Malaysian Teachers & Education

1. What is your most obsessive thought? 2. Where is your favorite place in the world, and why? 3. What's the one thing your parents don't understand about you? 4. What have you learned that nobody taught you? 5. What is your earliest, most vivid memory? 6. If you have experienced a moment of sudden faith or loss of faith, what prompted it? 7. If you could take back one thing you have done, what would it be? 8. What is your greatest talent or accomplishment? 9. What is the most joyful moment you have experienced? 10. What is the most painful moment you have experienced? 11. What question would you ask God? 12. Which super power would you choose - and what would you do with it? 13. If you could make one rule about life, what would it be? 14. How would you define time? 15. What is it about some people that makes you immediately like - or dislike - them? 16. If you could be an animal, what animal would you be? 17. If you could have a conversation with a historical figure, who would it be? 18. If you could go back in time, where would you go? What would you do? 19. What do you know, that no one else knows? 20. If you had an extra hour in each day, what would you do with it?

Approved Regents' Test Essay Topics

Writing Prompts/Journal Topics

Can also use this as a dictoglass (read everything) + comprehension (give out the text with gaps) combo activity. It's good to test their listening skills as well as help with their vocab. Use self-correction so that they can pay close attention to their own writing. The text: "You really have to get very old before you realize you're old. I'm in my middle fifties and I don't feel old yet. However, sometimes I look back at my childhood and __1__ things to the way life is for __2__ kids. Some things have certainly changed. One area of change is television. Some changes have been improvements. Some changes, on the other hand, have been __3__. When I started school, most people didn't have a television; TV was just beginning to get __4__. My father decided to go all out and buy a 16 inch black and white Motorola set. I still remember watching the Lone Ranger save people from the __5__ guys on that awesome electronic machine. That was exciting! Now, __6__ have larger pictures in full color. The pictures are clearer and the sound is much more realistic. The new high definition sets are made to rival __7__ screens. The variety and quantity of programming has __8__ greatly. There are hundreds of channels and more shows than one person could ever watch. There are many fine entertainment and educational __9__. There's also a lot of garbage, stuff that most parents don't want their kids exposed to. Overall, we have more choices, and that is good. I wonder what __10__ will be like when today's kids are my age."

English teachers are always being asked to bring songs to class. Although all the input students might have is considered enriching, the fill-in-the-blank exercises seem boring for them and for us as well. In addition, it's very difficult to please students with our song choices.  The aim of this project is to make them think about the songs they listen to and choose one of them to bring to class with the following: a. A copy of the lyrics b. Picture of the singer or group c. A short background of the artist(s) d. Some exercises to be used in class e. The CD with the song (Adapted from Murphey, Tim. Music&Song.Oxford University Press, 1992)

Although preparation is time-consuming, it is worthwhile.  Once the work has been done, you will have ready-made lessons which you can use again and again. Instructions by Bibi Baxter for creating worksheets for use with songs:- Listening exercises (scroll to next box)- Sequencing Exercises- Further Practice- Relevant Pedagogic Articles- Ready-made Worksheets for you to buy- The Beatles: Worksheets for you to make  (assistance & ideas)

This section features original English grammar and usage worksheets for teachers and parent-teachers to copy for their kids. Use them for teaching, reinforcement, and review. Many of these free worksheets can be used as the basis for lesson plans.

Choose the correct article to complete the sentence. 60 questions.

1. Kids get into groups and are given a stack of pictures into which I have put pictures from each of the above category. I usually put around 15-20 in each stack. When we do nouns.... I will place big signs on the board with "common" "proper" "abstract" "concrete" "plural" and any others we are studying. Their group has to go through their stack and find one to correspond with each topic AND they have to have a justification for each. 2. When I do prepositions, I give each student a situation picture and have them list as many preps. as they can find in each picture. I give a prize for the most found. 3. When we study characterization, I give each student one picture from the "people" envelope and have them write a brief character sketch based on what they perceive. 4. When I do verbs, I will give each row ONE picture. I tell the students in the first seat of each row to take out one piece of paper. When I say "GO", the first person looks at his picture and comes up with one action verb. Then very quickly writes it down and passes it back. The next person has to write down another action verb and pass it back to the next. It just keeps going. The person in the back runs the picture up to the front person. I usually start another picture back as soon as the first person passes it to the next. In about 4-5 minutes, I stop and the row with the most and the most accurate verb list gets a prize or pig points. 5. When we do short stories, I give each person an envelope in which I have put 2-3 people (characters), 1 place picture (setting) and 1 picture from the situational. After we have discussed the "elements",they begin to write their own short story based on what they have in front of them. 6. When I teach a vocabulary word that is a little more difficult, I always go to my stack to find one that illustrates it. For example, I found a perfect picture of a clear blue lake with not one ripple to show them "placid". They never forgot that word. 7.

