Eye Idioms

I've just discovered (a little late) that January is 'Eye Care Awareness Month', so I thought it would be a great opportunity to look at some Eye Idioms!  

The Esl Library created this excellent downloadable poster:










































To feast one's eyes on: To look at something beautiful/amazing.
"Now turn around and feast your eyes on that view".

One's  eyes pop out of one's head: To be shocked or amazed.
"When I told him I was leaving the company, his eyes nearly popped out of his head."

Keep one's eyes peeled: To look for intently.
"Keep your eyes peeled for a parking space."

Out of the corner of one's eye: To catch/see something without really looking for it.
"Out of the corner of my eye I saw something move, I turned to look and saw a little mouse run across the floor."

The apple of one's eye: A person you have great affection for.
"His son is the apple of his eye."

In the blink of an eye: Very quickly.
"The holidays will be over in a blink of an eye."

Eye candy: Someone who is very attractive.
"My friend likes sitting at the bar looking for eye candy."

Red eye: An overnight flight.
"Red eye flights are usually cheaper."

Get some shut eye: To get some sleep.
"I have to get some shut eye, I'm exhausted."


Listen out for the Eye Idiom in the song "You are the sunshine of my life" by Stevie Wonder:

Top 10 Tools for Creating Teaching Materials

UPDATE: Featured blog of the month!!  
I am very proud to announce that this post has been awarded the 'Blog Award for Innovative Teaching Ideas' by Teaching English British Council.

I am absolutely over the moon!  I would like to take this opportunity to thank Teaching English  for all their support and thank everyone who voted :-)

This week I set out on a mission to find some quick and easy ways to create interesting teaching materials.

Multisensory Materials:

When planning a lesson I always take into consideration the fact that students process information in different ways, so I need to use a variety of instructional approaches to reach all of them.  Some students are visual learners, they need materials that contain pictures, videos and diagrams.  Other students are auditory learners they benefit from the use of music, discussions and recordings.  There are also the kinesthetic learners, they learn by 'doing', so activities that involve movement are necessary; using games, acting out expressions and allowing students to create their own quizzes/presentations can be beneficial.  

In this post I will 'put forward' some free and easy ideas on how to create original teaching materials: 

I have used a selection of 8 phrasal verbs with the verb PUT in order to demonstrate how the tools that I have discovered can be used to create original, multisensory materials and activities. 

1. Exam time mind maps: 

Very user-friendly, excellent for creating visual materials for visual learners. 
Advantages: 
Free and easy to use. Creates modern colourful mind maps.
Disadvantages: 
You have to sign up to use it, but it only takes a minute.

Happiness - Intermediate Lesson

The beginning of January is always a difficult time for my students.  It is not easy returning to work after the Christmas holidays. This year is no exception, and everyone seems to have the 'January blues'.  At the weekend I heard a song by Pharrell Williams (thank you Arnon +מישקה ארנון), it made me feel so happy, that it inspired me to prepare a 'happy' lesson for my students:

HAPPINESS

Lesson objectives: To beat the January blues and to cheer up my students. To practise expressing opinions, talking about feelings and expanding vocabulary.

New Year's Resolutions - First Conditional and Promises.

  

What is a New Year's resolution?

A New Year's resolution is a decision that you make, to start doing something good or stop doing something bad on the first day of the year.

Can you think of some examples of common New Year's resolutions?

Look at the top ten resolutions last year according to:

http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2013/01/03/the-most-popular-new-years-resolutions-for-2013/ 

1. Save more money – 31%

2. Get out of debt – 22%

3. Get fit/lose weight – 18%

4. Change job/career – 16%

5. Quit smoking – 13%

6. Give up alcohol – 11%

7. Spend less time working – 9%

8. Spend more time with family/friends – 7%

9. Give up chocolate – 6%

10.  Move house – 2%