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<h2>Preparation is Key</h2>

<p>Most ESL teachers know what it&rsquo;s like to spend hours writing extensive lesson plans that map out every minute of the class. The reality is that things never go exactly according to schedule, and who has that kind of time, anyways? It&rsquo;s not so difficult to come up with a more basic lesson plan that you can adapt to many different classes. I&rsquo;m talking about a useful lesson plan that doesn&rsquo;t take more than a few minutes to come up with.</p>

<p>It&rsquo;s true that some teachers are quite comfortable winging it&mdash;not using a lesson plan and thinking up ideas on the spot that go along with the textbook&mdash;but this surely leads to some days where no ideas readily come to mind and you&rsquo;re stuck doing dry textbook material for the entire class. On the other hand, some teachers like to be prepared, and the idea of walking into class without a lesson plan is akin to that dream where you&rsquo;re in high school with no clothes on!</p>

<p>Lesson planning also helps when you have lower level students, or students who aren&rsquo;t very talkative. Having a good lesson plan to fall back on helps your class run smoothly with fewer awkward pauses or bored faces.</p>

<h2>To Write or Not to Write?</h2>

<p>Should you write out your lesson plan? I usually did, but you don&rsquo;t have to. I kept a notebook with a few notes about which activities or textbook pages I&rsquo;d be doing, and in what order. It usually only took me about five minutes to plan out (unless I had to search for a certain activity). I know plenty of teachers who didn&rsquo;t actually write out their lesson plans, but instead kept their photocopies in the order they would be used, and a post-it to mark where they left off in the textbook.</p>

<h2>Lesson Plan Structure</h2>

<h3>1. Warm-Up</h3>

<p>I always try to have something that&rsquo;s related to the main lesson of the day to get the students talking and/or having fun. It&rsquo;s nice to ease students into the class instead of abruptly launching into the day&rsquo;s lesson. After about a year of teaching, I had a drawer full of file folders organized by topic or grammar point with short activities to use as warm-ups, such as <a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/105/resources/3089" target="_blank">conversation&nbsp;questions</a>, <a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/125/resources" target="_blank">pictures to describe</a>, vocabulary to match up, etc. I strongly advise you to save the <a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/105/resources" target="_blank">warm-ups</a> you like and reuse them with different classes&mdash;it saves time in the long run.</p>

<p>If you&rsquo;re just starting out as a teacher, or you have a topic you&rsquo;ve never come across before, you can simply come up with <a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/105/resources/3087" target="_blank">five conversation questions</a> to write on the board for students to discuss in pairs, small groups, or as a class. Or, better yet, have students write their own questions about the topic, mix them up, hand them out, and discuss (see <a href="https://ellii.com/blog/my-favourite-fun-student-generated-speaking-activity/" target="_blank">My Favourite Fun, Student-Generated Speaking Activity</a> for more information). You could also check out&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/105/resources" target="_blank">Warm-Ups &amp; Fillers</a>&nbsp;for more warm-up activities.</p>

<h3>2. Main Lesson</h3>

<p>This is where you teach the meat of your lesson, whether it&rsquo;s through a textbook or something you&rsquo;ve created yourself. Introduce the grammar point or teach the vocabulary, then get into the practice exercises, reading, etc. Depending on how long your class is, don&rsquo;t let this part go on for too long. If you have a three-hour class, for example, I always try to have something &ldquo;fun&rdquo; planned in between long exercises that&rsquo;s still related to the lesson, such as a grammar game, speaking activity, vocabulary activity, etc. (see<a href="https://ellii.com/blog/4-activities-for-reviewing-vocabulary" target="_blank"> 4 Activities for Reviewing Vocabulary </a>for more suggestions). The goal is to prevent students from getting bored, tired, or burned out. Anything that gets the students talking, or even up and moving around, is great in between challenging textbook exercises.</p>

<h3>3. Wrap-Up</h3>

<p>I try to do a short <a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/104/resources/3085" target="_blank">wrap-up</a> at the end of each exercise, or especially at the end of the class. Often, it&rsquo;s just a matter of having a few students share their thoughts or opinions with the class, especially if it was a pair or group activity that you&#39;ve just completed. Correcting the exercise as a class, or asking the students if they have any questions, could also serve as a wrap-up. You could also do a quick review or summary on the points you just taught. The goal here is to avoid dismissing students after a long period of working silently, which gives a &ldquo;Class is over, now get out!&rdquo; impression (even if that is what you&rsquo;re thinking at times!). Try these <a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/104/resources/2228" target="_blank">Exit Slips</a>&nbsp;or a <a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/104/resources/2557" target="_blank">3-2-1 Reflection</a>.</p>

<h3>4. Extra Activity</h3>

<p>Students never work at the same pace. There are always students who are faster or slower than the rest, or sometimes you have a multi-level class. This can be a big problem, as the faster students get bored and feel like they&rsquo;re wasting their time waiting around, and the slower students get frustrated if they don&rsquo;t have enough time to finish an activity.</p>

<p>I found that having an extra activity or two prepared helped to eliminate this problem. If the class exercise is individual, have something that fast students can work on silently, such as a writing task. If the class exercise involves pairs or groups who are speaking, have an extra speaking task ready for those faster pairs/groups, such as a few extra related speaking questions.</p>

<p>You could also allow free conversation practice (just make sure they&rsquo;re not sitting there silently&mdash;some students love the chance to practice natural conversation, but some shyer students may find it awkward). This may seem like a lot of extra planning, but actually, I found I didn&rsquo;t often need the extra activity and could carry it over to the next class or two.</p>

<p>Another way to avoid planning an extra activity is to allow fast students to start their homework during class.</p>

<p>Finally, don&rsquo;t worry if some of your extra activities aren&rsquo;t related to the main lesson. I often had a stack of unrelated activities ready to use, such as word searches, grammar quizzes, or discussion topics ready in case some students were finished early (or, heaven forbid, <em>all</em> the students finished more quickly than I&rsquo;d expected!). Check out our&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/blog/categories/activities" target="_blank">Activities</a>&nbsp;category&nbsp;for more ideas.</p>

<h3>5. Homework</h3>

<p>Most students appreciate having the chance to practice and reinforce what they&rsquo;ve learned in class (especially with adult learners). Also, many schools insist on having daily or weekly homework practice. Textbooks often have workbooks that are perfect to use as homework. Also, ESL Library has many lessons that could be used as reading, writing, or grammar homework. For example, check out <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/88/lessons" target="_blank">Grammar Practice Worksheets</a><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/88/lessons" target="_blank">,</a> which has many pages that can be used as grammar homework.</p>

<h2>Ready-Made Lesson Plans</h2>

<p>I remember when I started editing lessons at <a href="http://ellii.com" target="_blank">ESL Library</a> almost a year ago, I told Tara, the head writer, how well laid out the lessons were and how much I wished I had heard about ESL Library when I was a full-time teacher. If you&rsquo;ve checked out our website&nbsp;you&rsquo;ll notice that ESL Library&rsquo;s lessons are already in a &ldquo;lesson plan&rdquo; type of format. Most of our lessons include discussion questions as a warm-up (that you can do as a class or in pairs), a reading, comprehension questions, a vocabulary review, and more discussion questions or other types of activities (see this lesson on <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/80/lessons/1324" target="_blank">Martin Luther King, Jr.</a>, for example).</p>

<p>You don&rsquo;t really have to plan anything else&hellip;you have complete lessons at your fingertips. I can see, after working here for a while, that one of ESL Library&rsquo;s main goals is to reduce the teacher&rsquo;s workload. Sounds good to me!</p>

<p>Happy planning!</p>

<p>Tanya</p>


How to Make a Lesson Plan

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<h2>So many quantifiers...so much confusion!</h2>

