MacMillan English Campus

The great thing about many of the online resources we have available these days is that they are not just resources in a static sense; they are also spaces that we can continually re-source for all kinds of student activities.

Russell Stannard recently spoke at IATEFL about the connected classroom, where we

Before learners enter your classroom they often undergo a placement test that helps your institution find the right level and course for them. Some institutions offer a paper and pen test followed by an interview, others rely on students’ self-evaluation.

When faced with large numbers of learners, placement tests become an issue,

Even if your school hasn’t opted for a VLE yet there are numerous ways to start introducing an online tool to your teaching.  You can choose between a number of options: Writing tasks lend themselves to being used for collaborative writing with, blogs or wikis the obvious choice.

Blogs and wikis –

“A picture is worth a thousand words”, but what if you can add the whole slideshow, words, sentences and accompany it with music?

Your students regularly post pictures on Facebook or Twitter and comment on them, so why not take their witty commenting skills into the English class. PhotoPeach.com is

As Valentine’s approaches it’s time to resurrect our Blended MEC Valentine’s poetry competition. Last year we asked you to get your students to write variations on the ‘Roses are red, Violets are blue…’ poem format, using it to deliver some untimely bad news. You can build on this by

Creative writing

I’ve recently noticed how technology is affecting my writing. I definitely cut down on writing using a fountain pen or pen, and I can see its effects as my handwriting quality has unfortunately started going down hill. It’s mostly because I tend to write more emails instead of letters and

I know that a lot of people think that Halloween is a very commercial holiday; however I personally really like it maybe because it is so different from All Saints Day on the 1st of November which I am so familiar with. I see Halloween as a day of amazing pumpkin

A fun way to bring online learning to your classroom is to make use of the internet’s vast array of funny videos.  You can combine these fun resources with the language focus of making predictions.
Get your students talking by putting them in pairs then showing them the beginning of the

Zoos are for children only? Rubbish. A recent late night at the London Zoo took me back in time to one of my favourite childhood activities, and reminded me of how entertaining it is to look at animals (and at adults looking at animals).

Why not get your students to

Winnie the Pooh, the bear loved the world over, turns 90 this year which is a great excuse for a light-hearted lesson on Pooh, comics and children’s literature.  For a fun warm-up why not introduce them to the Pooh theme song.  Are you students brave enough to

Foldingstory is a great place where your students can reveal their creative sides. The site gives your students a chance to practise their writing skills in a novel way that may be more fun than a structured essay. Foldingstory is not really a place where your students

The final preparations for the big royal wedding are coming to an end. We are just 48 hours away from street parties, pubs or sitting in the living room in front of the telly in order to join a massive celebration of the most beloved couple in the British royal family!

You

Surfing the web recently, I came across a few interesting games, tools and activities to help students improve their spelling, vocabulary and use of English. Here are some activities that offer some useful practice your students might enjoy:

Spelling bees

Spelling bees have been popular in the United States for decades and there

FutebolTv will definitely get the boys attention in your English class. The site offers a selection of football moments from an archive. It means that your students can live again and again through moments of grand emotions and add a little bit of their excitement to it!

They get a

Some time ago we had a guest blogger Barbara Toth from Hungary who wrote about BombayTV. It is a site where you can find scenes from Bollywood movies, which are usually packed with melodramatic acting. You can type in the subtitles for the movie scenes