Episode Summary In education, hard skills such as the academic knowledge of the subject and the know-how of teaching in general, the strategies, the methodology, the assessment are the focal point. But today, I wanted to talk about the soft skills that are much more difficult to define and quantify because they are less concrete,…
Episode Summary Welcome back to another episode of The ESL Teaching Podcast. Today we’re tackling an issue that’s close to the heart for so many of us educators: the challenge of negative self-talk. As teachers, we navigate not only academic pressures but also the emotional and mental weight of our personal lives. Recognizing our humanity…
Episode Summary Welcome to Episode 108 of The ESL Teaching Podcast! In this episode, I share my go-to activities for those “I can’t even” days, when exhaustion and lack of inspiration make lesson planning a struggle. I candidly discuss my own experiences with feeling tired and bored while teaching, and offer practical, low-prep activities to…
Episode Summary In episode 107, my guest Zach Camenker, and I explore the challenges and joys of teaching ELs in regular education classrooms. Zach, an English Language Arts teacher, shares his struggle with the repetition of the curriculum and his passion for reading instruction. The importance of adaptability, feedback, and collaboration in setting up a…
Episode Summary We talk a lot about instruction of English learners, how we can accommodate our lessons, how we can scaffold, and what to teach them in general. But today, I wanted to bring to light another aspect of working with English learners that is just as important for all teachers to know as the…
Welcome to episode 105 of The ESL Teaching Podcast. In this episode, I address three common misconceptions about teaching newcomers in regular classrooms and provide practical strategies to reframe them. I discuss the importance of understanding the language acquisition process, the role of subject area teachers in language instruction, and the need for differentiated strategies…