<p>In English, we have many words to express quantity, including <em>many, much, few, less, a lot, lots, a little,</em> etc. Today we&rsquo;ll look at some of the ways to express amounts by using the quantifiers <strong>many</strong> and <strong>much</strong>. You can remind your students of a few basic rules for using these quantifiers. You can also review using <strong>many</strong> and <strong>much</strong> in positive statements, negative statements, and questions. And since there are always exceptions to every rule of English, I&#39;ve listed some exceptions for <strong>many</strong> and <strong>much</strong> that you can pass on to your students.</p>

<h2>Many</h2>

<h3>Rule</h3>

<p><strong>Many</strong> is used with <strong>plural count nouns</strong>. These words almost always end in &ldquo;s,&rdquo; so they are easy for students to spot.</p>

<h3>Positive Statements</h3>

<p>With positive statements, the meaning of <strong>many</strong> is &ldquo;a lot, a large&nbsp;number.&rdquo;</p>

<ul>
	<li dir="ltr">She has <strong>many</strong> friend<strong>s</strong>.</li>
	<li dir="ltr">There are <strong>many</strong> problem<strong>s</strong> to solve before we can go home.</li>
</ul>

<h3>Negative Statements</h3>

<p>With negative statements, the meaning of<strong> not many</strong> is &ldquo;a few, a small number.&rdquo;&nbsp;</p>

<ul>
	<li dir="ltr">He doesn&rsquo;t have <strong>many</strong> course<strong>s</strong> this semester.</li>
	<li dir="ltr">There aren&rsquo;t <strong>many</strong> way<strong>s</strong> to use this software.</li>
</ul>

<h3>Questions</h3>

<p>With questions, <strong>many</strong> is used to ask about the number&nbsp;when the number&nbsp;is unknown.</p>

<ul>
	<li dir="ltr">How <strong>many</strong> car<strong>s</strong> do they own?</li>
	<li dir="ltr">Are there <strong>many</strong> way<strong>s</strong> to say &ldquo;thank you&rdquo; in your language?</li>
</ul>

<h3>Exceptions</h3>

<p>Point out that there are a few well-known exceptions where a plural count noun doesn&rsquo;t end in &ldquo;s.&rdquo;</p>

<ul>
	<li dir="ltr">We have <strong>many</strong> children.</li>
	<li dir="ltr">There weren&rsquo;t <strong>many</strong> people at the ceremony.</li>
</ul>

<h2>Much</h2>

<h3>Rule</h3>

<p><strong>Much</strong> is used with <strong>non-count</strong> <strong>nouns</strong>. These words almost never end in &ldquo;s,&rdquo; so they are easy for students to catch.</p>

<h3>Positive Statements</h3>

<p><strong>Much</strong> is very formal and awkward in positive statements. I tell my students to generally avoid using <strong>much</strong> in positive statements. Instead, students can use &ldquo;a lot of&rdquo; or &ldquo;lots of.&rdquo;</p>

<ul>
	<li dir="ltr"><strong>Avoid:</strong> I have much time to help you.</li>
	<li dir="ltr"><strong>Use:</strong> I have <strong>a lot of</strong> time to help you. / I have<strong> lots of</strong> time to help you.</li>
</ul>

<h3>Negative Statements</h3>

<p>With negative statements, the meaning of <strong>not&nbsp;</strong><strong>much</strong> is &ldquo;a little, a small amount.&rdquo;</p>

<ul>
	<li>She doesn&rsquo;t have <strong>much</strong> patience for people who are always late.</li>
	<li dir="ltr">It didn&rsquo;t take that <strong>much</strong> paper to print out my essay.</li>
</ul>

<h3>Questions</h3>

<p>With questions, <strong>much</strong> is used to ask about the amount when the amount is unknown.</p>

<ul>
	<li dir="ltr">How <strong>much</strong> does this sweater cost? (Point out that we usually drop the noun &ldquo;money&rdquo; because it&rsquo;s obvious.)</li>
	<li dir="ltr">How <strong>much</strong> homework do you have?</li>
</ul>

<h3>Exceptions</h3>

<p>Point out that there are a few well-known exceptions where a non-count noun ends in &ldquo;s.&rdquo;&nbsp;</p>

<ul>
	<li dir="ltr">We didn&rsquo;t have <strong>much</strong> new<strong>s</strong>.</li>
</ul>

<p>Also point out that we can use <strong>much</strong> in positive sentences with the words &ldquo;so&rdquo; and &ldquo;too&rdquo; (see <a href="https://ellii.com/blog/so-such-too/" target="_blank">So, Such &amp; Too</a> for more information and examples).</p>

<ul>
	<li dir="ltr">I love you <strong>so much</strong>.</li>
	<li dir="ltr">I had<strong> so much</strong> fun at the party last night.</li>
	<li dir="ltr">The new software caused us<strong> too much</strong> trouble, so we switched back to our old program.</li>
</ul>

<p>With the holidays coming up, I hope you get <strong>many</strong> days off! Don&rsquo;t spend too <strong>much</strong> on presents!</p>

<p>Tanya</p>

Teaching Tips: Many & Much

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<h1>I Advise You to Take My Advice...</h1>

<p>Vocabulary is one of the most difficult parts of learning a new language. There are just so many words to remember! It really doesn&rsquo;t help when two words sound the same or look the same, like <strong>advice</strong> and <strong>advise</strong>. Talk about confusing!</p>

<p>In my experience, students struggle with certain challenging word pairs whether they&rsquo;re beginners or advanced. Not surprisingly, these word pairs often end up on exams like the TOEIC. I&rsquo;ve compiled a list below of the words that I think are among the most difficult for students to keep straight.</p>

<p>Teach your students these words in depth using the info below, or just review them from time to time: either way, your students will be ahead of the game if they can master these word pairs!</p>

<h2>1. advice / advise</h2>

<p>There are differences in grammar and pronunciation for these two words.</p>

<h3>A. Advice</h3>

<ul>
	<li>Meaning: a suggestion or recommendation meant to help someone</li>
	<li>Grammar: <strong>noun</strong></li>
	<li>Pronunciation: the second syllable has an soft /s/ sound</li>
	<li>Example: She gave me some good <strong>advice</strong> when she told me to study hard.</li>
</ul>

<h3>B. Advise</h3>

<ul>
	<li>Meaning: to suggest something to someone in order to help them</li>
	<li>Grammar: <strong>verb</strong></li>
	<li>Pronunciation: the second syllable has a hard /z/ sound</li>
	<li>Example: The teacher <strong>advised</strong> the students to study hard for the final exam.</li>
</ul>

<h2>2. effect / affect</h2>

<p>There are differences in grammar for these two words. When speaking quickly and naturally, these words sound the same, so the position in the sentence (subject, verb, object) is important.</p>

<h3>A. Effect</h3>

<ul>
	<li>Meaning: the result or influence of something</li>
	<li>Grammar: <strong>noun</strong></li>
	<li>Pronunciation: when speaking slowly, the first syllable has an /i/ sound (as in t<strong>ee</strong>th), but when speaking quickly and naturally, the first syllable has a schwa sound (as in th<strong>e</strong>) because it is unstressed</li>
	<li>Example: Turning up the volume had no <strong>effect</strong> on the sleepy students.</li>
</ul>

<h3>B. Affect</h3>

<ul>
	<li>Meaning: to influence or produce an effect on</li>
	<li>Grammar: <strong>verb</strong></li>
	<li>Pronunciation:&nbsp;when speaking slowly, the first syllable has an /ae/ sound (as in c<strong>a</strong>t), but when speaking quickly and naturally, the first syllable has a schwa sound (as in th<strong>e</strong>) because it is unstressed</li>
	<li>Example: This medicine might <strong>affect</strong> your driving because it causes drowsiness.</li>
</ul>

