With less than 1 month to go before the 2024 presidential election in the U.S., your students might be asking you about the candidates, who you’re going to vote for, or other political-focused questions.  I’d like to use this newsletter to discuss why I believe teachers should not tell students about their presidential preference, how ..read more

It can sometimes be a challenge to communicate with ELL families. I once tried to have a conversation with the Turkish mother of a student who didn’t speak English. We used Google Translate and, as many of you know, Google Translate is not always accurate.  She and I could tell when it wasn’t translating correctly ..read more

Have you ever actually thought about why you put up posters to decorate your classroom?  Sure, they look pretty and add color to your walls, but do they really serve a purpose?  In this blog post, I’m going to break down the reasons you should use posters with information on them, different kinds of posters ..read more

Are you getting ready to go back to school?  Many educators in the U.S. just finished teaching only a few weeks ago but in some places, teachers go back to school at the end of July.  If you have started thinking about what you’ll need to get your classroom ready for the beginning of the ..read more

I was always exhausted at the end of the school year. Not just from all the craziness of the last week or two with the students but because I always had to pack up my classroom (as did all the other teachers). That was so the custodians could do a deep cleaning, which I appreciated ..read more

After Memorial Day passes, it feels like the end of the school year is just around the corner.  But in many places in the U.S., there are still 3 or even 4 weeks of school left.  It’s hard to keep students engaged, especially when there are lots of fun, special activities going on that interrupt ..read more

Here is my annual blog post with discounts for Teacher Appreciation Week!  Like last year, instead of listing specific offers for teachers in disparate categories such as restaurants, stores, and museums, this year’s post is a round up of websites that have collated all kinds of deals. Graphic created by: The ESL Nexus When is ..read more

This blog post offers some resources to help students do well on tests.  First, I’ll explain what got me interested in this topic and then I’ll list some free and paid materials. Get a set of test prep posters & flash cards HERE; graphic by The ESL Nexus from an image on Canva My Test ..read more

Communicating with the families of Multilingual Learners of English (MLEs) can be challenging. I once tried to have a conversation with the Turkish mother of a student who didn’t speak English. We used Google Translate and, as many of you know, Google Translate is not always accurate.  She and I could tell when it wasn’t translating correctly because some of the translations didn’t make sense. Sometimes we were confused but we laughed and since were able to get our ideas across to each other, that ultimately was all that mattered.   In this blog post, I’ll offer a brief review of why ..read more

Have you ever actually thought about why you put up posters to decorate your classroom?  Sure, they look pretty and add color to your walls, but do they really serve a purpose?  In this blog post, I’m going to break down the reasons you should use posters with information on them, different kinds of posters, what you should be on the lookout for when displaying posters, and a few ways to use posters.  I’ll also share some examples of the different types of posters discussed in this post. Find all 3 types of posters HERE; source: The ESL Nexus Benefits of Using Posters ..read more