Making learning accessible for everyone is a big challenge, but if you want to do your bit to improve education, no matter what your context, one good place to start is making information flexible enough to adapt it in different formats. Here are some useful ideas: You can also check out my article for some other ideas on how to apply this:  Three Practical Ways to Implement Universal Design for Learning

Design Thinking is a mindset that allows you to empathize with different stakeholders to improve products and services. But what tools can help you apply this approach? How can you recognize this audience? And most importantly, how can you empathize with your core target audience? Top 2 Essential Tools for Design Thinking Phase 1: Empathize de Jefferson Cornejo

1. What is well-being? 2. What factors can affect teachers' occupational well-being? 3. Problem-Focused Coping Approach 4. Applying Problem-Focused Coping Approach What can you do to improve your well-being? Exercise, yoga, good planning, striking a balance between family and work, meditation, mindfulness – these are just some of the things you can find online if you're looking for new ways to improve your quality of life. Obviously, there are different views on this, and I don't want to downplay the importance of different approaches to improving teacher wellbeing. It's a bit like that Coldplay lyric, "Nobody said it was easy," and anyone who's been there will know that teaching isn't easy at all. That's why I've put together this article with some useful info on how to deal with stress and burnout. It'll help you stay on top of your game. Picture 1: Credit Stuart Kime But, before you get into the nitty-gritty, let's quickly run throug

1. What is Feedback? 2. Why is it important? 3. How to give effective Feedback? 3.1 Giving Feedback to a large cohort 3.2 Audio Feedback We all receive feedback on a daily basis, from simple observations about our appearance to more complex matters such as formative assessment and different approaches to learning, including Competency-Based and Inquiry-Based Learning. In this article you will look at what feedback is, how it is given and how to give effective feedback. This article is about VLE, but the recommendations below can be used in face-to-face lessons. Credit picture Julian Mesa 1. What is feedback?   According to Wang, Tlili, Lehman, Lu & Huang (2021) feedback is the exchange of information regarding to "improve learning performance, in order to readjust student's cognition, motivation & behaviour"(p. 3; Máñez, 2020). Similarly, Wiggins (as cited in Peroukidou & Kofou, 2019) defines feedback as "actionable information (...) empower(ing) the s

Pronunciation is one of the most important aspects when we try to learn a new language. You can use high level vocabulary or grammar, but if you are not capable to transmit a clear message, in other words to be easy to understand, probably you have a problem of pronunciation. Additionally, to have a good pronunciation will help you to listen well. In this Guide, I will try to give the best things that work with me when I was a learner, but I still use now that I am an English teacher (if you are an English teacher you probably would like to read my post  PRONUNCIATION: WHAT, WHY AND HOW IN THE VIRTUAL ENGLISH CLASSROOM ) . On the other side, if you try to find the ultimate key to improve your pronunciation, let me tell you that this key does not exist, but do not get discouraged you can still get better. Also, in this guide you will find some theory, yeah I know that this does not sound attractive, but I have a point, so please continue reading. In fact, in this and the future articles

Despite the value that pronunciation has when learning a language, when it comes to teaching English -and probably other languages- it is one of the skills, according to some studies not my opinion, with less attention. Picture 1. Pronunciation: using phonetic symbols. Back to the topic of this post, as Jenkin pointed out (as cited in Wong, 2016) "even when learners use a variant grammatical form or an inappropriate expression, they can still be understood. It is usually the wrong pronunciation that leads to communication breakdown" (p. 243). Due to this, being able to speak with good pronunciation is of paramount importance, on the grounds that it allows real communication. Therefore, there are some important questions we must answer in order to teach pronunciation, such as: What is 'teaching pronunciation'? Why is important? How can we use technology to do in distance or virtual learning? Kelly (2000) stated that we can breakdown the main features of pronunciation a

In this article: 1. Reading and listening at the same time (For students aged 6-13) 2. Digital manipulative objects (All ages) 3. Take a “pause” to virtual activities (All ages) One of the challenges of virtual education is to create meaningful activities that appeal to the different learning styles of our students. How can you do this? Picture Credit Marsha McGuire Before we address this question, let's briefly analyse the importance of integrating a multisensory approach into your teaching. It's so great to see that students now have the freedom to adapt to our teaching style. Obaid (2012) stated, “teaching methods must relate to each child’s own learning preference style” (p. 76). It's not just a nice idea, it's totally possible to reach all the different learning styles if we use multisensorial activities (Volpe & Gori, 2019). The real challenge is how you can achieve this in virtual learning. I've put together a list of three activities that can be used in