I like to think of myself as a teacher and teacher trainer, but I have to say that I spend more time doing other things such as materials writing and consultancy these days.
I started my working life in pharmaceutical research moving into teaching physics and chemistry. I taught in an international school in Cairo, which meant an non-native speaking class and became facinated with mistakes like: 'In water germs are free'. Meaning, I presume, germ free water/distilled water/sterilised water. This led me to doing the CTEFLA after which I taught English to children and adults which led to teacher training which led to publishing.
IKURU 3 and 4 is a coursebook I wrote with Cornelsen Verlag in Germany. Here's a teaching idea taken from IKURU 4.
Teaching Idea
For teaching mixed ability or if you have forgotten your dice!
You are going to teach a game that needs a die and has complicated rules that need a lot of explanation. You have some students that you think might not understand the instructions and might get left behind. You can include them in a way that is fun and gives them time to figure out the rules while listening actively and participating.
- Put 6 chairs in a row at the front of the class.
- Put one student on each chair. Ask them to stand up. They are the die.
- Shout throw.
- When you shout throw all the students in front of the chairs either stay standing up or sit down. There must be no hesitating. (It takes a few practice goes to get the hang of it!)
- The number of students still standing is the number thrown on the die. If everyone sits down then you throw again!
This way you can demonstrate the game with the students actively participating and looking at how the game is played.
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