<p>For practice with&nbsp;<strong>effect</strong> and <strong>affect</strong>, try the Vocabulary Review (on page 3) in our Famous People lesson on <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/80/lessons/1396" title="Chris Hadfield - effect, affect">Chris Hadfield</a>.</p>

<h2>3. accept / except</h2>

<p>There are differences in grammar and meaning for these two words, but they sound very similar.</p>

<h3>A. Accept</h3>

<ul>
	<li>Meaning: to receive something willingly or approve of something or someone</li>
	<li>Grammar: <strong>verb</strong></li>
	<li>Pronunciation: the first syllable has an /ae/ sound (as in c<strong>a</strong>t), but when speaking very quickly, the schwa sound (as in th<strong>e</strong>) is produced because the vowel is unstressed</li>
	<li>Example: He <strong>accepted</strong> the invitation and was looking forward to the party.</li>
</ul>

<h3>B. Except</h3>

<ul>
	<li>Meaning: with the exclusion of something or someone</li>
	<li>Grammar: <strong>preposition</strong></li>
	<li>Pronunciation:&nbsp;when speaking slowly, the first syllable has an /E/ sound (as in g<strong>e</strong>t), but when speaking quickly and naturally, the first syllable has a schwa sound (as in th<strong>e</strong>) because it is unstressed</li>
	<li>Example: I finished all my homework <strong>except</strong> for my difficult math assignment.</li>
</ul>

<h2>4. especially / specially</h2>

<p>There are differences in pronunciation for these two words. The grammar is the same and the meanings are similar, so make sure to point out to your students that &ldquo;specially&rdquo; is not common, and they will almost always use &ldquo;especially.&rdquo;</p>

<h3>A. Especially</h3>

<ul>
	<li>Meaning: in particular, to emphasize something</li>
	<li>Grammar: <strong>adverb</strong></li>
	<li>Pronunciation: there are four syllables, and the first syllable has a schwa sound (as in th<strong>e</strong>)</li>
	<li>Example: I hate all vegetables, <strong>especially</strong> broccoli.</li>
</ul>

<h3>B. Specially</h3>

<ul>
	<li>Meaning: in a special way</li>
	<li>Grammar: <strong>adverb</strong></li>
	<li>Pronunciation: there are only three syllables, and this word does not begin with a schwa sound</li>
	<li>Example: She is popular because she treats her friends <strong>specially</strong>.</li>
</ul>

<h2>5. immigrate / emigrate</h2>

<p>There are differences in pronunciation for these two words. The grammar is the same and the meanings are similar, so make sure to point out to your students that &ldquo;emigrate&rdquo; is not common, and they will almost always use &ldquo;immigrate.&rdquo;</p>

<h3>A. Immigrate</h3>

<ul>
	<li>Meaning: to move <strong>to</strong> another country</li>
	<li>Grammar: <strong>verb</strong></li>
	<li>Pronunciation: the first syllable has a /I/ (uppercase i, not lowercase L) sound (as in h<strong>i</strong>t)</li>
	<li>Example: He <strong>immigrated</strong> to Canada last year when his dad got transferred.</li>
</ul>

<h3>B. Emigrate</h3>

<ul>
	<li>Meaning: to move <strong>from</strong> another country</li>
	<li>Grammar: <strong>verb</strong></li>
	<li>Pronunciation: the first syllable has a /E/ sound (as in g<strong>e</strong>t)</li>
	<li>Example: They <strong>emigrated</strong> from Brazil in 2010, and they miss the warm weather.</li>
</ul>

<h2>6. custom / customs</h2>

<p>There are important differences in meaning for these two words. Make sure you point out that meaning A becomes &ldquo;customs&rdquo; in the plural, and takes a plural verb, but meaning B is always singular, and takes a singular verb.</p>

<h3>A. Custom</h3>

<ul>
	<li>Meaning: tradition</li>
	<li>Grammar: <strong>noun</strong></li>
	<li>Pronunciation: no /s/ sound at the end of the word in the singular, but /s/ sound at the end of the word in the plural</li>
	<li>Example: Taking your shoes off when you enter someone&rsquo;s house is a <strong>custom</strong> in my country. (Another example: Certain&nbsp;<strong>customs</strong> <strong>were</strong> followed. Note the plural verb.)</li>
</ul>

<h3>B. Customs</h3>

<ul>
	<li>Meaning: when entering another country, the place where you show your passport and declare your goods</li>
	<li>Grammar: <strong>noun</strong></li>
	<li>Pronunciation: /s/ sound is always at the end of the word</li>
	<li>Example: I always get nervous when I go through <strong>customs</strong> at the airport. (Another example: <strong>Customs</strong> <strong>was</strong> intimidating. Note the singular verb.)</li>
</ul>

<hr />
<p>I hope this clears up the confusion for your students! Tanya</p>

6 Commonly Confused Word Pairs

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<blockquote>&quot;Study the past if you would define the future.&quot; ~ Confucius</blockquote>

<p>Teaching students about historical events can get them excited about learning. The trick is to bring history to life and make it more tangible than a textbook offers. Students need to experience history, not just read about it. One way students can get a perspective about a historical event is to create a timeline. Timelines act as graphic organizers that help learners categorize, sequence, and analyze the events and people that create that particular history. Timelines also help learners to chunk difficult language and summarize in their own words how they understand the history they read about.</p>

<h2>Timeline Tools</h2>

<p>Below are various free multimedia online tools that your students can use to create timelines of any historical event.</p>

<p><a href="http://www.tiki-toki.com/">Tiki-Toki</a>&nbsp;- Create multimedia timelines on the web with text, images (Flickr supported), and video (choose from YouTube or Vimeo).</p>

<p><a href="http://www.timetoast.com/">Timetoast</a>- This is embeddable in a blog or wiki and allows students to add text and images. This tool is very simple to use and allows for longer descriptions when clicked.</p>

<p><a href="http://timerime.com/">TimeRime</a>&nbsp;- Another embeddable timeline that supports events with text, images, music, and more. Has zooming features and other cool features for educators.</p>

<p><a href="http://timeglider.com/?tab=free">Timeglider</a>&nbsp;- Create multimedia timelines with text, links, and images to accompany dates and events. It has zooming features, allows embedding, and the ability to create legends.</p>

<p><a href="http://www.thinglink.com/">Thinglink</a>&nbsp;- This is more a multimedia poster but students can add an image of a historical event then create dates that are linked to multimedia resources.</p>

<h2>A Few Activities and Ideas</h2>

<p>Creating a multimedia timeline is just part of the process of bringing that historical event to life, but students can experience more while researching and collecting resources to include in their timeline. Below are a few tips and ideas to ensure your learners get the most out of the process.</p>

<h3>Interviews</h3>

<ul>
	<li>Students can interview someone who is tied to the event. They can interview someone from a museum or a relative or conduct a Skype interview with a person located somewhere else.</li>
</ul>

<h3>Primary Resources</h3>

<ul>
	<li>Students can include video or audio excerpts of people who experienced the event. Find primary resources on sites like <a href="http://www.history.com/">History.com</a>, the <a href="http://www.loc.gov/index.html">Library of Congress</a>, <a href="http://www.scholastic.com/scholastic_thanksgiving/">Scholastic</a>, and <a href="http://storycorps.org/">StoryCorps audio interviews</a>.</li>
	<li>Students can add primary writing excerpts and quotes to their timeline such as images or PDFs of handwritten letters, poetry, newspaper articles and diary entries. In this post, Richard Byrne lists <a href="http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2011/10/9-sources-for-historical-images.html#.UJtmneOe_pQ">9 websites to find all types of primary resources</a>.</li>
</ul>

