supports the learning in the classroom and inspires them to practice outside of the classroom,&rdquo; said Shelly.

<h2>On controversial topics</h2>

In addition to EdTech, Shelly is also interested in education-related topics that are controversial and spark debate.

&ldquo;Teachers have different outlooks on policies like grades and homework. Should we have grades? Should we have homework? There are so many ideas and extremes. You see all these perspectives and they help shape your perspective.&rdquo;

<h2>Learn about tools and strategies to get students speaking with Shelly at ElliiCon2022</h2>

On September 16, Shelly will be joining us at ElliiCon2022 to talk about how to get students to speak up in class and use their voice in authentic ways. She&rsquo;ll be sharing strategies, activities, tips, and tools that will inspire even the shyest of English learners to find their voice.

<blockquote>
Join us at ElliiCon2022!

Want to attend Shelly&#39;s presentation?&nbsp;<a href="https://www.airmeet.com/e/0ee877b0-e369-11ec-b1b2-394b94cc9521" target="_blank">Register for ElliiCon2022</a>&nbsp;(it&#39;s free!).

To learn more about Shelly, visit her <a href="http://ShellyTerrell.com" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">website</a> and <a href="http://TeacherRebootCamp.com" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">blog</a>. You can also follow her on <a href="https://twitter.com/shellterrell" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Twitter</a>.

PS. Did you know that Shelly used to be one of our bloggers? Explore her <a href="https://ellii.com/blog/authors/shelly-terrell" target="_blank">past blog posts</a> for tons of teaching tips and&nbsp;inspiration!
</blockquote>

ElliiCon2022 Speaker Spotlight: Shelly Terrell

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This September 15 and 16, 2022, we&rsquo;ll be hosting&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/conference/2022" target="_blank">ElliiCon</a>, a free, two-day virtual conference to explore simple, effective, and practical strategies that will help you build stronger relationships with your students and engage them in a more meaningful way. This article is part of a series of posts introducing some of the conference speakers.
</div>

Dr. Ken Beatty is the author and co-author of more than 140 textbooks and has given more than 500 teacher-training sessions in 35 countries. He&#39;ll be joining&nbsp;us at ElliiCon2022 on September 15. 
 
One of Dr. Beatty&#39;s&nbsp;first teaching jobs wasn&#39;t exactly what you would call ordinary. For 18 months, he taught&nbsp;prisoners who were 12&ndash;17 years old.

&ldquo;Although I knew a lot about Shakespeare, I was fairly clueless about how to help students struggling with nouns and verbs,&rdquo; said Dr. Beatty.

This experience led him to go back to school.

After receiving a diploma in applied linguistics, he&nbsp;moved to China to teach English as a second language.

&ldquo;Teaching abroad requires a high degree of empathy&mdash;putting yourself in the place of others to understand their contexts before working backwards from their local logic to imagine what can be improved,&rdquo; explained Dr. Beatty.

Teaching in China was his first year of 18 years abroad. His only regret? He wishes he&#39;d spent more time observing other teachers in the classroom.

&ldquo;Ours is a solitary profession, and we&rsquo;re all in danger of getting comfortable with the way we&rsquo;ve always done things, perhaps even parroting the ways our own teachers did them decades earlier,&quot; he said.&nbsp;&quot;Teaching should be&nbsp;a never-ending quest to do things better.&rdquo;

<img alt="Dr. Ken Beatty in a classroom with smiling students " src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/2607/content_ElliiCon_Speaker_Dr-Ken-Beatty_01.jpg" />

Dr. Beatty is pictured here in Tegucigalpa, Honduras.

<h2>The human element of online teaching</h2>

Today, Dr. Beatty is a TESOL professor at Anaheim University. He teaches students pursuing their master&rsquo;s and doctorate degrees. He particularly enjoys&mdash;and was surprised by&mdash;how intimate teaching online can be.

When he was first invited to join the faculty 12 years ago, he expected it to be less personal than face-to-face classrooms. He has a story to illustrate why he was wrong:

<blockquote>
&ldquo;We all got to know each other well on the discussion forum and&nbsp;one day, John announced&nbsp;that his wife was pregnant. Over the next couple&nbsp;months of classes, we got updates and shared stories and advice. By chance, nine months later, John was enrolled in another of my classes and wrote one week to say he might not attend Friday&rsquo;s session as his wife was expecting any day now.

Then, Wednesday, he announced the birth of their baby girl, and I didn&rsquo;t expect to see him in class that week, but Friday evening he opened his laptop in his kitchen. The class and I shared our congratulations. And then I asked, &#39;Is the baby home yet?&#39;

&#39;Let me get her!&#39;

And suddenly, yawning on screen, we saw a three-day-old baby.

It was a moment like a thousand others that one wouldn&rsquo;t expect in a traditional graduate seminar. I get to know the students and the students all get to know each other much more than if we were in some brick building. Being online can open us to others&rsquo; lives.&rdquo;
</blockquote>

<h2>Technology is a great way to&nbsp;empower your language learners</h2>

Dr. Beatty holds a PhD in computer-assisted language learning and has written a few books on the topic as well. He recalls a time when he was a student and one of his teachers used technology in class.

<img alt="Dr. Ken Beatty holding a big stack of books" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/2608/content_ElliiCon_Speaker_Dr-Ken-Beatty_02.jpg" />

Dr. Beatty is pictured here with some of his published books.

&ldquo;When I was in grade two, my teacher, Mrs. Babcock, asked, &#39;Now, which student would like to operate the film strip projector?&#39; Hand in the air, I remember straining every muscle in hopes I would be chosen,&quot;&nbsp;said Dr. Beatty.&nbsp;&quot;It was ridiculously simple, just turning the knob, but to my seven-year-old self, it seemed I was operating a spaceship.&quot;

&ldquo;What was the point?&rdquo; he asked himself, reflecting back on that day.

His teacher, he explained,&nbsp;used the task as a way to both reward good behavior and to give students a small sense of pride and empowerment. 
 
His advice for&nbsp;teachers who want to use technology in the classroom? 
 
Don&rsquo;t. Instead, get your&nbsp;students involved.

