David Weller's Blog, page 5

How to Use AI to Create Videos for Class

Creating a video with AI is now as simple as typing a few words.

AI is getting better, faster - the video below was created with a simple sentence, " ". You can also generate more specific videos by using an image and a descriptive sentence.

If you're anything like me, I immediately started thinking of ways to use this in class.

They’re still short, and with no sound, so this does present a challenge - but they’re so fun to make and use, and so engaging for students!

So today I want to share how t...

7 Lessons Learned About Lesson Planning

Today, I want to share seven key lesson planning lessons I’ve learned over the last twenty years.

Thinking of ideas, writing, and prepping materials can suck hours of your time. So when you can plan lessons quickly and easily (and they’re really good!), your life changes.

Lesson planning fast and effectively is a superpower.

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7 Key Lesson Planning Ideas

A lesson plan has lots of moving parts.

You're using all of your teaching knowledge and experience to create a plan. You’re probably ti...

Do Your Students Need Overlearning?

Students forgetting what you spent the whole last lesson on can drive you crazy.

One solution to students being overworked and tired is to practice a learning strategy called ‘overlearning’.

Overlearning isn't just useful, it's essential for mastering a language. I'll explain what overlearning is, why it's valuable, and how you can implement it effectively in your teaching.

After reading this, you'll have practical strategies to enhance your students' retention and fluency.

What is Overlearning?

Ov...

5 Strategies to Encourage Creativity in the TEFL Classroom

Encouraging your students to be creative is fun.

Often ‘creativity’ becomes just a buzzword for teachers to add to a pile of things we should teach. So often we’re told to teach things like resilience, creativity, critical thinking, growth mindset, that we wonder how we’re ever meant to teach what we’re paid to teach - language.

I want to persuade you that with creativity, it’s possible to do both.

Start by playing with language

Think of a time when you’ve played with language.

Maybe you’ve made up ...

9 Signs You're Quiet Quitting TEFL

Quiet quitting isn’t fun for anyone.

Have you noticed a colleague doing the minimum work to not get fired?

They’re quiet quitting, a term that started in March 2022, and means staff doing the bare minimum not to get fired. So you’ll do what’s in your contract and nothing else - no extra hours, overtime, volunteering or asking for extra responsibility.

While it started as an accusation that employers used to guilt-trip people into working harder by shaming them, it quickly flipped. People started as...

What is Translanguaging?

How do you get the best out of students with different first languages?

When you teach a class of students with mixed first languages, the temptation is to tell them all ‘only speak English!’ and ban them from using their first language (L1). After all, it won’t do them any good, right?

Wrong. If used properly, a student’s L1 can be a useful scaffold for learning a second language. This concept goes against language learning advice from most of the 20th century, but a growing amount of research sh...

How to Use AI to Generate Songs for Language Learning

Music can be a gateway to language learning.

Along with storytelling, music can be an incredible way to engage students and help them learn a language. Songs are a powerful tool for language learning, but finding the right ones can be challenging.

In this article, I'll show you how to use a new AI tool to generate custom songs you can use in your lessons.

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How do songs help language learning?

But first, should you even...

What are Formative and Summative Assessments?

Students taking a test in a classroom. AI generated by the author.

How do you know your students are learning?

Even if your class is going well, everyone’s happy and there’s a great atmosphere - your students could not be learning anything.

Thanks for reading Barefoot TEFL Teacher! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

You won’t know until you check.

This ‘check’ is an assessment, and it has two types: formative and summative. To teach effectively, you need to be able to do bo...

What is Formative and Summative Assessment?

Students taking a test in a classroom. AI generated by the author.

How do you know your students are learning?

Even if your class is going well, everyone’s happy and there’s a great atmosphere - your students could not be learning anything.

Thanks for reading Barefoot TEFL Teacher! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

You won’t know until you check.

This ‘check’ is an assessment, and it has two types: formative and summative. To teach effectively, you need to be able to do bo...

15 Reasons Why TEFL is Still an Amazing Career

An image of a TEFL teacher travelling abroad, AI-generated by the author.

It’s easy to forget why we chose TEFL as a career.

When times are busy, and we’re swamped with lesson planning, marking, and admin, we forget about the joys of teaching. Then, I spent this week at the IATEFL 2024 conference, and it reminded me why I love TEFL. It inspired me to write a list of everything I love about TEFL and all the opportunities it’s given me.

If you haven’t started your TEFL journey, read on. If you have, ...