<h3>Digital Reenactments of Events</h3>

<ul>
	<li>Students can create a digital comic of the event using&nbsp;<a href="http://www.creaza.com/">Creaza</a>.</li>
	<li>Students can create a talking avatar with <a href="http://www.voki.com/">Voki</a>. It has a library of historical figures to choose from. Students can use their voices to make the avatar speak or type in the text.</li>
</ul>

<h3>Geography of the Events</h3>

<ul>
	<li>Students can include links to virtual tours of the event. Find a good list of historical virtual tours in this article, <a href="http://thwt.org/index.php/presentations-multimedia/virtual-tours">Teaching History with Technology: Virtual Tours</a>.</li>
	<li>Students can include links to maps or images of what the area looked like when the event took place. Find <a href="http://www.davidrumsey.com/">historical maps here</a>, <a href="http://www.timemaps.com/">interactive maps with timelines here</a>, and <a href="http://www.the-map-as-history.com/">animated historical maps here</a>.</li>
</ul>

<p>What other ideas do you have?</p>


Timeline Tools, Resources, and Activities

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<h1>So Much Controversy Over a Tiny Punctuation Mark!</h1>

<p>Also known as the series comma, the Oxford comma, and the Harvard comma, the serial comma has been cause for debate for many years. When I became the editor for ESL Library, I was thrilled to learn that their house style included the serial comma, because I prefer to use it myself. I&rsquo;ve worked for other clients who&rsquo;ve shunned its use, and it&rsquo;s been hard to remember to leave it out. Even the style guides can&rsquo;t seem to agree. <em>The Chicago Manual of Style </em>recommends its use, but the <em>AP Stylebook</em> does not. What do you do? Let&rsquo;s have a look at some of the reasons to love the serial comma, and some of the reasons to dump it.</p>

<h2>To Use</h2>

<p>The first reason that comes to mind is <strong><em>clarity</em></strong>. Sometimes a serial comma is necessary to make the meaning of the sentence clear. One famous example that made the rounds on the internet was the sentence &ldquo;We invited the strippers, JFK, and Stalin.&rdquo; In this case, the meaning is clear&mdash;both JFK and Stalin were invited, as well as two or more strippers. Good times! However, if you don&rsquo;t use the serial comma, as in &ldquo;We invited the strippers, JFK and Stalin&rdquo; you could assume that JFK and Stalin <em>were</em> the strippers. No thanks! Another reason for the serial comma is that its use reflects <strong><em>how we speak</em></strong>. In essence, commas are representations of pauses we make when we speak. To me, not using the serial comma means we shouldn&rsquo;t pause at that part of the sentence when we speak. For example, think of the following sentence: I like apples, oranges, and pears. Which sounds better:</p>

<ul>
	<li>
	<p>I like apples, oranges, and pears. = I-like-apples (pause) oranges (pause) and-pears.</p>
	</li>
	<li>I like apples, oranges and pears. = I-like-apples (pause) oranges-and-pears.</li>
</ul>

<p>To me, using the serial comma (and therefore pausing) sounds better, both in my head and out loud. Maybe I should just stop talking to myself so much! ;)</p>

<h2>Not to Use</h2>

<p>I think the best argument not to use the serial comma is <strong><em>length</em></strong>. Your sentence is one character shorter without it, and since the meaning is generally the same with or without it, why bother making the sentence longer? I also think that not using it seems to be getting more common. Because of the AP and CP style guides, we don&rsquo;t usually see the serial comma in newspapers or magazines. And with the advent of texting, making everything shorter is the popular choice! No matter what you decide to do, the important thing is to be consistent. Whether you have a strong opinion about it, or you were just taught to write a certain way, keep it consistent and you can&#39;t go wrong. So make a choice, stick to it(,) and have no regrets!</p>

<p>&mdash;Tanya</p>

In Defence of the Serial Comma

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<blockquote>&ldquo;Clothes make a statement. Costumes tell a story.&rdquo;<br />
&mdash;Mason Cooley</blockquote>

<p>Teachers worldwide will introduce children to Halloween culture and traditions this year. Halloween is one of those holidays that children love to learn about even if it is not practiced in their countries because they get to dress up in costumes and eat candy. Even if you do not teach Halloween, the following activities are fun for children and help spark their creativity.</p>

<h2>A Few Wicked Web 2.0 Activities</h2>

<p>Below is a list of websites and apps and ideas on how to integrate them with your students.</p>

<h3>Skeleton Dance&nbsp;</h3>

<p>Your students upload their photos&nbsp;and their friends photos to star in this <a href="https://www.jibjab.com/view/template/skeleton_dance">Skeleton Dance</a> video. Your students will love doing this and posting on Facebook or emailing to others or their friends. Follow up this activity by doing any of these writing activities.</p>

<ul>
	<li>Have students use their imagination and write a story stating how and where they took this video.</li>
	<li>Divide your students into pairs or small groups and have them write a dialogue about the events leading to this video. They can write down the setting, character descriptions, and dialogue. You can <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1FDTcjHxZGiBgDJ1pjfKGdSnQoPp7ToOkM2YYJHFp6Uo/edit">use this worksheet as a framework</a>.</li>
	<li>Divide your students into pairs or small groups and have them write a plan for a Halloween party they are throwing together. This will be the main entertainment. For an added bonus pick one of the ideas or a few to incorporate in a class/club/school Halloween party.</li>
	<li>Divide your students into small groups and have them create a play in which this would be one of the main scenes.</li>
</ul>

<h3>Halloween Jokes</h3>

<p>Jokes can be cultural, but they are a great way to study vocabulary and how words can mean something entirely different in various contexts. <a href="https://www.activityvillage.co.uk/halloween-jokes">Activity Village</a> has a list of free kid-friendly jokes and various ways to print them out and use them in class. Here are a few more ideas.</p>

<ul>
	<li>Divide students in pairs. Have them pick out 2 to 3 jokes they memorize from the list and retell in front of their peers.</li>
	<li>Print the jokes and cut the paper into strips with each joke listed and it&rsquo;s punchline on a different strip. Walk around and have students pull out a strip. They must go around the room and try to determine which punchline goes with what joke. Have them sit together when they think they find their match. After gather as a class and have each pair tell their joke to check if they actually found the right match.</li>
	<li>Have students pick out 2 to 3 jokes they memorize from the list. Then play the game mingle. Students are in pairs and are given 30 seconds to a minute to tell their jokes to their peers. You then blow the whistle and they must tell their joke to a different student.</li>
	<li>Divide students in pairs. Have students pick out 2 to 3 jokes they memorize from the list. Have them use the following free sites to have their characters retell the joke. They can use <a href="http://www.makebeliefscomix.com/">MakeBeliefs Comix</a>&nbsp;or&nbsp;<a href="http://www.xtranormal.com/">Xtranormal</a>. If you want them to use their mobile devices, try the&nbsp;free dialogue apps,&nbsp;<a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/puppet-pals-pocket/id395844666?mt=8">PuppetPals</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="http://outfit7.com/apps/talking-news/">Talking Ben and Tom News Reporter</a>.</li>
	<li>Have students create their own Halloween jokes in response to these and share them with the class.</li>
</ul>

<h3>Wicked Stories</h3>

<p>Students often love to listen to and create their own spooky stories. It&rsquo;s a great way to learn English and be creative. For older students, have them create stories they will read to younger students or their children. Teenagers love reading stories to younger children and the younger children love it as well. These sites will help inspire students with their stories.</p>