&ldquo;Our students tend to be digital natives and are better aware of how new technologies work,&quot; said Dr. Beatty.&nbsp;&quot;Need Quizlet quizzes? Let each student create one. Need to explain new conferencing software to the class? Let a few students teach the rest. They&rsquo;ll do so in ways they best understand and will better connect as friends. Everyone benefits.&rdquo;

<blockquote>
&quot;To teach is to learn twice.&quot;

&mdash;Joseph Joubert, French writer
</blockquote>

<h2>Learning English outside the classroom is just as important</h2>

Dr. Beatty believes that learning needs to happen outside of class time too since there never seems to be enough time to learn a language within the classroom.

A&nbsp;teacher he&nbsp;met in Shanghai gave each of her students wall space and told them to decorate it with English. Dr. Beatty said the students were confused about what to do but soon started putting up items they found outside the classroom, including&nbsp;menus, comics, maps, advertisements, and their own English annotations of pictures of things like soccer games.

&ldquo;It became a kind of subversive competitive treasure hunt,&quot; Dr. Beatty&nbsp;said.&nbsp;&quot;It was subversive because the students didn&rsquo;t understand that by focusing on finding and discussing English materials, they were learning English. Best of all, the teacher only had to start the ball rolling. Once in motion, students did all the work and chattered about each new contribution.&rdquo;

<h2>Advocate for your student&#39;s language learning needs&nbsp;</h2>

Dr. Beatty also believes that teachers should pay attention to politics in education.

&ldquo;As teachers, we are the ones who best understand our students&rsquo; needs. Not parents. Not administrators. Not elected officials,&quot; he said.&nbsp;&quot;Every teacher needs to be involved in the decisions being made about what to teach and how to teach.&rdquo;

If you&#39;re looking to get involved in politics, Dr. Beatty suggests to start by joining your local or national language association. Teachers could share their ideas about education at staff meetings,&nbsp;with friends and family, in blog posts, and in letters to the editor.&nbsp; 
 
From there, Dr. Beatty encourages teachers to identify the issues that matter on a personal level and find other teachers who agree. 
 
&quot;Think about what you can do together,&quot; he said.&nbsp;&quot;Are the needs of students not being met? Are teacher working conditions making it impossible to give students the attention they deserve? Are education budgets being slashed? Shout!&rdquo;

<img alt="Dr. Ken Beatty giving a speech" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/2609/content_ElliiCon_Speaker_Dr-Ken-Beatty_03.jpg" />

Dr. Beatty is pictured here in Liverpool, England.

<h2>Learn about assessment with&nbsp;Dr. Beatty at ElliiCon2022</h2>

On September 15, Dr. Beatty will be joining us at <a href="https://ellii.com/conference/2022" target="_blank">ElliiCon2022</a> to talk about assessment.

Have you had this experience? You spend hours correcting students&rsquo; errors on their assignments only to see them glance at the final mark and crumple the paper into a ball.&nbsp;Students too often see assessments like court verdicts, not learning opportunities.

The title of Dr. Beatty&#39;s talk is &quot;Assessment: Agile, Simple, Effective.&quot; He&#39;ll kick off the session by asking&nbsp;why teachers assess students and then explore the&nbsp;key principles that apply to students of all ages and levels.&nbsp;

Here are the three key principles he will cover:

<ul>
	<li>Agile&nbsp;is about responding to students&rsquo; needs.</li>
	<li>Simple&nbsp;is about saving ourselves time.</li>
	<li>Effective&nbsp;is about ensuring that students learn from their assessments.</li>
</ul>

<blockquote>
Join us at ElliiCon2022!

Want to attend Dr. Beatty&#39;s presentation? <a href="https://www.airmeet.com/e/0ee877b0-e369-11ec-b1b2-394b94cc9521" target="_blank"> Register for ElliiCon2022</a> (it&#39;s free!).

To learn more about Dr. Beatty,&nbsp;<a href="http://kenbeatty.ca/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">visit his website</a>.
</blockquote>

ElliiCon2022 Speaker Spotlight: Dr. Ken Beatty

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Learn how to make the most of your Ellii subscription with tips from our publishing team.

Teaching with Ellii

<div class="white-box">
This article is part of a series of posts highlighting our community of teachers around the world. We hope you find their stories interesting and&nbsp;inspiring!
</div>

Since 2003, Rick Powell has been busy traveling the&nbsp;world.

He&rsquo;s spent time in several cities in Europe and South America&nbsp;before finally settling down in Mexico. To financially support his travels, Rick spent his time cooking professionally and teaching&nbsp;English. However, since the COVID-19 pandemic hit, he made the decision to drop his cooking job and solely focus on&nbsp;teaching.

Today&nbsp;Rick teaches online from Mexico City. He mainly teaches adults at the low-intermediate to advanced levels who are interested in improving their English for work or in preparation for a move&nbsp;to the United&nbsp;States.

Like many teachers,&nbsp;a&nbsp;typical day of teaching for Rick begins with a lot of coffee. Then he opens his computer and heads straight to&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/discover" target="_blank">Ellii</a> and <a href="https://www.notion.so/product" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Notion</a> to plan out his lessons for the&nbsp;day.

&ldquo;I also look at my news channels on YouTube because many of my students are interested in US politics and culture,&rdquo; said&nbsp;Rick. &ldquo;I use videos during&nbsp;class.&rdquo;

Classes start at 10:00 am&nbsp;with his last class of the day sometimes ending as late as 10:00&nbsp;pm.

&ldquo;There are breaks, thankfully,&rdquo; said Rick. &quot;I take lots of short walks, even around the block, so that I stay alert and&nbsp;fresh.&rdquo;

<h2>How Rick uses the Ellii platform with&nbsp;students</h2>

Recently, Rick used our <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/133/lessons/4189" target="_blank">Supreme Court Overturns Roe V. Wade</a> lesson in&nbsp;class.

&ldquo;I use the <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/133/lessons" target="_blank">That&#39;s News to Me</a> section a lot. There have been some good conversations,&rdquo; he&nbsp;said.

Check out Rick&#39;s&nbsp;text response below to learn more about why he loves Ellii and how he uses it with his&nbsp;students.

