In this first post in a series of blogs on the use of technology in the ELT classroom, National Geographic Learning’s in-house teacher trainer Alex Warren, looks to demystify and clarify what exactly is meant by the term blended learning. Here’s the thing: everyone thinks they know what blended learning
Welcome to the fourth post in this series. In this post, we will be looking at why images are so powerful in the language learning process and at bringing images into the classroom to develop our students’ creative thinking. The Social-Age You may have noticed, with the popularity of Instagram,
Welcome back! The Life around the World photo from last month depicted a man strolling along the Malecón in Havana, Cuba. Started in 1901 to protect Havana from the water, the wall stretches for 8 kilometers and is a popular place to take a stroll and enjoy street entertainment. In bad
Welcome to another month of the Life Around the World Contest! Last month’s photo shows rowers taking part in the 42nd annual Vogalonga in Venice, Italy. The Vogalonga is a famous non-competitive regatta that started in 1974 as a protest against motorboats. Its 30 km route goes through many picturesque parts
In May, National Geographic Learning gave me the opportunity to share via webinar my experience of learning English and becoming a TED speaker. It’s heart-warming to “see” hundreds of language educators joining from around the world, hungry to become better teachers, hungry to help their students learn English, the de
‘CREATIVITY Is intelligence having fun’ (Einstein) Don’t you just love that quote? In previous blog posts we talked about the importance of developing creative teaching and the need to start with ourselves, becoming more creative as teachers. In the last blog post we explored a framework to use with existing
Here at National Geographic Learning, we’re excited to kick off another month of the Life Around the World Contest! In last month’s photo, a crowd throws petals during the Flower Holi Festival, Vrindavan, Uttar Pradesh, India. The colorful Holi festival celebrates spring, love and the victory of good over evil.
A few days ago*, I visited Walden Pond in Concord, Massachusetts. When I arrived, the wind was bitingly cold, and the lake shore was obscured by thick flurries of snowflakes. I was there to see the place where Henry David Thoreau, renowned writer and naturalist, had spent two years, two
One great thing about TED Talks is that they cover a huge variety of interesting topics – big ideas that will engage both you and your learners. But sometimes, they can be fairly technical. Some teachers hesitate to bring technical material into the classroom because they feel they don’t have
If you’re familiar with materials from National Geographic Learning you’ll know that they include a lot of images, texts and topics about people and places from different countries. For this reason, you can often exploit the cross-cultural aspects of the material and help your students build their intercultural awareness alongside