<ul>
	<li>I love the Digital ELT Play site which is filled with great Halloween story games where students walkthrough the story and complete tasks. You can find a great free lesson plan provided for each game for various levels and ages. Here is a list of their <a href="http://www.digitalplay.info/blog/2012/10/05/top-ten-for-halloween/">top 10 Halloween lesson plans</a> that incorporate games.</li>
	<li>Use a site like <a href="http://theshadowlands.net/places/">Shadowlands</a> to discover haunted places in your area or other places. Have students choose one of the haunted places to research for a writing project. They can retell the story with audio and visuals using <a href="http://animoto.com/">Animoto</a>&nbsp;or&nbsp;<a href="http://www.fotobabble.com/">Fotobabble</a>. Have them use a Google Map to tell the story and mark the locations by time and event. These are great tools to do that: <a href="http://www.meograph.com/">Meograph</a>, <a href="http://www.scribblemaps.com/">ScribbleMaps</a>, or <a href="http://www.tripline.net/">Tripline</a>.</li>
	<li>Many of the stories at <a href="http://themoonlitroad.com/">Moonlit Road</a> have audio and visuals to go along with them. You can create entire lesson plans based on any of these.</li>
	<li>Have students use these story prompts sites to create their own Halloween stories: <a href="http://www.theholidayzone.com/halloween/writing.html">Writing Prompts for Halloween</a>, or <a href="http://jlbenet.com/horrorstoryprompts.html">Spooky Story Prompts</a>.</li>
	<li>Have students create Halloween stories using <a href="http://storybird.com/">Storybird</a>.</li>
	<li>Create a class spook story on the free <a href="http://www.boomwriter.com/">BoomWriter site</a>.</li>
</ul>

<h3>Pumpkin Sites</h3>

<p>Even if you don&rsquo;t celebrate Halloween, your students will enjoy pumpkin carving. It was one of the favorite activities my students of all ages did in Germany. Here are a few online carving sites and games that teach words as well.</p>

<ul>
	<li><a href="http://www.abcya.com/pumpkin_carving.htm">Carve a Pumpkin Online</a> for young kids</li>
	<li><a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/carve-pumpkin-from-parents/id394900607?mt=8">Carve a Pumpkin app</a>- With this great app from Parents magazine, kids create a jack-o-lantern that lights up after it is carved. Kids can add spooky stickers to their pumpkin. There are various pumpkins to choose from and backgrounds. Have the students e-mail the e-cards to friends of family members. A follow-up task includes having students get into pairs. Student A describes the pumpkin created. Student B must try to recreate the pumpkin by the verbal description. Make sure the students save the pumpkin to their photo library to compare. You can also have students try to carve their pumpkins in real life after the drawing.</li>
	<li><a href="http://www.starfall.com/n/holiday/halloween/play.htm?f">Pumpkin carving Starfall site</a> for small kids that also teaches them pronunciation</li>
</ul>

<h2>More Great Websites and Resources</h2>

<p>You can find more ideas in these posts:</p>

<ul>
	<li>Tons of <a href="http://preparednotscared.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Halloween?updated-max=2010-10-15T00:08:00-06:00&amp;max-results=20">Halloween printables, crafts, and games</a></li>
	<li>Tons of <a href="http://www.squidoo.com/Halloween-Party-Games">Halloween games</a> for kids to play in class or for a party</li>
</ul>


10+ Wicked Web 2.0 Activities for Halloween

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<h1>Use this easy method to get the conversation rolling!</h1>

<p>Teachers want their students to talk as much as possible, since conversation practice helps students improve their pronunciation and listening skills, and allows them to put the grammar and vocabulary they&rsquo;ve learned to use.</p>

<p>Speaking is a fundamental part of communication in another language. But sometimes, getting students to speak is a real challenge! Textbooks, filled with written work and drill-type activities, aren&rsquo;t always helpful.</p>

<p>So what can teachers do? Fear not! Remember that students usually <em>want</em> to talk. Their favorite types of activities are generally ones that involve communication and interaction. Providing students with fun speaking activities, therefore, will almost always be met with an enthusiastic response. Give my favorite speaking activity a try!</p>

<h2>Student-Generated Questions</h2>

<p>By having students write their own questions, you are getting them directly involved in the conversation before it even begins! They are also more likely to listen to each other&rsquo;s answers (something that is often a challenge) because they want to hear how others will respond to their questions. Usually, you will end up with funny, interesting questions that students are interested in discussing.</p>

<h3>General Method</h3>

<ul>
	<li>Cut up enough small squares or strips of blank paper so that each student gets five squares. To save trees, use the back of used paper!</li>
	<li>Pass out five squares to each student.</li>
	<li>Get students to write one question on each of the five squares. You can provide a topic, such as &ldquo;travel&rdquo; for lower levels, or &ldquo;controversial issues&rdquo; for higher levels. You could also choose whatever topic you&rsquo;ll be discussing in class that day/week. Sometimes I even give &ldquo;your choice&rdquo; of topics to the students, and I find that this ends up being the most fun&hellip;it allows them to ask silly or creative questions.</li>
	<li>Circulate and correct students&rsquo; vocab and grammar as they are writing out their questions. (This also allows you to check that nothing inappropriate is being asked.)</li>
</ul>

<h3>Variation 1</h3>

<ul>
	<li>Put the students into small groups of three or four. I&rsquo;ve found that small groups provides students with ample speaking time as well as with a good variety of opinions.</li>
	<li>You can set a time limit (such as 20 minutes) if you&rsquo;d like. For groups that finish quickly, you can give them some questions that another group has already used.</li>
	<li>You can follow up as a class after all the groups are finished. You could ask something like, &ldquo;What was the funniest or most interesting thing your group talked about?&rdquo;</li>
</ul>

<h3>Variation 2</h3>

<ul>
	<li>Do this activity as a whole class. That way, the students will get to hear all of their questions being asked and responded to, which is fun for them.</li>
	<li>You can ask the same question to more than one student, too. Keep the conversation going by asking if others agree or disagree with a student&rsquo;s response.</li>
	<li>Keep in mind that shy students have trouble speaking in front of the rest of their classmates. Solve this by keeping the atmosphere informal and allowing students&#39; answers to be short. Jump in with prompts or interjections to keep them talking, if need be. Remind students that this isn&rsquo;t a presentation, just natural conversation practice.</li>
	<li>Since this variation will take the most time, set a limit, for example 20 questions a day. You can then continue to use these students&rsquo; questions as a warm-up every day for a week or so, if you&rsquo;d like!</li>
	<li>I&#39;ve found that doing this activity as a class really allows classmates to bond with each other.</li>
</ul>

<h3>Variation 3</h3>

<ul>
	<li>Put the students into pairs. While this way won&rsquo;t provide them with many opinions, they will get in the most speaking time.</li>
	<li>You can follow up as a class after all the pairs are finished. You could ask something like, &ldquo;What was the funniest or most interesting thing you and your partner talked about?&rdquo;</li>
	<li>This variation works well in private or semi-private lessons, too.</li>
</ul>

<p>For more ways to get your students talking, check out our <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/72/lessons" target="_blank">Discussion Starters</a> section or the other interesting posts in the <a href="https://ellii.com/blog/" target="_blank">ESL Library blog</a>!</p>

<p>Happy chatting, Tanya</p>


My Favorite Fun, Student-Generated Speaking Activity

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<p>Help your students get to know each other and feel more comfortable right from the start!</p>

<p>First days are stressful for students and teachers alike. Naturally, it&rsquo;s a little difficult to feel at home in a classroom when there is a sea of new faces around you.</p>

<p>Students usually worry about their English level and that they won&rsquo;t be able to express themselves properly when they&rsquo;re called on. Introductions are an essential first step to putting everyone at ease, but sometimes, talking about yourself while everyone is staring at you is the most anxiety-producing part of the first day!</p>

<p>As teachers, using an icebreaker activity that varies from the traditional self-introduction can help students feel a lot more comfortable in your classroom.</p>

<h2>Interview a classmate</h2>

<p>This is one of my favorite icebreaker activities because it gives students a chance to talk to just one person for a while before getting to know everyone else. I find my students are far more comfortable with a pair activity rather than with a group activity on the first day, and often they form instant friendships with the person they are paired up with.</p>