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<h2>Overcoming challenges in and out of the&nbsp;classroom</h2>

Getting students to speak up in class and complete their homework outside of class have&nbsp;been two&nbsp;of Rick&#39;s biggest challenges of&nbsp;late.

&ldquo;It has been hard getting some students to speak at any length and, since my students are all working professionals, to get them to do homework and study vocabulary on their own,&rdquo; he&nbsp;admits.

Despite these challenges, Rick still finds teaching incredibly&nbsp;rewarding.

&ldquo;I love it when my students recognize and benefit from their own progress after giving their first presentation or running an international meeting in English, or publishing their first article in English, or getting accepted to an American university&mdash;all of which have happened.&rdquo;

His advice for aspiring teachers?

&ldquo;Be fearless when teaching slang, idioms, and colloquial English,&quot; he said.&nbsp;&quot;Students are very interested in sounding as native (and sometimes as hip and cool) as possible. And make them laugh!&rdquo;

<blockquote>
Want the chance to be featured in our Teacher Feature series? Visit our&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/blog/20th-anniversary-giveaway" target="_blank">20th Anniversary Giveaway</a>&nbsp;blog post&nbsp;to tell us why you love Ellii and how you use it in your classroom.
</blockquote>

Teacher Feature: Rick Powell

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<div class="white-box">
This article is part of a series of posts highlighting our community of teachers around the world. We hope you find their stories interesting and&nbsp;inspiring!
</div>

Sophie Collin was introduced to English at a very young&nbsp;age.

She grew up in a bilingual household in Quebec, Canada, where she often spoke English with her&nbsp;father.

At school, she excelled in her English classes and enjoyed speaking English with many of her&nbsp;friends.

&ldquo;Hence, as far as I can remember, I foresaw my career as an English language teacher,&rdquo; said&nbsp;Sophie.

After receiving a bachelor&rsquo;s degree in English Literature and working for more than 20 years in an English-speaking corporate role, Sophie decided to take the leap and pursue&nbsp;teaching.

Since 2015, she&rsquo;s been teaching ESL&nbsp;and Business English to adults from the A1 to C2 (Beg &ndash; Adv) levels in the Laurentians region of&nbsp;Quebec.

<h2>A week in the life of a Quebec English teacher</h2>

For Sophie, a typical week involves about 15 hours of teaching spread out over four days. She teaches groups and individuals both in person and online. Class time varies from 90 minutes to three hours a&nbsp;day.

&ldquo;My career as a teacher has been nothing less than gratifying,&rdquo; Sophie said, smiling. &ldquo;What I find most rewarding is to hear learners&rsquo; testimonials about how my teaching has been beneficial and impactful to&nbsp;them.&rdquo;

<img alt="Sophie Collin, a smiling middle-aged woman with side-swept bangs and round metal-framed glasses." src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/2512/content_Ellii_Teacher-Feature_Sophie-Collin.jpg" />

Sophie Collin is pictured here.

<h2>How Sophie uses Ellii</h2>

Sophie discovered Ellii when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Like many teachers, she had to pivot from teaching in person to teaching&nbsp;online.

&ldquo;I discovered through word of mouth the amazing website that is Ellii and immediately became a member,&quot; said Sophie, who quickly adopted the platform and now relies on Ellii for all her class&nbsp;curriculums.

&quot;I eagerly await&nbsp;the weekly newsletter so I can read What to Teach This Week,&quot; she said, excitedly.&nbsp;Sophie admits there&#39;s not a week that goes by where she doesn&#39;t use Ellii&#39;s educational materials, from the readings found in the lessons to the grammar&nbsp;exercises.

&quot;This state-of-the-art teacher&rsquo;s platform is simply a lifesaver, especially for last-minute classes and online teaching&nbsp;tips.&rdquo;

Her favorite Ellii lessons always involve an educational&nbsp;reading.&nbsp;

&ldquo;I love the reading lessons about historical or current information,&quot; said Sophie. &quot;Just today we read and learned about <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/93/lessons/1852" target="_blank">Victoria Day</a> in Canada&mdash;the why,&nbsp;the who, and the what are always appreciated by my audience. It allows them to learn new vocabulary as well as ignite&nbsp;conversations.&quot;

Check out Sophie&#39;s&nbsp;video response below to learn more about why she loves Ellii and how she uses it with her English language&nbsp;learners.

<div class="videoWrapper"><iframe encrypted-media="" src="https://www.videoask.com/atpb1xbznxge4g64zf2i428mx869o3f243ua6y44"></iframe></div>

<blockquote>
Want the chance to be featured in our Teacher Feature series? Visit our&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/blog/20th-anniversary-giveaway" target="_blank">20th Anniversary Giveaway</a>&nbsp;blog post&nbsp;to tell us why you love Ellii and how you use it in your&nbsp;classroom.&nbsp;
</blockquote>

Teacher Feature: Sophie Collin

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<div class="white-box">
This article is part of a series of posts highlighting our community of teachers around the world. We hope you find their stories interesting and inspiring!
</div>

Camila Mu&ntilde;oz was working as a translator when she had an epiphany.

&ldquo;Working as a translator in different places made me realize that, not only is English crucial for any job, but also that people are very intimidated when it comes to learning and speaking the language,&rdquo;&nbsp;said Camila.

This is what made her decide to teach English.

&quot;I wanted to show people that learning English can be hard at the beginning (like anything you try for the first time), but when you know the basics and how it works, you can have a lot of fun!&rdquo;

Camila&#39;s been teaching for almost five years now.

She started out teaching in an in-person setting, but when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, she moved to teaching online.

&ldquo;It&#39;s&nbsp;been great!&rdquo; she said enthusiastically. &ldquo;I discovered that I could teach students from everywhere. Teaching online has been wonderful because not only does it save traveling time (and costs!), but it also allows me to use the interactive tools on the Ellii platform.&rdquo;

Currently, Camila teaches English remotely from her home in Concepci&oacute;n, Chile.

Her students live in different cities all over the country, ranging from pre-school age to adults. Most of her students are at the beginner and intermediate levels.

<img alt="Camila Muñoz, a smiling woman with long hair, glasses, and a plaid shirt sitting at her desk holding an Ipad and headphones." src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/2437/content_Teacher-Feature_Camila-Munoz.jpg" />

Camila Mu&ntilde;oz&nbsp;is pictured here.

