Professional Development

Free, interactive masterclasses for teachers — practical techniques and proven approaches you can use in any classroom, at any level, starting today.

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41 masterclasses
Language Teaching
Teaching Grammar
Grammar takes up more class time than any other part of language teaching. We explain rules. Students copy them. We do gap-fill exercises. We mark them. We move to the next rule. Year after year. But here is something many EFL teachers notice: students who can fill in every gap…
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Inclusive Education
Bringing the Community into the Classroom
The classroom door is closed. Outside that door is your community: farmers, shopkeepers, drivers, tailors, mothers, grandmothers, builders, market traders, religious leaders, nurses. People with stories, jobs, opinions, knowledge, language. People who could change your students’…
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Inclusive Education
Working with Parents and Guardians
Most teachers see parents only when something has gone wrong. A child has misbehaved. A child has failed an exam. A child has stopped coming. The phone call, the meeting, the difficult conversation. This is a missed opportunity. Parents and guardians are one of the most powerful…
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Lesson Planning & Teaching Strategies
Creating Assessments and Exam Success — Part 1: Creating Fair Assessments
Most teachers create some kind of test. A short quiz on Friday. A unit test at the end of a chapter. A monthly progress check. Even when big exams are decided by the education authority, teachers still build their own assessments most weeks. But here is the question many of us…
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Lesson Planning & Teaching Strategies
Creating Assessments and Exam Success — Part 2: Helping Students Perform in Exams
A well-designed exam is only half the work. The other half is whether students can actually show what they know on the day. Many students who genuinely understand the material still do badly in exams. Their hand was shaking. The room was too hot. They had not eaten breakfast…
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Classroom Management
Motivating and Empowering Students
Some students arrive at school with energy. They want to learn. They try. Others arrive tired, distracted, or with no interest at all. They sit in the same classroom but are in a different world. For students living in challenging circumstances — with poverty, family pressures…
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Language Teaching
Teaching Speaking and Writing — Part 2: Writing
Writing is often called the hardest skill in language learning. Students stare at the blank page. They write one sentence and stop. They copy from each other. They hand in two short, careful sentences when you wanted a paragraph. And then we, the teachers, are left with a pile…
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Language Teaching
Teaching Speaking and Writing — Part 1: Speaking
How much do your students actually speak English in your lessons? For many EFL classrooms, the answer is: very little. The teacher talks. Students listen. Students copy. Maybe one or two of the brave students answer a question. The rest stay silent. This is the negative cycle of…
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Language Teaching
Teaching Reading and Listening — Part 1: Reading
How do you teach reading in your English class? For many teachers, it looks like this: students open the book, one student reads a paragraph aloud, then the next student reads. Then comprehension questions. Then move on. This is the most common way reading is taught around the…
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Language Teaching
Teaching Reading and Listening — Part 2: Listening
When was the last time your students did a real listening task in English? For many EFL teachers, the answer is “I do not really do listening.” The audio equipment is broken. The CD player has been borrowed. The room is too noisy. The students at the back cannot hear. So we skip…
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Lesson Planning & Teaching Strategies
Teaching Mixed-Ability Classes
Look at any classroom and you will see students at very different levels. One student writes long, accurate sentences. Another struggles to spell their own name. One student answers every question. Another has not spoken in three months. They are all in the same class…
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Language Teaching
Supporting Students with No English at Home
You teach English. Your students hear English from you, in the classroom. Then they leave the room and they hear no more English until tomorrow. Their families speak L1. Their friends speak L1. The market, the bus, the radio — all in L1. English exists only inside the school…
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Classroom Management
Managing Very Large Classes
Fifty students. Sixty students. Sometimes more. The desks are fixed. The room is loud. You cannot reach every student in a 40-minute lesson. You cannot mark every book the same week. Many teachers feel they are failing their students simply because the class is too big. But this…
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Lesson Planning & Teaching Strategies
Peer and Self-Assessment
Marking. The pile of books grows. The hours disappear. You give back the work two weeks later, and by then the students have forgotten what they wrote. Many teachers feel they must mark everything themselves. But this is not true. Students can check each other’s work. Students…
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Lesson Planning & Teaching Strategies
Adapting Your Textbook
The textbook is too long. Or too short. Or too hard. Or out of date. Or written for students in a city when yours live in a village. Or all of the above. Most teachers feel they have to teach every page, in order, exactly as written. They feel guilty when they skip something, or…
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Professional Development
Setting Professional Goals
Most teachers want to be better at their job. But few of us stop and ask: better at what, exactly? Without clear goals, we drift. We try to do everything at once. We feel busy but not better. After five years, we have five years of experience — or we have one year of experience…
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Inclusive Education
Managing Gender Dynamics
Think about your last lesson. Who answered your questions? Who raised their hand first? Who got more of your time and attention? In many classrooms, boys speak more than girls. They get asked more questions. They take up more space. This is rarely because the teacher wants it…
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Teaching in Challenging Contexts
Teaching with Limited Resources
Many teachers say: “I cannot do good lessons. I have no books. No photocopier. No internet. No projector. Even chalk is sometimes hard to find.” It is true. Teaching with limited resources is hard. But here is something we often forget: a classroom is never empty. Your students…
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Language Teaching
Teaching Vocabulary in Context
Vocabulary. Every lesson, you teach new words. But how many of those words do students really learn? How many can they use one week later? One month later? Many teachers teach vocabulary by writing words on the board with translations. Students copy them. Then we test them. And…
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Lesson Planning & Teaching Strategies
Using questions well
Host: Questions are the most powerful tool in your classroom. You ask hundreds every day. But here is the strange thing — most teachers have never been taught how to ask them well. Think about your last lesson. How many of your questions had only one right answer? How many…