<h3>Beg &ndash; Low-Int</h3>

<p>1. Give students a list of questions, either on a handout or on the board.</p>

<ul>
	<li>
	<p>Suggestions: What&rsquo;s your name? Where are you from? Do you have any brothers or sisters? Do you have any pets? What do you like to do in your free time? What do you do/what would you like to do in the future (job)? Do you prefer summer or winter? What&rsquo;s your favorite food? What&rsquo;s your favorite movie? What kind of music do you like? Etc.</p>
	</li>
</ul>

<p>2. Put students into pairs.</p>

<p>3. Have them ask each other all the questions. Assign a time limit, such as 10&ndash;15 minutes.</p>

<p>4. If some students are finished quickly, encourage them to think of other questions to ask each other.</p>

<p>5. When everyone is finished, have each student introduce their partner to the rest of the class. You can allow them to give as much information as they want, but if you have a big class, you may want to limit their talking time by saying something like, &ldquo;Tell us three interesting things that you learned about your partner.&rdquo;</p>

<h3>High-Int&nbsp;&ndash; Adv</h3>

<p>1. Put students into pairs.</p>

<p>2. Tell them they should get to know each other by asking any questions they&rsquo;d like. Assign a time limit, such as 15&ndash;20 minutes.</p>

<p>3. If some students are finished more quickly than others, encourage them to continue their conversation by asking their partner to elaborate on something that they found interesting during the interview.</p>

<p>4. When everyone is finished, have each student introduce their partner to the rest of the class. You can allow them to give as much information as they want, but if you have a big class, you may want to limit their talking time by saying something like, &ldquo;Tell us three interesting things that you learned about your partner.&rdquo;</p>

<p>By using this method, I hope you and your students will feel relaxed and comfortable!</p>

My Favorite Icebreaker Activity

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<blockquote>&ldquo;As soon as I saw you, I knew an adventure was going to happen.&rdquo; &ndash; Winnie The Pooh</blockquote>

<p>One of my favorite activities I show teachers is to go into a play area and watch very young kids learn without the parameters of a school. When you observe kids playing with other kids, they are exploring their curiosities and discovering ways to make sense of their world. At the same time, they are motivated and engaged because they have the freedom to explore hands-on and no one is telling them they shouldn&rsquo;t or can&rsquo;t.</p>

<p>Unfortunately, when kids go to school, they end up mostly sitting in their desks for the majority of the class period. As teachers, we can ensure they get to explore, move, and achieve their learning objectives.</p>

<p>Below are a few ideas and resources to get you started, as well as some reasons why you should give it a try.</p>

<h3>Lesson Ideas</h3>

<p>Here a few ideas to get your students moving:</p>

<ul>
	<li>Take a lesson outside! Make it a hands-on adventure where students are paired or grouped and allowed to explore within a confined and chaperoned space for a few minutes. Then have them gather back as a group and show their findings to the rest of the class.</li>
	<li>Have students play a game. Students can play various games like Simon Says and the musical chairs to get them moving. Here is a <a href="http://pinterest.com/shellyterrell/kids-classroom-games-for-learning/">list of several classroom games</a> including jump rope chants.</li>
	<li>Get them to jump rope and speak English.</li>
	<li>Get them to do <a href="http://pinterest.com/shellyterrell/total-physical-response/">Total Physical Response</a> tasks with <a href="http://pinterest.com/shellyterrell/chanting-games/">chants</a>.</li>
	<li>Sit on pillows on the floor for your next discussion or take the discussion outside.</li>
	<li>Take a class field trip and get students to create videos where they find specific information and report it live. They can use digital cameras, their cell phones, or an app like <a href="http://outfit7.com/apps/talking-news/">Talking Tom and Ben Newsreporter</a>.</li>
	<li>Get students to do stretches or yoga and when they use part of the body they can name what they are doing.</li>
	<li>Take in a game console for a day or once a week as a treat. A&nbsp;Wii, Playstation or other game console will have your learners using English to play interactive games. They can play guitar hero, Wii sports, Dance! Dance! Revolution, singing games and so much more. <a href="http://www.pearltrees.com/shellyterrell/learning-game-consoles-ar/id5627627">These resources</a> will give you some ideas.</li>
	<li>Try integrating a mobile device and do things like host scavenger hunts. Specific ideas are <a href="http://teacherbootcamp.edublogs.org/2012/04/23/magical-moments-in-mobile-learning-20-tips-resources/">included in this post</a>.</li>
	<li>Set-up tasks in a <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/ShellTerrell/getting-learners-to-speak-english-during-the-break">class calendar that students aim to complete</a>. This could include visiting the local library, finding a sign in English, and more. These are tasks that students complete outside of school and for points. By the end of each month, the students can exchange their points for small prizes like stamps, stickers, badges, cool erasers or whatever else you can imagine. Sharon Hartle includes a <a href="http://hartlelearning.wordpress.com/2011/12/04/christmas-is-approaching/">PowerPoint advent calendar</a> here that you can edit and customize. Use this <a href="http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/how-to-create-a-personalized-advent-calendar-HA010336527.aspx?CTT=3">template to create a calendar in PowerPoint or </a> this <a href="http://ilearntechnology.com/?p=4395">post by Kelly Tenkely</a> will help you create one through Glogster or Wix.</li>
	<li>Set-up a karaoke or dance day! <a href="http://gret.wordpress.com/2010/12/12/divingintoaskypingadventure/">Greta Sandler</a> does this with her English learners in Argentina and they look forward to every Friday when they can sing.</li>
</ul>

<h3>More Resources</h3>

<ul>
	<li><a href="http://teacherbootcamp.edublogs.org/2011/02/08/goal-7-play-and-have-fun-30goals/">Play and Have Fun with Your Classes!</a></li>
	<li><a href="http://www.livebinders.com/play/play_or_edit?id=169047">How Do I Make My Classroom a Playground?</a></li>
</ul>

<h3>Reasons Why?</h3>

<p>When your students are active physically while learning they:</p>

<ul>
	<li>Get more physical activity, which promotes physical and mental well-being</li>
	<li>Are using up their natural energy which makes managing classroom behavior easier</li>
	<li>Release endorphins that get them thinking creatively and feeling good</li>
	<li>Look forward to your classes</li>
	<li>Discover that learning is all around them</li>
	<li>Store more in their long-term memory, which is often seen in <a href="http://pinterest.com/shellyterrell/total-physical-response/">Total Physical Response</a> activities</li>
</ul>

<p>What ways do you get your learners moving and learning English?</p>


We Like To Move It

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<h3>What do you do when you&rsquo;re just plain stumped?</h3>

<p>Sound familiar? A student asks a seemingly innocuous question, and suddenly our faces start to go red, we start to stammer, and beads of perspiration form on our foreheads because we just can&rsquo;t think of the answer. Contrary to what students might think or expect,&nbsp;teachers aren&rsquo;t walking dictionaries or style guides. Even after years of experience, there are always some questions that you just don&rsquo;t know the answers to. So when you face this situation, and you <em>will </em>face it often, what do you do? Here are some tips based on how I&rsquo;ve dealt with this over the past ten years.</p>

