Hi, I made this one. I've played Wordle-likes for years and always wanted to build my own, but I never had an idea that felt like mine.

The push came from a strange place. Half of what I read these days is written by AI, and it's never short. Every email, every doc, twelve words where five would do. At some point I said the phrase out loud, long story short, and realised it was a game.

So: you get a twelve-word sentence. You rephrase it in exactly five of its own words. Real English, same meaning, your job is to work out which words carry the sentence and which are just dressed up to look important. Scoring is Wordle style, blue for right word in the right spot, orange for in the answer but elsewhere, grey for out. Five tries, one sentence a day.

My wife and my brother were the playtesters. An early version let "the" beat proper words in the answer, which felt awful to lose to, so the answers now always favour the concrete word. That one change ate a whole weekend.

I'm teaching ESL classes for the first time, and I'm questioning what to do on the first day of school. My usual activities involve speaking and/or writing in English. It wouldn't work for a class with a very limited understanding of the same language.

If anyone has any suggestions at all, I would greatly appreciate it! Students are in high school, but this will be their first year focusing on learning English (for most of the class). I will have the same students for 150 minutes, so any tips for getting started is appreciated. Thank you!

Hello I am teaching adult ESL and one of the things my student wants to do is improve her listening skills. does anyone know any shows on netflix that are good for people who are learning english. (my student is lower intermediate.) shes pretty good at speaking, reading and writing.

Hi!! I’m an English teacher who has recently started teaching private lessons. But this September I’m starting at a school, which frightens me. Impostor syndrome, I suppose haha.

Would you recommend me some books about the didactic of a language (preferably focused on children’s learning) or give me some tips on anything you consider would be helpful for a beginner?

Thanks a lot!!!

Hi!

I’m an adult ESL teacher and I’m trying to improve a friend’s English. (She and I speak another language.)

She seems keenly interested in learning some songs. I want to give her something in the peppy side, as she’s a peppy person. I don’t want to give anything that’s a drag in terms of lyrics. She’s an older woman so vulgar ideas and words will not go over well. (Maybe a hell or damn.)

Can I have some suggestions, please?

Thanks,
Frances

Hello 👋 I've been teaching English as a second language in Korea for 16 years and I have built this website.

https://classendo.com/

It is aimed at teachers, not students, to help them build lessons and teach in a classroom. I launched last week and I am still waiting to be fully indexed on Google.

I want it to be a simple website that is easy to understand with a low learning curve for teachers.

*edited to include a click able link. It's primarily a desktop site not for mobile

I looked at all of my class lists. Every year, I start by having the students make the flags of their home countries. I put them around the room and have many different flags from many different countries. Very few are from the United States. But this year, it seems that 95% of my students were born in the USA! So I don't want to do the flag project because there will be too many American flags! I have nothing against the American flag, but I don't see any point in celebrating the diversity in the ESL classroom if there are thirty American flags and one or two from other countries.

Any other project ideas? Or is there a way I could still do it?

This video is a practical Zapotec language class designed for beginners, focusing on conversational fluency and the cultural nuances of the language in Oaxaca, Mexico. Key topics covered include:

* Daily Vocabulary: Learning how to express physical sensations, such as “I am cold” (ruwëaga), and everyday actions like “to sew”.
* Pronouns and Grammar: A breakdown of personal pronouns and their variations within community contexts.
* Numbers: A step-by-step pronunciation guide for counting from 0 to 20, including specific dialectal variations, such as those found in Talea de Castro.
* Verb Conjugation: Interactive exercises focused on common verbs like “to eat” and “to dress,” highlighting how to properly use verb endings to match personal pronouns.
* Cultural Insights: Tips on Zapotec phonetics, such as how to properly ask questions without using the typical intonation patterns found in Spanish.

The session emphasizes that Zapotec is a living language with regional variations, and the primary goal is effective communication within the community.

Video Overview:

This interactive Zapotec language class focuses on practical dialogue, regional variations, numerical counting, unique pronunciation dynamics, and detailed verb conjugations.