For Camila, a typical day of teaching starts at 9:00 am. She spends her mornings planning her afternoon and evening lessons. Once that&rsquo;s done, she looks over completed homework tasks.

Lessons take place from 3:00 pm until 7:00 pm.

&ldquo;This is when I have the most fun since I get to teach and connect with my students,&rdquo; she said.

<h2>How Camila uses Ellii in the classroom</h2>

Camila loves how organized Ellii is and finds the platform incredibly useful.

&ldquo;I use many of the <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/82/lessons" target="_blank">Famous Things</a> lessons since I can decide which one to use depending on my students&rsquo; interests and they can practice the four skills when we use them,&quot; said Camila. &quot;There are so many topics and choices. It&rsquo;s truly amazing!&rdquo;

Her students also really enjoy the role-play activities.

&ldquo;They can have so much fun with them, and it&rsquo;s great speaking practice,&rdquo; she said.

Check out Camila&#39;s&nbsp;text response below to learn more about why she loves Ellii and how she uses it with her students.

<iframe allow="autoplay *; encrypted-media *; fullscreen *;" height="400px" src="https://www.videoask.com/afyoi8plwzah1ak07n7r8xkbphl42b4sk7tqyh4b" style="border: none; border-radius: 24px" width="100%"></iframe>

<h2>The challenges of teaching groups</h2>

For Camila, teaching groups can be challenging.

&ldquo;When it comes to group sessions, one of the major challenges is to make sure every student understands what the lesson is about,&quot; she said.

Camila admits that sometimes&mdash;especially when there are many students in the class&mdash;it&rsquo;s hard for teachers to make sure everyone is able to learn.

&quot;Since students are often embarrassed or don&rsquo;t want to share their answers in front of the whole class, the challenge that&nbsp;we must overcome as teachers&nbsp;is to give our students a safe learning environment that will allow them to learn and share more,&rdquo; she explained.

Camila finds that teaching young children can be just as challenging.

&ldquo;Also&mdash;and especially with preschool students&mdash;it&rsquo;s very challenging to keep them motivated and get their attention,&quot; she said. &quot;Therefore, we need to find different strategies to make learning a fun and engaging experience.&rdquo;

<h2>When teaching becomes a self-fulfilling experience</h2>

Despite these challenges, Camila finds being a teacher incredibly rewarding.

&ldquo;I love when my adult&nbsp;and teenage students, who were once terrified to speak English, realize that it wasn&rsquo;t that hard and that they&rsquo;re able to communicate and do things,&quot; she said. &quot;[They can] . . . enjoy&nbsp;their favorite TV show or listen&nbsp;to their favorite artists and actually understand&nbsp;what they are saying.&quot;

Camila says her favorite part&nbsp;about teaching her pre-school students is that they&#39;re like little sponges because &quot;they soak&nbsp;everything up and learn super fast.&rdquo;

She describes teaching English as one of the most self-fulfilling experiences she&#39;s had.

&ldquo;I never thought teaching could bring me and my students so much joy,&quot; she said. &quot;As a translator and somebody that loves language and teaching English, being able to share what I know and make it easier for others has been an amazing experience.&rdquo;

<blockquote>
Want the chance to be featured in our Teacher Feature series? Visit our&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/blog/20th-anniversary-giveaway" target="_blank">20th Anniversary Giveaway</a>&nbsp;blog post&nbsp;to tell us why you love Ellii and how you use it in your classroom.
</blockquote>

Teacher Feature: Camila Muñoz

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Did you watch <a href="https://www.teflonline.net/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">International TEFL &amp; TESOL Training</a>&rsquo;s&nbsp;webinar on&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxoF1jJy6XA&amp;t=1677s" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">mistakes&nbsp;to avoid while teaching English</a>? If you missed it, don&rsquo;t worry&mdash;we&rsquo;ve got you&nbsp;covered.

Here are five&nbsp;key takeaways from the webinar we think every English teacher should know&nbsp;about.

<h2>Mistake #1: Neglecting your students&rsquo; goals</h2>

Every group of students will have different goals and&nbsp;motivations.

According to webinar host Linda Dunsmore, if the goal isn&rsquo;t clear from the type of class you&rsquo;re teaching, your job as the teacher is to find out why your students are interested in learning English in the first place. From there, you&nbsp;can&nbsp;tailor your lessons to better fit their needs and&nbsp;interests.

Lessons should be meaningful and relevant for your students. They should also&nbsp;relate back to their&nbsp;goals.

Not sure what your students&rsquo; goals are? Use the following&nbsp;assessment tools to find out what your students hope to accomplish with their language&nbsp;learning:

<ul>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/104/resources/2127" target="_blank">My Language Goals</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/104/resources/2224" target="_blank">Goal-Setting &ndash; Can Do</a></li>
</ul>

<h2>Mistake #2: Not thinking&nbsp;long-term</h2>

There&rsquo;s nothing worse than getting to the end of the year or the course and not having&nbsp;your students reach their&nbsp;goals. That&rsquo;s why Dunsmore encourages teachers&nbsp;to think long-term&nbsp;and to plan out the entire year or course ahead of&nbsp;time.&nbsp;

When you set goals, make sure to keep your students&rsquo; needs top of&nbsp;mind. Make a detailed&nbsp;outline of&nbsp;when each goal should be reached&nbsp;and then plan each lesson&nbsp;accordingly.

For helpful, ready-made planning templates, check out our assortment of&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/106/resources" target="_blank">Classroom Management</a> tools or try out two of our most&nbsp;popular:

<ul>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/106/resources/2169" target="_blank">Weekly Planner</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/106/resources/2461" target="_blank">Monthly Planner</a></li>
</ul>

<h2>Mistake #3: Teaching every student the same&nbsp;way</h2>

Every student has different needs, interests, and talents. Some students might learn better through games while others may learn better through videos. That&#39;s why it&#39;s important to take the time to really get to know your&nbsp;students.

Once you learn a little more about them, Dunsmore suggests you adjust your lessons and teaching style to align with their learning needs and interests. If some students require more practice in one area, you can also assign them different homework&nbsp;exercises.