<h3>What you shouldn&rsquo;t say:</h3>

<p><strong>1. Don&rsquo;t lie and make up a reason.</strong> Remember that teachers get stumped all the time. It happens to everyone. Resist the impulse to try to fake your way out of it by lying&hellip;this only makes things worse. Even if you don&rsquo;t go home and look it up, some students will, and they&rsquo;ll confront you about your lie the next day.<br />
<br />
<strong>2. Don&rsquo;t say, &ldquo;That&rsquo;s just the way it is&rdquo; or &ldquo;Just because.&rdquo;</strong> This is the easy way out and it&rsquo;s very tempting, but it&rsquo;s not going to help students. They asked the question because they are truly trying to figure out the mysterious, complex English language. It&rsquo;s funny how teachers worry about losing face when unable to answer a question, yet students often have more respect for them if they admit they&rsquo;re not sure of the answer and need to look it up. Most students will accept this without batting an eye.<br />
<br />
<strong>3. Don&rsquo;t tell students that it&rsquo;s an exception.</strong> It may very well turn out to be an exception, but until you&rsquo;ve looked it up and know this for a fact, avoid this easy-out answer. However, when I have looked something up and can&rsquo;t find an answer, I have come back to students with &ldquo;I&rsquo;m sorry, I couldn&rsquo;t find out anything about it. It&rsquo;s probably an exception, and you&rsquo;ll just have to try to remember it.&rdquo;</p>

<h3>What you should say:</h3>

<p><strong>1. Make students feel proud for stumping you.</strong> Try saying something like, &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not often I get stumped on a question, but you did it; good for you!&rdquo; This reinforces that it&rsquo;s not a common occurrence, and gives that student a bit of positive attention. After a few years of teaching, I found that I started to look forward to the times when I could be surprised by a question, and I enjoyed researching the answer and learning something new.<br />
<br />
<strong>2. Empathize with your students.</strong> You can say something like, &ldquo;Isn&rsquo;t English difficult? I know the answer is X, but I&rsquo;m not sure about the reason. Let me look it up tonight and get back to you tomorrow.&rdquo; Remember that students are often relieved to find out that English is hard for everyone, sometimes even for teachers. (Also, before saying this, I would often throw up my hands or roll my eyes and say, &ldquo;Crazy English!&rdquo; This usually brought on fits of laughter from students and diffused the situation nicely.)<br />
<br />
<strong>3. Enlist your coworkers.</strong> You can try saying, &ldquo;Hmmm, that&rsquo;s an interesting question. I&rsquo;m going to ask the other teachers at lunch and get back to you.&rdquo; Often it&rsquo;s something simple that you&rsquo;ve just forgotten, and a coworker will think of it right away or can help you figure it out. With this strategy, even if you come back without an answer, you can say, &ldquo;None of the other teachers were sure about this, so I think it&rsquo;s just an exception&rdquo; and &ldquo;If English teachers don&rsquo;t know the answer, it&rsquo;s not worth worrying about.&rdquo; Don&rsquo;t forget that students are often so worried about understanding every little detail that they lose sight of the big picture.<br />
<br />
<strong>4. Come back to it later.</strong> If you&rsquo;re feeling particularly embarrassed (on your first day or when you&rsquo;re being evaluated, for example), you can always say, &ldquo;That&rsquo;s a great question, but I&rsquo;ll explain it tomorrow since we don&rsquo;t have time today.&rdquo; That way, you buy yourself some time. You could also say, &ldquo;We&rsquo;re just going to move on now, so I&rsquo;ll talk to you about it during the break.&rdquo; It&rsquo;s far less embarrassing to admit you&rsquo;re unsure to just one student. I&rsquo;ve even brought out a reference book during a break and looked something up together with the student(s); they enjoy being involved.</p>

<h3>Where can you find answers?</h3>

<p><strong>1. Grammar Reference Books:</strong> Having a reference book is a must-have for teachers. Most schools will provide one or two in the teachers&rsquo; room, but I invested in one to have on my desk so it would be available at any time.</p>

<ul>
	<li>Collins Cobuild &ndash; <em>English Grammar</em></li>
	<li>Azar &ndash; <em>Understanding and Using English Grammar</em> &ndash; 4<sup>th</sup> Edition &ndash; my personal favorite. (Azar actually isn&rsquo;t a reference book, but a students&rsquo; book. However, the explanations at the beginning of every chapter are clear and concise, and often help me frame my answers to students&rsquo; questions.)</li>
</ul>

<p><strong>2. Dictionaries:</strong> Any English&ndash;English dictionary will do, but here are some well-known ones.</p>

<ul>
	<li><em>Merriam-Webster&rsquo;s Collegiate Dictionary</em> &ndash;&nbsp;11<sup>th</sup> Edition &ndash; US spelling.</li>
	<li><em>Oxford Canadian Dictionary of Current English</em> &ndash; Canadian spelling.</li>
	<li><em>Oxford English Dictionary</em> &ndash; UK spelling.</li>
</ul>

<p><strong>3. Style Guides:</strong> Styles guides are something I wasn&#39;t familiar with when I was teaching, but are essential to me now as an editor. I only wish I knew about this invaluable resource back when I was teaching, because answers about grammar and usage are often easier to find in these types of books (especially true for some of the stranger questions you&rsquo;ll get).</p>

<ul>
	<li><em>The Chicago Manual of Style</em> &ndash; 16<sup>th</sup> Edition</li>
	<li><em>Merriam-Webster&rsquo;s Dictionary of English Usage</em></li>
</ul>

<p><strong>4. Websites:</strong> There are many websites and forums that provide answers to grammar-related questions, including <a href="http://chicagomanualofstyle.org" target="_blank">chicagomanualofstyle.org</a>, where you can sign up for a free 30-day trial. When I can&rsquo;t find an answer in one of the above places, I type my question or key word(s) into a search engine, and click on the first couple of links. Just be careful to check more than one site, since you may have more than one opinion to sort through. I use options 1-3 before checking a website, but sometimes the student&rsquo;s question is so unusual that I can only get the answer from the Web.</p>

<h3>To Sum Up</h3>

<p>Stay calm, don&rsquo;t panic, and above all, don&rsquo;t let your fear of embarrassment stop you from asking students if they have any questions. I strongly feel that teachers should encourage students to ask questions and help them better understand our fascinating language. All we can do is try our best to answer them. So what&rsquo;s your strategy? I hope we can pool our resources in the comments section below; it&rsquo;d be great if we could share our strategies and favorite reference materials with each other!<br />
<br />
Here&rsquo;s hoping you&rsquo;re seldom stumped!<br />
&mdash;Tanya</p>

How to Answer Students’ Questions

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<blockquote>&ldquo;Be regular and orderly in your life, so that you may be violent and original in your work.&quot;&nbsp;~&nbsp;Gustave Flaubert</blockquote>

<p>Learning online can be an incredible journey but at some point, you may feel overwhelmed with the surplus of information and resources. You may feel very excited about a resource you come across, but want to access that resource at some other date. Perhaps, you are teaching your students how to research online and they want to bookmark and create notes on websites. Many free webtools exist to help us quickly save, bookmark, categorize, store, and share information. These tools are very advanced and store our information&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_computing">in the cloud</a>. Our information and the way we organize it is stored in cyberspace so that we have access to it when we connect to the Internet. Below are ways that I use this technology to keep me organized wherever I go. I hope the following tips and resources will help you and your students keep organized.</p>

<h3>Googlize It!</h3>

<p>Jump on the bandwagon and get a Google account if you haven&rsquo;t already. Google has so many tools that keep you organized and save you time. I will list a few of my favorites and how to use them. Learn more about each and&nbsp;<a href="http://www.google.com/intl/en/about/products/index.html">download them here</a>.</p>

<p><strong>Gmail &ndash;</strong> Make the switch to Gmail. It has so many features and ways to keep organized. You can keep emails in various folders, star those that have priority, and filter emails into folders by keywords. The search feature is amazing and quick. Plus, the interface continues to get more intelligent and integrates with various Google apps and tools. For example, when my email has a date, my Gmail will often pick that up and give me options to schedule that event in my Google Calendar. Another feature I enjoy is how easy it is to create contacts and categorize them. Next to each email, on the right-side, I can see an image of the contact if they are on GooglePlus or have a Google account, and I can add them to circles, chat with them, or edit their details. My Android smartphone automatically syncs these contacts with their information and images.</p>