Key Highlights:

* Everyday Vocabulary & Phrases:

* The instructor and students begin with practical daily expressions, such as stating “I am cold” (ruwëaga) or referring to embroidery/sewing activities (rigiaa lari).
* Students take turns practicing traditional greetings and conversational phrases.

* Personal Pronouns & Regional Dialects:

* The group reviews personal pronouns (neda, lii, lee, lanu, labe, etc.).
* The teacher explains dialectal variations, such as adding -ni (e.g., neto ni), noting that ni individually means “here” (aquí).

* Numbers & Counting:
* Students practice counting sequentially from 0 through 20 and higher numbers.
* The instructor addresses community-specific variations (such as in Talea de Castro where initial vowel sounds like u- might be omitted), reassuring students that variations are natural and mutually intelligible.

* Pronunciation & Tone Rules:
* Affirmations: The native Zapotec term for “yes” is à, though ajá is widely understood due to Spanish contact.
* Question Intonation: Unlike Spanish, Zapotec does not rely on a rising vocal pitch at the end of a sentence to signal a question.

* Grammar & Verb Conjugation:
* The lesson covers verb prefixes, flexible synonym forms (be vs. bi), and optional phonetic variations.
* Students drill conjugations for verbs like “to eat” (gagu / ragu / gudagu) across past, present, and future tense forms.

Practical Zapotec language class for beginners: variations, pronunciation and verb conjugations

Hi everyone,

Does anyone have any comments or opinions on doing the TESOL program via Coursera & Arizona State University? I'm trying to decide what my net steps are in the path that I've ended up on, kind of accidentally.

I just finished all the coursework for my BA (major in Icelandic language and literature, minor in Ukrainian) and am just waiting for a transfer credit to be finalized before I apply to graduate. When I started, it was during covid and via distance ed, and I was just taking language courses for fun. Then I ended up taking more courses and we (my husband and I) moved to the city my university is in, partly so I could finish the degree which required me to take a number of courses in-person, but also because we wanted to move away from where we were). I currently have enough credits for a 3 year degree, which is something my uni offers, but it's intended for people going on to programs like TESOL etc., and you can't do graduate studies after it. If I graduate now, I would have to go do another 30 credits (2 years full time) to do another degree to do graduate studies afterwards.

My intent was originally to finish the 3 year degree and then attend one of the other universities in my city which had a TESL program that I could do in person, and also had student-teacher jobs available as they also have ESL students attending. This program got canceled a year before I finished my degree. :(

I've found the TESOL Certificate program on Coursera which is offered through ASU, which doesn't require a degree to get into, and is extremely reasonably priced. So I was thinking about doing that program this fall, so that I could leave my BA open and still work on courses part time towards switching my minor in Ukrainian to a major. But I'm interested in hearing whether this program is considered legit and will actually get me anywhere?

I'm in a weird place in that I went back to university as a mature student (I'm 50 now) and will only be looking for jobs teaching ESL either online or in my city, as I am not in a place to be going to another country to work. During the course of my degree, I actually ended up becoming somewhat disabled and my ideal would be working online, and fortunately my husband makes enough that I don't have to worry about not making great money. But I need to be doing something to keep my husband from whining too much. LOL.

I'm working on creating English-learning material where each section focuses on a specific topic or grammar point.

I'm wondering about the best way to handle examples that naturally contain other grammatical structures.

Should I:

1. Avoid that example and only use examples that follow the grammar rule I'm currently teaching?
2. Keep the example because it's natural, but add a short grammar note explaining the other structure underneath it?
3. Teach/explain the other grammatical rule first, even though it isn't the main topic?
4. Just use the example without explaining the additional grammar, since it's not the focus of the lesson?

I'm especially interested in what would be best from a learning/pedagogical perspective. At what point do additional grammar rules become distracting or overwhelming for the learner?

How would you structure the material?

Hello everyone! I’m a 2nd-year ELL teacher in the U.S., and I’ve been thinking about doing my master’s degree internationally.

