ABOUT THIS SITE
I set up this site as a place where I could share my experiences, teaching ideas and lesson plans with fellow teachers. I have learnt a great deal since I started reading other teaching professionals’ ELT-related blogs. I hope that you will be able to find something useful here. All views expressed on this site are my own, not those of any institution I work for.
ABOUT ME
I’m an English teacher currently based in South East London, teaching ESOL in a college of Further Education. I have also previously taught at a private language school in Pamplona, Spain. My main interests are using music and video in the classroom (which I do whenever I can), and more currently, integrating technology and web 2.0 into my teaching.
My teaching has developed a lot since I started blogging, and I have also begun to present workshops at conferences in Europe. Below is a list of the conference and other ELT events that I have presented at, both individually and as part of a group (those marked with asterisks *). You can find articles I have had published in the Articles section.
Workshops/presentations
- *’ESOL Workshop’, British Council seminars, June 2010 (video)
- *’Using digital resources with ESOL students’, NATECLA National Conference, Guildford, July 2010
- *’Online CPD’, English UK Teachers Conference, London, November 2010 (video)
- ‘Before words: ideas for using images and sound in the language classroom’, ISTEK Schools International ELT Conference, Istanbul, Turkey, April 2011
- *’Differentiated learning supported by technology’, ESOL SIG Pre-conference event, IATEFL Annual Conference, Brighton, April 2011
- ‘Before words: ideas for using images and sounds in the classroom’, ETAS SIG Day, Zug, Switzerland, September 2011
- ‘Before words: ideas for using images and sounds in the classroom’, TESOL France Annual Colloquium, Paris, France, November 2011
- *’Differentiation for mixed level classes’, NATECLA Yorkshire and Humberside Training Day, Huddersfield, March 2012
- ‘No words: ideas for using images and sound in class’, IATEFL Annual Conference, Glasgow, March 2012 (summary)
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Great Blog, thanks for the adds on Twitter etc. Looking forward to reading your posts. Could you add my blog onto your blogroll.
Warm regards,
Mister Mike,
in Leeds
Hi Mister Mike
(Hey, that’s what I got called by students during a summer school a few years ago. After I had finished but the summer school was still going, they asked ‘Where is Mister Mike?’ =) )
Just had better look at your blog, I’ll definitely be reading you – I like your ideas for Entry level students (I’ve got a number of classes at that level this year)
Looking forward much to sharing ideas!
Mike
Hi,
I have a question about the link you left at Jamie Keddie´s web page.
“I’ve also got the genesis of an idea for using this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4H5bVgycjhM. Something like ‘Unlikely things to see at the supermarket’ =)”
I am really interested in that topic, but I was unhappy to find that the link is not very helpful, because it displays many various clips and I can´t find the one you were driving it. Can you please send me the correct link?
Thanks in advance. By the way, your website is great!
Hi Sonia,
Thanks very much for the kind comment!
In response to your question, I hope the link goes to a video called ‘Dizraeli from Rebel Cell’s 60 Sec Set for Metro’. It’s lyrics from Dizraeli’s song Bomb Tesco (I think), and quite funny if you can follow it (he raps very quickly – I had trouble understanding it first time!)
I’m hoping this will embed the clip:
Hope you find the video!!
Mike
Nice blog! I like your responses to the dogme challenges.
Keep it up!
Hi Beth,
Thanks very much for the kind words. Karenne’s blog challenge is certainly keeping us busy and interested
Mike =)
[...] my first week as a stand-in DOS). But last Friday I got involved in a twitter conversation with Mike Harrison and Fiona Mauchline about various possible translation tasks that might also work in a multilingual [...]
Very nice your blog!!… my humble intention is to watch and learn some experienced & brilliant ideas in a parallel field: although I love your language, i pretend to teach mine to non-native Spanish speakiers
¡Buena suerte!
What a kind comment. Thank you, Marcos. And for the buena suerte message too!
I don’t know about teaching Spanish in Spain (or other Spanish-speaking countries), but sometimes people in education ask what you do as an ESOL teacher.
Not always the case, whatever the language.
Buena suerte igualmente!
Mike =)
Thanks, Mike… By the way, I’m from one of those ‘other Spanish-speaking countries’: Uruguay, Sth. America, tiny place south
to Brazil. Bye, and good luck!