<p><strong>Google Drive &ndash;</strong> If you haven&rsquo;t already, make the switch from Google Apps to Google Drive. You have to sign up for it and it will take a few days to be accepted. Once you do, you will have access to a storage platform that goes wherever you install it. It allows you to create and store text documents, PDFs, slide presentations, videos, spreadsheets, forms, surveys, and more! You can categorize the files in folders and give links to anyone you want to have access to them or edit them. The search feature is very advanced with many options. The best feature, though, is that whatever is on your Google Drive goes everywhere you go because you can install Google Drive on your desktop, mobile device, or laptop.</p>

<p><strong>Google Chrome &ndash;</strong> This is my browser of choice because it doesn&rsquo;t matter what computer I use; I just have to download the browser and log in to have access to my bookmarks, favorite sites, and more. I carry my browser wherever I go with my preferred settings. Often, it will even remember passwords and login details for those I have previously allowed. This saves me a lot of time and aggravation when I cannot use my laptop. There are many customization options so I can personalize the background and make it look nice. Also, it has a very user-friendly interface that shows me clickable thumbnails of the places I visit the most. I can download several apps that tell me the time in all time zones, give me access to my bookmarks, and so much more. I can quickly install&nbsp;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bookmarklet">bookmarklets</a> of the various online tools I use and they will be easily accessible in my browser&rsquo;s toolbar.</p>

<p><strong>Google Calendar &ndash;</strong> Create events and send yourself and students reminders. You can create and share various calendars with students and their parents. You can create a calendar for each class. One of the best features is that you have the option to send yourself and your students alerts a week/day/hour in advance. The alerts will pop up on your mobile device or you can choose to text the alerts to any mobile device to remind students and their parents of important events (like a parent-teacher meeting) or homework.</p>

<h3>Bookmarklet It!</h3>

<p>A bookmarlet is a tiny icon that can be dragged and dropped into most browsers. Many online tools like Diigo, ScoopIt, Pinterest, and Delicious have bookmarklets. When you click that icon, you will be able to use the features of that tool quickly. For example, when I click my&nbsp;<a href="http://www.diigo.com/tools/diigolet">Diigo bookmarklet</a>, a small box pops up and I am able to quickly bookmark a website, add tags, categorize it, and share on social networks.</p>

<h3>Bookmark It!</h3>

<p>There are several free webtools that allow you to quickly bookmark, organize, and share resources. This means you have access to your bookmarks wherever you have Internet access. When you bookmark on any platform (a laptop, a friend&rsquo;s computer, your mobile device), it automatically saves it to be accessed anywhere. Great bookmarking tools include <a href="http://diigo.com">Diigo</a>,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.pearltrees.com/">PearlTrees</a>,&nbsp;<a href="http://livebinders.com">LiveBinders</a>,&nbsp;<a href="http://scoop.it">ScoopIt</a>, and&nbsp;<a href="http://pinterest.com">Pinterest</a>.&nbsp;The best one of these, however, is Diigo. Diigo has so many options to get you organized and save you time. Additionally, you can bookmark from your mobile device with the free app and it has a bookmarklet. It allows you to create notes and highlight information on websites you bookmark. You can easily share your resource on social networks like Twitter and Facebook. You can set Diigo to create automatic posts on your blog of all the links you bookmark for the week or you can autobookmark any links you retweet or favorite on Twitter. The hashtags become the tags that categorize the information.</p>

<h3>Go Mobile!</h3>

<p>Your mobile device is your bestfriend when it comes to organization. Download free apps like Evernote, Dropbox, Diigo, Google Drive, and more to stay organized.The trick is to download the free apps that are linked to the organizational tools you already use online. This way you have all the information available on all your devices. Below is a description of two of these apps.</p>

<p><a href="http://evernote.com/">Evernote</a> has a desktop and online app as well as a mobile app. Create text, photo and audio notes that auto-synchronize your notes to your Mac or PC. Add, sync, access, and share files (PDF, Word, Excel, PPT, and more) among the different versions of Evernote. A free version is available on iPhone, iPod, Android, and Blackberry.</p>

<p><a href="https://www.dropbox.com/anywhere">Dropbox</a> has a desktop and online app as well as a mobile app. It gives you&nbsp;2 GB of storage for free to upload photos, videos, documents, presentations, and audio. You can make these private or public (provides you a link to share for others to download). Save photos and videos taken with your phone&rsquo;s camera, share and send files via email, or copy and paste links to share with another app. Export files to other apps and favorite them for offline viewing. A free version is available on iPhone, iPod, Android, and Blackberry.</p>

<h3>More Resources</h3>

<p>For more tips on how to help with organization, check out my post,&nbsp;<a href="http://teacherbootcamp.edublogs.org/2010/07/10/tips-and-tools-to-manage-your-twitter-time/">Tips and Tools to Manage Your Twitter Time</a> and Nicky Hockly&rsquo;s great post,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.emoderationskills.com/?p=159">Not Waving but Drowning</a>! What are your favorite organization tools?</p>


Tips and Tools To Keep Teachers Organized

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<blockquote>
<h3>Meet Tanya</h3>

<p>The ESL Library staff is proud to welcome Tanya Trusler to the blogging team. Tanya is our new editor! She is responsible for editing and proofing new materials and content for Red River Press. This year Tanya will also be helping us adapt some of our current lesson plans in order to make them accessible for your lower-level students. With her extensive experience in the ESL industry, Tanya is an excellent asset to our team. We are very excited to add her voice to our blog!</p>
</blockquote>

<h3>Hello Teachers</h3>

<p>Hello all! I thought it might be nice to introduce myself before we sink our teeth into the grammar-related blog posts I plan to write. I&#39;ve been the editor at&nbsp;ESL Library&nbsp;since January 2012, and I&#39;m enjoying it immensely. It&#39;s the perfect place to combine my teaching experience with my editing skills.</p>

<p>I&#39;ve always had a passion for helping others improve their communication; it started with tutoring French to kids way back in high school. After graduating from Simon Fraser University with a BA in Linguistics and a Certificate in TESL, I moved to New Zealand for one year to teach ESL. After that, I accepted a job at GEOS Language Academy in Vancouver, BC, where I spent the next eleven years (minus one year spent living in Amsterdam, NL) teaching students of many different ages, levels, and nationalities. I especially loved teaching TOEIC (business English test prep) and TOEFL (university entrance test prep). While at GEOS, I met the lovely and talented Tara Benwell, who, as many of you know, is the Media Director and a materials writer for ESL Library. We worked together for two years, and have been friends ever since. It&#39;s so great to be working with her again even though we&#39;re many provinces apart now.</p>

<p>During my last two years teaching English, I was also editing academic papers for a client who was doing a master&#39;s degree in psychology, and I caught the editing bug. I finally decided it was time to switch careers and to focus my love of grammar and communication on editing, so I&#39;ve spent the past year completing an Editing Certificate at SFU. Now I&#39;m truly enjoying being an editor &mdash;it&#39;s like I was born to do this!</p>

<h3>Joining the Blogging Team</h3>

<p>I&#39;m excited to start blogging for ESL Library. I plan to do at least two blog posts a month, focusing on teaching tips and contentious grammar points. Let&#39;s get some good debates going! My aim is to make my blog posts useful and interesting for you, so I invite you to do one or more of the following (in the comments section below):</p>

<ul>
	<li>introduce yourself</li>
	<li>let me know of any grammar points you find difficult to explain to students</li>
	<li>let me know of any questions you may have about teaching (multi-level classes, classroom management, etc.)</li>
	<li>let me know of any aspects of the English language that may confuse, annoy, or amaze you</li>
</ul>

<p>In the words of my illustrious ex-colleagues, let&#39;s get grammared!</p>

<p>&mdash;Tanya</p>

<h3>&nbsp;</h3>