Attending webinars from the comfort of your own home is a fantastic experience!  Image courtesy of google images This morning I attended an excellent OUP Webinar presented by John Hughes, called 'Using Games for win-win learning'.  You can read all about it in this informative OUP blog post here: https://oupeltglobalblog.com/2018/01/25/using-games-win-win-learning/ You can register to attend the same webinar repeated on Thursday February 15th.  Details from the OUP website are here I enjoy playing games with my learners and in this webinar I learned more about the rationa ..read more

I am delighted to be writing a review of a newly published photocopiable teachers' resource book called Talking Idioms: Images, written by two of my Lake School of English colleagues. The talented joint authors are Lucy Holmes and Sharlene Matharu and they have been working at the Lake School of English for a considerable number of years between them now. Below an image reproduced with kind permission from the Lake School.  It shows the two authors with their book called 'Talking Images: Idioms'. This resource book is created for teachers by two practising and very experienced teachers ..read more

What do you think? Which of the following statements apply to your style of teaching?  Please DO post a comment if you wish to say what you think :-) I usually act a word for the students to guess the meaning I'm a budding theatrical diva/divo I'm an aspiring poet and I encourage my students to create their own poems I always wanted to be a comedian or comedienne so teaching is a nice alternative I am always cracking jokes in class I usually enter my classroom with a theatrical flourish I am prone to using wild gesticulations to emphasize a point I often change the tone of my voice t ..read more

I hope the new year has got off to a flying start for everyone! My first post of 2018 is about someone who is realising a dream....... Recently I had a big clearing out of books and I came across an exciting initiative in Abruzzo which proved to be the ideal solution for donating a few of my books in English. The initiative was set up by an enthusisatic book lover, Giovanna G. who has created a small bookcrossing library for free.  The objective is to take a book and donate a book so that the books are circulated by as wide an audience as possible.  This involves trust and respec ..read more

I hope the 2017 festive season brings joy, peace, love and happiness all around.   Have a fun-filled time!  ..read more

Thankfully this year was a good one for olives and we were delighted to have a bumper crop in November.  We picked each olive by hand over 5 solid days and the result was approximately 255 kilos, which was then converted at the local olive mill to about 55 litres of lovely 100% extra virgin olive oil. The picking was an enjoyable experience, surrounded by nature and peace and quiet.  In some areas it was a bit tricky to get at the branches as seen in the image below and I had to be very careful indeed not to fall!  Pouring the lovely 'liquid gold' from the olive mill con ..read more

In 2018 the Lake School of English will proudly be celebrating its 40th year as a hugely successful English language school in Oxford.  This is an enormous achievement, and a glowing testimony to the two dedicated directors, Carmel and Susan, and each and every single member of the hardworking members of staff. In recognition of this incredible landmark number of years, there is currently a special promotional offer for earlybird bookings! Link to Lake School page with more details of this special limited offer is here Also, for the recent British Council Inspection in August 201 ..read more

A visit to Abruzzo should include a special trip to the medieval Castle of Roccascalegna, perched precariously high up on a steep rock cliff. I first read about it in Life in Abruzzo's post here.  Image above courtesy of KRB The article and images inspired us to see this beautiful castle for ourselves. So one bright sunny Sunday in mid October, we set off with great anticipation, and we weren't disappointed! Below a view of the village from one of the open windows: The castle was the dramatic location for some of the scenes from the movie 'Tale of Tales'. Wikipedia link: htt ..read more

I think I am now ......... regarding blogging for the moment! This rather belated post is going to be about my teaching at the Lake School of English during the summer months from July through to October this year. Comic tool used: http://www.professorgarfield.org/pgf_comics_lab.html I had the great pleasure to teach a variety of levels ranging from AO (Complete Beginner) to B2+ (Upper Intermediate).  All the learners were wonderfully receptive and I enjoyed teaching each individual class.  It was also as usual, fantastic to be back in the staffroom and be an active member o ..read more

Image source:  Razzle.com Janet's Abruzzo Edublog is now officially 9 years old!  My very first post was on November 8th 2008.  It was a short and simple introduction.  I remember feeling a bit nervous yet at the same time, very excited about taking such an enormous step in publishing to the world for the first time. Back in those days I was a technophobe and did not possess much confidence in using the web.  That all changed when I took an informative and excellent course on Blogs with The Consultants-e.  I had a knowledgeable, friendly and sympathetic tutor ..read more