Focus on Speaking/Writing:          This is for students at beginning and intermediate levels. The objective is to practice asking and answering questions. Each student needs one picture. (Pictures of people from various ethnic, economic, age, and gender groups are particular]y useful. Fashion catalogs are good sources of such pictures.) The procedure is as follows: First, as a class, have the students generate a list of interview questions. Write them on the board. Then distribute the pictures to the students. Tell them they will become the person in their picture. The students must create a biography for that person. Give the students time to think. Next, divide the students into pairs. Tell them to take turns interviewing each other, using the questions generated earlier. Students should give answers based on the identities they created for the person in their picture. As a follow-up, students can write a one-paragraph biography of their person. Focus on Grammar: This works well with intermediate-level students. The objective is to practice using comparatives and superlatives. The materials needed are sets of pictures--one set per student--which show similar objects; e.g.,a set that shows different kinds of shoes, a set that shows different kinds of hats, or watches, or cars, etc. The directions for the activity are: Give one set of pictures to each student. Tell students they should use comparatives and superlatives (which have been taught prior to doing this activity) to describe the objects in their pictures. They should write as many sentences as possible. When students have finished writing, they should form small groups and read their sentences to each other. 'They should check for errors, both spoken and written, and discuss whether they agree or disagree with the statements made about the objects in the pictures. This activity also lends itself to a discussion of culture--for example, if the pictures present items of clothing, teachers can

Irwin Schiff's 1985 pictorial introduction to basic economics is made available free on this site. Each page is represented by a .gif image, and any can be accessed via the index below

Here is an activity that I designed and used with my beginner level university prep school students. Before listening to the song, we talked about personalities, boarded some adjectives, and suggeted some opposites of these adjectives. Then I gave out the handouts and we went over the words together and talked about the new vocabulary together. I explained the students that they are going to listen the song, and try to fill in the blanks using the words on the right. It is important to tell the students that these words are not the opposites or antonyms of the adjectives given in the song, but there are just contradictions or some kind of relationship between them. The students also choose from the multile choice options or guess what the singer is going to say before listening to the song. Before listening to the song, I asked the students to work in pairs or small group and try to fill in blanks. As a discussion, the students were told to justify their choices. There are also some useful spoken English expressions and collocations in the song such as 'giving a high five, flicking a cigarette' which you might focus on after listening to the song. As a post-listening activity, the students can be asked to write their own versions of the song, describing their own personalities.

Make life easier by building up a library of ready-made lessons for yourself or your teaching staff to copy and cut as required.   Though relatively easy, it can prove a godsend during the busy season when time is short, or when standing in for absent colleagues.

Songs & Pedagogic Ideas by Bibi Baxter for Music Fans, Teachers & Students of English 

Verb conjugation and contraction - in other words; "The short form". In spoken English we use the short form a lot. We say things like: I'm / you're / didn't etc. instead of I am / you are / did not etc. We also use these short forms in informal written English. When we write in the short form, we use an apostrophe (') for the missing letter(s).

The popularity of social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Classmates.com more than quadrupled from 2005 to 2009. Many users say the sites are good for our society, but others contend that the dangers of social media outweigh the benefits. Proponents of social networking sites argue that these online communities promote increased communication with friends and family, familiarize people with valuable computer skills, and allow contact with people from around the world. Opponents argue that social networking sites expose children to predators, increase vulnerability to computer viruses, lower worker productivity, and promote narcissism and short attention spans.

Lesson Planning with ProCon.org