A good way to get to know your students is by having them fill out a questionnaire. You can make your own or use these&nbsp;assessment&nbsp;tools:

<ul>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/104/resources/2832" target="_blank">English Questionnaire</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/104/resources/2123" target="_blank">Autobiography &ndash;&nbsp;Beg</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/104/resources/2124" target="_blank">Autobiography &ndash;&nbsp;Int</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/104/resources/2125" target="_blank">Autobiography &ndash;&nbsp;Adv</a></li>
</ul>

<h2>Mistake #4: Overcorrecting grammar</h2>

Unless you&rsquo;re teaching a grammar class or your students are completing a written assignment, try to avoid correcting&nbsp;every single grammar mistake they&nbsp;make.

When you&#39;re having your students practice their speaking, your main goal is to get your&nbsp;students talking.&nbsp;Speaking a new language in front of other people is hard and can be intimidating for some. If you correct every grammar error they&nbsp;make, your students will get discouraged and may not want to&nbsp;talk.

<blockquote>
&quot;Fluency is more important than accuracy.&quot;

&mdash;Linda Dunsmore, TEFL &amp; TESOL Marketing Professional
</blockquote>

For more tips on how to get your students talking, check out our blog post on&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/blog/key-takeaways-from-esl-talk-podcast-on-speaking-strategies" target="_blank">effective speaking&nbsp;strategies</a>.

<h2>Mistake #5: Thinking you&rsquo;re the only&nbsp;teacher</h2>

While you may be&nbsp;the teacher, you&rsquo;re not the only teacher in the room. There will be plenty of times when your students will teach you something&nbsp;new.

Be open to exchanging ideas and learning from each other. This builds rapport, creates a meaningful and safe learning environment, and gives your students the opportunity to share their ideas with you and the rest of the&nbsp;class.&nbsp;

<div class="white-box">
<h5>Share your thoughts</h5>

Teachers, what&nbsp;other mistakes do you see happen&nbsp;in the classroom that you think should be avoided? Let us know in the comments&nbsp;below.
</div>

Key Takeaways from International TEFL & TESOL Training Webinar on Mistakes to Avoid While Teaching English

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<div class="white-box">
This article is part of a series of posts highlighting our community of teachers around the world. We hope you find their stories interesting and&nbsp;inspiring!
</div>

After working as an advisor and mentor in higher education for a number of years, Madelyn Cardenas decided it was time to pursue her true passion: teaching&nbsp;English.

&ldquo;Many times throughout my life&nbsp;I contemplated the possibility of teaching English as a second or other language,&rdquo; said Madelyn. &ldquo;My heart has always been with serving others, in particular teaching and&nbsp;mentoring.&rdquo;

After making this decision, Madelyn got her master&rsquo;s degree and graduate-level TESOL certification. To gain teaching experience, she volunteered as a teacher assistant and offered tutoring&nbsp;services.

In January 2022, she officially became a&nbsp;teacher.

<img alt="Madelyn Cardenas, a smiling woman with shoulder-length brown hair, green eyes, pearl ear cuff earrings, white sleeveless top." src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/2379/content_content_Madelyn.jpg" />

Madelyn Cardenas is pictured here.

Madelyn currently works at the <a href="https://www.vbschools.com/academic_programs/adult_education" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Adult Learning Center</a> which is offered through the <a href="https://www.vbschools.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Virginia Beach City Public Schools</a> district in Virginia. She teaches adults at the beginner&nbsp;level.

&ldquo;I feel truly fortunate to be part of the Adult Learning Center,&rdquo; said Madelyn. &ldquo;The staff are exceptional. The teachers have been key role models and their passion for teaching is&nbsp;contagious.&rdquo;

For Madelyn, a typical day of teaching starts at 8:30 am. She teaches two classes a day.

In between classes, she plans upcoming lessons, answers emails, and attends meetings when&nbsp;required.

<img alt="Madelyn standing at the front of a classroom speaking to six students sitting at their desk" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/2380/content_content_A6E78B97-FCAC-446D-9DB2-8BAB3184D09A.jpg" />

Madelyn and a few students from her afternoon class are pictured here.

<h2>How Madelyn uses Ellii in the classroom</h2>

Madelyn usually starts each class with a warm-up activity that relates to the lesson material. This is often a&nbsp;worksheet from an Ellii&nbsp;lesson.

She presents the lesson topic while encouraging student participation. Students&nbsp;then&nbsp;work on an activity in pairs or in groups. This can be a worksheet or a related game. If there&rsquo;s new vocabulary to learn, Madelyn uses <a href="https://ellii.com/flashcards" target="_blank">Ellii&nbsp;flashcards</a>.

Finally, they work through an Ellii lesson. This can be done individually or as a group. If there&rsquo;s a related grammar target in the lesson, Madelyn will show&nbsp;a video from <a href="https://www.youtube.com/c/Esl-library" target="_blank">Ellii&#39;s YouTube channel</a> that explains&nbsp;the grammar target in&nbsp;question.

One of her favorite Ellii resources to break out in class is our <a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/103/resources/2538" target="_blank">Prepositions&nbsp;of&nbsp;Place:&nbsp;In&nbsp;&amp;&nbsp;On</a>&nbsp;resource&nbsp;from our Grammar &amp; Usage&nbsp;section.

&ldquo;The images are fun&nbsp;and simple to explain and understand for my level of students,&rdquo; Madelyn said. &ldquo;They enjoyed the images and the&nbsp;activities.&rdquo;

Check out Madelyn&#39;s&nbsp;text response below to learn more about why she loves Ellii and how she uses it with her&nbsp;students.

<iframe allow="autoplay *; encrypted-media *; fullscreen *;" height="400px" src="https://www.videoask.com/ae5aqkja73g5nadkdsh37w7gzfkvd8dpdgwjmqea" style="border: none; border-radius: 24px" width="100%"></iframe>

<blockquote>
Want the chance to be featured in our Teacher Feature series? Visit our&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/blog/20th-anniversary-giveaway" target="_blank">20th Anniversary Giveaway</a>&nbsp;blog post&nbsp;to tell us why you love Ellii and how you use it in your&nbsp;classroom.
</blockquote>

Teacher Feature: Madelyn Cardenas

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<div class="white-box">
This article is part of a series of posts highlighting our community of teachers around the world. We hope you find their stories interesting and&nbsp;inspiring!
</div>

Mayra Alves became an English teacher after the school where she originally learned English asked her to work there. She worked at the school for three years before going on to teach at a local&nbsp;university.