I’m not set on a specific school or country yet, but it would likely be in Northern Europe. I’ve been looking at a couple programs that are taught in English and would cost less than the schools in my state. So I think it’d be worth the experience of living abroad and getting a degree.

For the teachers who’ve done a master’s degree abroad:

- Did employers care where the degree was from?
- Was there any difficulties getting the degree recognized in the U.S.?
- Do you think it made you more or less hirable?
- If you decided to stay abroad, did the degree help you secure a job?

I’d appreciate any advice or suggestions! Thanks!!

Self-promo disclosure up front: I built this.

One thing I kept noticing with ESL teaching is that knowing what you want to teach isn't necessarily the time-consuming part.

It's everything after that.

Turning “A2 simple past, 50 minutes, some controlled practice and a speaking activity” into an actual worksheet, teacher copy, answer key, homework, etc.

So I built Chalkline.

You give it:

• topic
• CEFR level
• age group
• class length
• the kinds of exercises you want

It builds the lesson structure first and then generates the content inside that structure. The result is editable, printable material with a matching teacher copy and answer key.

You can also regenerate one bad question without blowing up the rest of the lesson, which was something I really wanted to get right.

Finished lessons can also become things like homework, quizzes, Bingo sets, and Taboo decks.

There's a free plan if you want to throw an actual lesson you're teaching at it:

chalkline.flashodds.live

I’d much rather hear “this part would annoy me in a real class” than generic feedback, so feel free to beat the hell out of it.

Hello all,

I've got an upcoming interview teaching English at a high school, and I'll be honest, I've never done this level before and am looking for advice. I really want this job, so I figured, hey, let's ask for some help to try and get some great ideas.

They've given me a couple relatively short reading selections and asked me to design a 15 minute speaking activity based on them, and I should create a lesson plan for at least one of them. The students are level CEFR A2–B1.

So, what are your go to ideas for speaking activities for high school students, and do you have any good ideas to put in a lesson plan?

I appreciate any advice you've got. :)

Hello all,

I've got an upcoming interview teaching English at a high school, and I'll be honest, I've never done this level before and am looking for advice. I really want this job, so I figured, hey, let's ask for some help to try and get some great ideas.

They've given me a couple relatively short reading selections and asked me to design a 15 minute speaking activity based on them, and I should create a lesson plan for at least one of them. The students are level CEFR A2–B1.

So, what are your go to ideas for speaking activities for high school students, and do you have any good ideas to put in a lesson plan?

I appreciate any advice you've got. :)

Hello all,

I teach off and on at a school in the UK, and through the year that is just German high school students, predominantly C1 or very close to it. These sessions are usually one or two weeks only, and then they leave. The issue is the school itself is somewhat outdated, it's in an old church. no IWB's or access to the internet. Each class lasts around an hour, but is rotating. Basically, I have to teach the SAME lesson, three times a day.

The lessons themselves have to be speaking based and are difficult to plan, I've been a teacher for over two years and yet I still find these lessons the most difficult to create. Previous attempts last year have led to mixed results, and this year, not good ones (0 interest in the topic, rowdy students, problems with host families etc.).

With the age range of around 16-19, I find that the topics themselves are hard to choose. Whats good, whats risky, etc.

So, I come here asking help. I need speaking based lessons or topics that could last up to an hour, for SEVEN DAYS. Anything that can introduce potentially new vocabulary is also good. If you have similar experiences, please share.

Hi everyone! Looking for some advice here.

I'm trying to see what to do with this beginners class. (they've only been taking classes since April)

Tomorrow I'm having my class observed by one of the directors of the institute I'm working at, so I really want to do things right. Now, the thing is, this group is a bit particular. It's an in-company beginners online class of 3 students, of which one comes to class once every two or three weeks (we have classes twice a week), and another girl has been on leave for about two weeks now, so we've had classes only with one of them over this period.

So, I wonder now what I can do tomorrow, as probably (but not certain) the student who'd been on leave is coming back to class and the other student (the one that's always absent) might even join.

What do you generally do when you have this problem of so many people being absent and then having them together again with the others who have been attending regularly?