Creating a Positive Classroom Atmosphere
Off to a Good Start It’s really important for teachers to create a positive and engaging classroom atmosphere. Research has indicated that if a positive classroom atmosphere is created, students will learn [...]
Christmas in China
I find it amazing that Christmas has already come and gone. When I first arrived in China 11 months ago, I remember having the impression that a year is a really long [...]
The Challenges of Learning Mandarin
Greetings from Hangzhou My name is Gentile and I’m a Mandarin teacher currently living in Hangzhou. My husband is also a teacher and it was out of this passion for languages and [...]
Christmas Away – Round Two
Here We Go Again It’s been almost twenty months since I tasted homemade gravy, a Yorkshire pudding (Google it and try it!), pulled a cracker or caroled merrily down my hometown high [...]
Practice Makes Perfect
Every now and then comes a time when you are learning new games week and week out. At other points during your TEFL career you become dry on [...]
New and Old China
Caught between two worlds China features massive amounts of diversity. From the rocky peaks of the Himalayas in the West, to the desert crossings of the Silk Road in the North, to [...]
Learning From Past Mistakes
The attitude of the TEFL teacher is to always be learning. You need to keep improving and a lot of this comes down to your experience. Things that [...]
My Mandarin is “booo hao”! Will it ever get better?
My relationship with Mandarin Chinese is similar to a twisted love affair that is often the subject of books and films, and if like me, you’ve also embarked on this sometimes masochistic [...]
Getting Back to Work
It’s been a while since I was in a classroom and since I received my injury I’ve not done a whole lot. Being my dominant right hand I [...]
Promoting Cognitive Development in ESL Lessons
Too often we are asked the question at EF; what separates us from other ESL schools? A quick and easy answer would be that in our ESL lessons we don’t dismiss or [...]