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Mayra decided to open her own business and teach online.

Since 2020, Mayra has been teaching remotely from her home in S&atilde;o&nbsp;Paulo, Brazil. She primarily teaches adults at the A1 to B2 (Beg &ndash; High Int)&nbsp;levels.

&ldquo;I decided to&nbsp;become a teacher because I&nbsp;love the&nbsp;fact that I can inspire other people and teach them a language that&nbsp;changed my life,&rdquo;&nbsp;said Mayra. &ldquo;I always say that I didn&#39;t choose to be a teacher. Being&nbsp;a teacher chose me.&rdquo;

<img alt="Smiling young woman with short brown hair, small hoop earrings, white t-shirt." src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/2378/content_Content_Mayra.jpg" />

Mayra Alves is pictured here.

For Mayra, a typical week begins with preparation.

On Mondays, she plans out her classes for the week. Once planned, she sends her students all the information they need for their upcoming classes. The rest of the week, Mayra is busy&nbsp;teaching from 8:00 am to 7:00 pm, Tuesday through Friday. She also teaches Saturday mornings from 8:00 am until 12:00 pm.

&ldquo;The most rewarding part for me is when my students tell me they have achieved their goals because they&nbsp;started learning English with me,&rdquo; Mayra said proudly.

<h2>How Mayra Uses Ellii to Teach Virtually</h2>

Mayra is a big fan of Ellii.

One of her favorite lessons is our <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/72/lessons/3715" target="_blank">Procrastination</a>&nbsp;lesson&nbsp;from our <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/72/lessons" target="_blank">Discussion Starters</a> section because it includes grammar practice with the future perfect tense.

Check out Mayra&#39;s&nbsp;video response below to learn more about why she loves Ellii and how she uses it with her students.

<div class="videoWrapper"><iframe encrypted-media="" src="https://www.videoask.com/atep25m0aw7fkzw0fn6tlu2k7p9f651q3yd152b0"></iframe></div>

When asked if she had any advice for aspiring teachers, Mayra said it&rsquo;s important to never stop learning.&nbsp;

&ldquo;Never stop learning and improving your English and your teaching techniques. Your development is as important as your students&rsquo; development.&rdquo;

<blockquote>
Want to be featured in our Teacher Feature series? Visit our&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/blog/20th-anniversary-giveaway" target="_blank">20th Anniversary Giveaway</a>&nbsp;blog post&nbsp;to tell us why you love Ellii and how you use it in your classroom.
</blockquote>

Teacher Feature: Mayra Alves

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<div class="white-box">
This article is part of a series of posts highlighting education systems around the world. With this article, we hope to raise awareness of&nbsp;both the needs of the students and the challenges of running an English language program online. We also hope to share heartwarming and inspiring success stories with our community of teachers around the&nbsp;world.
</div>

<a href="https://www.outreach360.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Outreach360</a> was conceived&nbsp;when CEO and founder Tom Eklund visited an orphanage in the Dominican Republic in&nbsp;1994.

&ldquo;What he saw at that orphanage were children full of potential, but they just didn&rsquo;t have the same opportunities that he had had growing up,&quot; said Outreach360&#39;s President and Virtual Impact Program Director Coco Barrett. &quot;He wanted to make a difference. He wanted to make an impact for these&nbsp;children.&quot;

When Tom got back to the United States, he recruited volunteers interested in going to the Dominican and working with children. These volunteers supported orphanages, ran after-school programs, and operated learning&nbsp;centers.

Eventually, Outreach360 expanded their volunteer efforts to Nicaragua&nbsp;where they shifted away from working in orphanages to solely focus on providing educational opportunities for&nbsp;children.

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Outreach360 decided to transition to a fully virtual program permanently, allowing them to reach more people in more&nbsp;countries.

&ldquo;What we do is we bring together volunteers from all around the world with our students who are all in Latin America,&rdquo; said Academic Director Adie&nbsp;Jalfin.

<img alt="Screen view of six young students attending an Enlgish language class virtually from their home" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/2347/content_Outreach360_Virtual-Language-Class.jpg" />

A virtual language class is pictured here.

<h2>Outreach360 programs that make a difference globally</h2>

<h3>Virtual English Academy</h3>

Their <a href="https://www.outreach360.org/virtual-english-academy" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Virtual English Academy</a> is a Monday to Friday after-school program.

Through donations, students from all over Latin America receive full scholarships to attend. The program consists of formal online English classes and participation in additional enrichment&nbsp;activities.

Older students in the program also have the opportunity to receive their TEFL (English as a Foreign Language) certification so they can&nbsp;teach younger&nbsp;students.

Upon completion of the program, students are able to speak English fluently, have gained teaching experience, and are certified to teach English. Graduates have also acquired valuable skills in technology, leadership, literacy, and critical&nbsp;thinking.

&ldquo;All of our parents have communicated&nbsp;that the reason their children are in this [program] is that they&nbsp;know&nbsp;English is going to open up doors for them professionally moving forward,&quot; Adie&nbsp;said. &quot;They&rsquo;re going to have more&nbsp;opportunities.&quot;

<h3>Virtual Impact Program</h3>

Through the <a href="https://www.outreach360.org/virtualimpact" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Virtual Impact Program</a>, English teachers volunteer for three months at a&nbsp;time.

They receive training and support&nbsp;and are paired with another educator who teaches alongside them. Teachers follow a specific curriculum and are provided with pre-planned activities. If they want, they&rsquo;re welcome to plan additional&nbsp;activities.

<h2>Expanding students&#39; knowledge &amp; opportunities</h2>

The number of students Outreach360 is able to enroll in the program depends on the number of volunteers they&nbsp;have.

Presently, 60 students are enrolled in the academy and more than 100 are on a waiting list. Over the years, Outreach360 has provided educational opportunities to more than 12,000&nbsp;students.