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Inclusive Education
Supporting shy students
Host: Think about your last lesson. Who answered your questions? Probably the same three or four students. Hands up. Voices loud. Confident. But what about the others? The student in the corner who never speaks. The one who looks down when you ask a question. The one who…
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Classroom Management
Using the board effectively
Host: The board. It is the one piece of teaching technology nearly every classroom has. No power needed. No internet. Just a surface, and something to write with. But here is the question. Are you really using it well? Think about your last lesson. What did you write? Where did…
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Lesson Planning & Teaching Strategies
Simple Ways to Check Understanding
You finish explaining a topic. You ask the class “does everyone understand?” They nod. You move on. Then later, you mark the test — and half the class did not understand at all. This happens to every teacher. The problem is not the explanation. The problem is how we check. “Do…
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Classroom Management
Giving Clear Instructions
Have you ever given an instruction, and then watched the class do something completely different? Or watched students stare at you, with no idea what to do? You are not alone. Giving clear instructions is one of the most important teaching skills. Think about the last…
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Professional Development
Teacher Wellbeing
Teaching is one of the most rewarding jobs in the world. It is also one of the most tiring. Long days. Big classes. Marking at night. Worrying about students. Always being needed. Teachers spend so much time looking after others. They often forget to look after themselves. But a…
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Classroom Management
Managing Noise Levels
Noise. In a class of 50 or 60 students, noise is part of teaching. Some noise is good. Students talking about the task. Asking each other questions. That is learning. But sometimes the noise grows. It gets louder and louder. You cannot hear yourself think. You raise your voice…
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Professional Development
Observing Other Teachers
Watching another teacher teach is one of the best ways to learn — but in many schools, it almost never happens. Teachers say there is no time. Or they feel shy about asking. Or they think observation is only for inspectors. But you do not need a formal system. You can learn from…
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Professional Development
Reflecting on Your Own Teaching
Every teacher finishes some lessons feeling proud, and others feeling tired or unsure. But how often do we stop and think about why? Reflecting on your teaching does not mean writing a long journal. It means asking yourself simple questions, even for one minute. What worked…
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Inclusive Education
Including students who are different
In Lesson 1, you started to notice every student in your room. In Lesson 2, you found small habits that bring every student in. This last lesson is about students who need something extra. A child who cannot see the board well. A child who speaks a different language at home. A…
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Inclusive Education
Including Every Student
In the last lesson, you started to notice who you reach in your class, and who you miss. Now we move from noticing to acting. What can you actually do, in a class of fifty students, to bring every student in? You cannot teach each child one to one. But you can change how you ask…
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Inclusive Education
Noticing Who is Included
In every classroom, some students are very visible. They put up their hands. They answer questions. They sit at the front. We see them every day. But what about the other students? The quiet ones. The ones at the back. The ones who never speak. Do you know all your students…
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Classroom Management
Starting and Ending Lessons Well
The first few minutes of a lesson are very important. When students come into your classroom, what happens? Do they sit down and wait quietly? Do they talk and move around? Does it take a long time before the lesson really begins? And what about the end of the lesson? Does it…
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Lesson Planning & Teaching Strategies
Making Homework Work
Homework. For many teachers, it is one of the most difficult parts of the job. You set it. Some students do it. Many do not. You spend time marking it. But does it really help students learn? Think about the homework you give. Do most of your students complete it? Do they…
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Lesson Planning & Teaching Strategies
Flexible Lesson Planning
Every teacher has experienced this: you finish everything you planned with ten minutes still to go. Or the opposite — the bell rings and you are only halfway through. Both situations are common, and both can be stressful. Lessons rarely go exactly as planned. Students may work…
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Inclusive Education
Managing textbook bias
Textbooks are one of the most important resources in a classroom. But have you ever stopped to think about whose stories, images, and ideas are included in your textbook — and whose are left out? Textbook bias happens when a book presents information in a way that favours…
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Classroom Management
Making Your Teaching Student-Focused 1
In many classrooms, the teacher speaks most of the time and students listen quietly. This is particularly common when classes are large and resources are limited. However, students learn better when they are active and involved — they have ideas, experiences, and energy that can…
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Classroom Management
Giving feedback
Students do not always receive the same kind of feedback. Sometimes teachers give very short comments like "good" or "wrong", and students do not know what to improve. This often happens because teachers are busy or have large classes. Some students may also feel shy to ask for…
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Classroom Management
Doing Pairwork Effectively
Pairwork is one of the most powerful tools a teacher has. When students work in pairs, every student is active at the same time. Instead of one student answering while thirty others listen, all of them are speaking, thinking, and practising together. But pairwork does not always…
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Classroom Management
Managing playtime effectively
Playtime is an important part of school life, especially for younger students. It supports physical, social, and emotional development. However, playtime can also become unsafe or difficult to manage if it is not well organised. In some schools, students of different ages play…
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Professional Development
Understanding why we teach
Teachers spend a lot of time planning lessons, teaching students, and marking work. However, it is also important to ask a bigger question: why do we teach? Education means different things to different people. For some students, school is a safe place. For others, it is a way…
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Inclusive Education
Ensuring gender equality when asking questions
In many classrooms around the world, boys and girls do not always receive the same opportunities to participate. Often this happens without the teacher realising it. Teachers may ask more questions to boys, give them more attention, or encourage them more in certain subjects…
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