The ESL Playground

  Revamping the Penpal Experience I often hear teachers talking about their penpalling activity going South for various reasons. Sometimes it takes too much time hearing back from the other class. Other times, missing students will completely disorganize the writing activity. Worst of all, some students might even tell you that they just don't know what to write. But WHAT IF students did not only exchange letters? WHAT IF they could prepare little activities and games for one another? WHAT IF they could collaborate on different writing tasks? Not only would it make the penpal experience a little more engaging, but it would also make the pairing of students easier for the teacher as the exchange wouldn’t have to take place between the same two students all year long. Here's a list of simple ideas to to revamp penpalling activities in the ESL classroom. GET POSTER HERE

  Setting Up a Google Drive Account It's no secret! I'm a big fan of the Google tools. There are just so many ways to use them in the classroom and outside the classroom. You might have noticed that I am sharing many Google Presentations instead of PowerPoint documents. I'm also sharing Google Forms or Google Docs sometimes. In order to enjoy this website as much as possible, I suggest that you create your own Google Drive account. Here's a tutorial . This way, you'll be able to create and save copies of the Google files I'm sharing. You'll see how quickly you'll get addicted to those tools!

  The Case of the Haunted Castle - A Video Tutorial An image is worth a thousand words. As teachers we understand the very nature of this saying when it comes to reading teacher’s guides or lengthy instructions. Therefore, I have decided to create a quick video tutorial for my Grade 6 breakout EDU activity. It’s a nice way to start the Christmas holiday, isn’t it? You will find the new video on my YouTube channel as well as my website. I want to seize the occasion to thank you for visiting my website and signing up to my mailing list. I’ll do my best to keep all of you fellow teachers motivated and inspired with different projects throughout the year to come!

A New Playground for ESL Teachers I've been thinking about creating this website for a while now. However, I kept changing my mind so many times that it actually took over a year for me to finally sit and create it. Have you ever put off something you had to do because you just didn't know where to start? Or because you wanted it to be perfect? Well, I guess that's what I did. So you're probably wondering how this website will be useful to you. My goal is essentially to have a plateform to share projects and ideas to ESL teachers all around the province. I remember when I had to teach elementary ESL in 5 different schools. My car was not only used for transportation but also for stockage. I never spent more than a half-day in a school and I had a hard time catching up on the grading. Especially because I had decided not to use activity books. But, enough about me! By creating this website, I wanted to give access to some activities and LESs that I have the chance to dev...