Younaly is a student currently enrolled in the Virtual English Academy. She&rsquo;s nine years old and lives in Nicaragua. Her mother is incredibly grateful to&nbsp;Outreach360.

&quot;This opportunity that you are giving my daughter means something very important since,&nbsp;currently,&nbsp;the English language is essential in the professional field,&rdquo;&nbsp;said Younaly&#39;s&nbsp;mother.

&ldquo;In her future, she will get more opportunities to get ahead. If she wants to travel to other countries, either for work, study, or fun, she&rsquo;ll be able to communicate with other people. For these and many more reasons, I am immensely grateful to the academy for giving her this&nbsp;opportunity.&rdquo;

<img alt="Younaly sitting at her wooden desk, smiling at her laptop while wearing headphones" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/2348/content_Outreach360_Younaly.jpg" />

Younaly (age 9) is pictured here.

Similar sentiments were expressed by Kamila&rsquo;s mother, whose 8-year-old daughter is also enrolled in Outreach360&#39;s Virtual&nbsp;English&nbsp;Academy.

&ldquo;This opportunity means a lot,&rdquo; Kamila&rsquo;s mother&nbsp;said. &ldquo;Seeing my daughter putting into practice what you teach her fills me with great satisfaction. As a mother, there is nothing left to say other than a thousand&nbsp;thank-yous.&rdquo;

<img alt="Kamila wearing purple long-sleeve sweater with mint-green stripes on the arms and holding pink book with the title, The Alphabet" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/2349/content_Outreach360_Kamila.jpg" />

Kamila (age 8) is pictured here. She lives in El Salvador.

As a volunteer-run organization that receives no government funding, Outreach360 relies on donations from individuals, companies, and corporations to provide students like Younaly and Kamila with full&nbsp;scholarships.

Visit Outreach360&#39;s&nbsp;<a href="https://www.outreach360.org/donate" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">website</a> to become a monthly student sponsor or to make a one-time&nbsp;donation.

Want to stay in the loop with the latest Outreach360 news?&nbsp;<a href="https://www.outreach360.org/subscribe" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Subscribe</a>&nbsp;to their newsletter or follow them on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/outreach360" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Facebook</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/outreach360" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Twitter</a>, and <a href="https://www.instagram.com/outreach360/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Instagram</a>. You can also check out their volunteer opportunities on&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/outreach360/jobs/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">LinkedIn</a>.

<h2>More inspiring organizations</h2>

<a href="https://ellii.com/blog/taking-action-for-education" target="_blank">Taking Action for Education</a>

<a href="https://ellii.com/blog/building-an-alliance-for-international-women-s-rights" target="_blank">Building an Alliance for International Women&rsquo;s Rights</a>

<a href="https://ellii.com/blog/how-isans-creates-possibility" target="_blank">How ISANS Creates Possibility</a>

How Outreach360 Empowers Students

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<div class="white-box">
This article is part of a series of posts highlighting our community of teachers around the world. We hope you find their stories interesting and inspiring!
</div>

At 35 years old, Kieran O&#39;Driscoll left his 17-year-long career at&nbsp;Tipperary County Council and Listowel Urban District Council in the Republic of Ireland&nbsp;to pursue his twin passions:&nbsp;languages and teaching.

&ldquo;I had always, from earliest childhood, been very interested in becoming a teacher,&quot; said Kieran. &quot;At&nbsp;age 18, I took a job in local government administration in which I stayed for over 17 years,&nbsp;but the love of languages&mdash;English, Irish, and French&mdash;never left me.&quot;

<h2>A Fresh Start</h2>

Kieran went back to school to study languages and translation, got his PhD in French-English literary translation studies and Jules Verne studies, worked as a lecturer and researcher at a few Irish and UK higher education&nbsp;institutions, and got his TESOL qualifications.

Today&nbsp;he teaches intermediate-level Academic English to adult students at the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ucd.ie/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">University College Dublin</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ucdela.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">English Language Academy</a> in Dublin, Republic of Ireland.

He&rsquo;s been teaching for almost 19 years now.

&ldquo;Teaching Academic English,&nbsp;as I have done for the past few years on a university campus, is an ideal job for me as I can combine my academic research and writing experience with teaching English for specific&mdash;in my case, academic&mdash;purposes,&quot; said Kieran. &quot;I love the idea of teaching as I always loved learning.&rdquo;

<img alt="Photo of Kieran O'Driscoll" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/2263/content_content_PHOTOGRAPH_KIERAN_ODRISCOLL.jpg" />

Kieran O&#39;Driscoll&nbsp;is pictured here.

For Kieran, a typical day of teaching starts at 9:00 am. He teaches Academic English in the morning and <a href="https://www.ielts.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">IELTS (International English Language Testing System)</a> exam preparation in the afternoon. He usually ends his day with an hour or two of lesson planning, marking, and responding to emails from colleagues and students.

&ldquo;Since January 2022, I&#39;ve been fortunate enough to be back full time in the physical classroom, which my students, colleagues, and I all&nbsp;prefer as there is often better teacher-student interaction and higher-quality communicative-based teaching and learning made possible by the traditional physical setting,&quot; said Kieran.

&quot;Having said that, it does have to be acknowledged that it was really helpful to have the opportunity to continue to teach and learn online during the worst of the pandemic. I admire all students and teachers who made the best of things in a difficult situation and carried on doing education remotely.&rdquo;

<h2>How Kieran Uses Ellii in His Classroom</h2>

Kieran is big fan of Ellii and has been for a long time.

Many of his favorite lessons are from the <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/72/lessons" target="_blank">Discussion Starters</a> and&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/courses/73/lessons" target="_blank">Mini-Debates</a> sections.

&ldquo;I find the Discussion Starters and Mini-Debates really useful and engaging,&quot; he said. &quot;Always great for getting students talking, thinking critically, and working together whilst improving their reading and speaking skills. 
 
&quot;I also love the <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/111/lessons" target="_blank">Group Projects</a>, which I&#39;ve used for group presentations in both General and Academic English. Students have thus given really interesting, information-rich, and visually appealing presentations on such project topics.&rdquo;

One of his absolute favorite lessons&nbsp;is the <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/93/lessons/1867" target="_blank">St. Patrick&rsquo;s Day</a> lesson, which he taught&nbsp;this March.

&ldquo;I have a soft spot for the lesson on St. Patrick&#39;s Day as it&#39;s very relevant here in Ireland,&quot; Kieran admitted. &quot;I once again taught this lesson and students once more enjoyed it.&rdquo;

Above all, Kieran loves seeing his students reach their personal, professional, and linguistic goals.

&ldquo;Seeing them happy at the end of a lesson and at the end of their course and watching them go on to great things&mdash;the quiet satisfaction of a job well done,&rdquo; he said.

When asked if he had any advice for aspiring teachers, Kieran said it&rsquo;s important to be confident.

&ldquo;Believe in yourself, enjoy the teaching, never stop learning, and have lots of fun&nbsp;whilst cultivating a healthy work-life balance.&rdquo;

<blockquote>
Want the chance to be featured in our Teacher Feature series? Visit our <a href="https://ellii.com/blog/20th-anniversary-giveaway" target="_blank">20th Anniversary Giveaway</a>&nbsp;blog post&nbsp;to tell us why you love Ellii and how you use it in your classroom.&nbsp;
</blockquote>

&nbsp;

Teacher Feature: Kieran O'Driscoll

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Find fun games and activities for teaching English to young learners and middle schoolers. 

Young Learners

Have you heard about the <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/esl-talk/id1548652844" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">ESL Talk podcast</a>?

As described on their Apple Podcast page, ESL Talk is &ldquo;a podcast for English teachers by English teachers.&rdquo; In each episode, the hosts and their guests discuss various teaching topics, methods, and approaches pertaining to ESL teachers. It&#39;s a fantastic way to&nbsp;hone your English teaching skills&nbsp;and to stay current in your career field.

Here are some key takeaways from ESL Talk&#39;s episode on <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/teaching-young-learners/id1548652844?i=1000530253318" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">teaching young learners</a>&nbsp;that you can incorporate in your classes.

<h2>Provide Reading Activities</h2>

Whether you&rsquo;re teaching online or in class, fluency can be built through reading and reading activities.

First, choose a reading that is age-appropriate and appealing to a younger audience.&nbsp;

Next, plan out pre- and post-reading activities. <a href="https://ellii.com/blog/pre-reading-activities-to-boost-comprehension" target="_blank">Pre-reading activities</a> can include a vocabulary review with the new words that students will encounter in the reading and a discussion about the context of the text. If you&rsquo;re reading a story, students can also make predictions about the plot. <a href="https://ellii.com/blog/9-post-reading-activities-to-help-students-reflect-on-a-text" target="_blank">Post-reading activities</a> can include further discussion and writing practice to test their comprehension.

At Ellii, we have plenty of ready-made&nbsp;reading-based lessons designed for young learners. Here are some of our most popular story-based lessons:

<ul>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/132/lessons" target="_blank">Picture Stories</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/134/lessons" target="_blank">Word Bank Readers</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/90/lessons" target="_blank">Grammar Stories</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/129/lessons" target="_blank">True Grammar Stories</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/83/lessons" target="_blank">Easy Readers</a></li>
</ul>

<h2>Incorporate Movement</h2>

Young learners are full of energy!&nbsp;To help your young students focus, incorporate movement into your lessons.

You can dance for a few minutes partway through class. You can sing a song that matches the theme of the lesson. It can even be just as helpful to include a minute or two of stretching.

<blockquote>
&ldquo;Students love to get up and move around.&rdquo;

&mdash;Daniel Shaw, founder &amp; host of ESL Talk podcast
</blockquote>

Whatever movement you choose to incorporate, know that it will help your students stay focused, retain information, and remember the material.

Young students also learn by doing. They learn through their senses. Don&rsquo;t just show them a picture of a pencil. Have them actually hold and touch a pencil. Don&rsquo;t just show them a picture of someone waving. Get them to wave too!

<h2>Ask Questions</h2>

It&rsquo;s also important to make time each lesson to talk to your students. Build their conversational skills through simple questions.

You can start off by asking your young learners simple yes/no questions (e.g., Are you excited to learn today?).

When they&rsquo;re comfortable, you can ask questions using the five W&rsquo;s: who, what, when, where, and why (e.g., What did you do today?).

<h2>Build a Connection</h2>

Find a way to connect with your young students. Ask their parents what their child likes and dislikes so you can teach topics that are meaningful to them.

It&rsquo;s important to relate your lessons to their world. If your students&rsquo; have ideas for a lesson, try to incorporate them.

For example, if your students express that they like superheroes, try to include superheroes in&nbsp;the lesson.

Ellii has plenty of fun ready-to-use lessons designed to appeal to young learners. Here are a few of our most popular:

<ul>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/134/lessons/3834" target="_blank">Hannah&#39;s Halloween</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/134/lessons/3918" target="_blank">Carly&#39;s Christmas</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/136/lessons/3678" target="_blank">Fairy Tale</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/136/lessons/3828" target="_blank">Superheroes</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/117/lessons/2752" target="_blank">Astronauts</a></li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/117/lessons/2507" target="_blank">Pizza&nbsp;</a></li>
</ul>

It&#39;s also important to show enthusiasm.&nbsp;Be excited about what you&rsquo;re going to teach! If you&#39;re excited to teach, your students will be excited to learn.

<blockquote>
&quot;Enthusiasm is contagious.&quot;

&mdash;Carina, guest speaker &amp;&nbsp;experienced&nbsp;ESL&nbsp;teacher&nbsp;on ESL Talk podcast
</blockquote>

Listen to ESL Talk&#39;s&nbsp;&quot;Teaching Young Learners&quot; episode on <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/teaching-young-learners/id1548652844?i=1000530253318" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Apple Podcasts</a> or <a href="https://open.spotify.com/episode/2MMYO6usuTsJgjT1Sr6fB0?si=7wQraRPTToaKe3sg_SOeWg" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Spotify.</a> 
&nbsp;

<div class="white-box">
<h4>Share Your Thoughts</h4>

Teachers, do you have any tips for teaching young learners? Let us know in the comments below.
</div>

Key Takeaways from ESL Talk Podcast on Teaching Young Learners 

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