Punctuation causes all sorts of disagreements among native English speakers, and despite seemingly straightforward rules, there are always exceptions, variations, and style differences. Still, students need help understanding when and where to use different forms of punctuation, and many rely on well-meaning myths that should have been thrown out years ago.

In this episode, Ixchell & Brent explore some resources to build a foundation with, and some tools that you can use to help students explore and build on their punctuation knowledge.

We sit down with Dustin from Board Gaming with Education to talk about understanding and using board games, both physically and digitally to help engage students. Dustin shares ideas on games and how to integrate them into your class needs while keeping students coming back for more.

We made it to 2021! Congratulations on making it through, and we're excited to shake off "that year" and explore some more fun with twenty twenty-one! The truth is that 21 tools is probably an overwhelming number of things to look at and explore, but remember that you should NOT be using all of these, it's just meant to see what matches your needs and hopefully can help you out.

Listen in as Ixchell & Brent talk about what each tool is, then if one tickles your fancy, give it a spin! Not sure if a tool is right for you? You can join our Patreon and every month we'll explore something together and see how it works.

Matt Miller joins us to give a positive ending to a trying year! Listen in as he shares how he transitioned from being a textbook-dependent teacher to an innovative educator in his language classes and beyond. Matt shares how to Ditch That Textbook (gently) and build that language (quickly)!

We've spent two episodes looking at the TESOL Technology standards and in our final installment of this series we explore the ISTE standards. Why is it important to look at the ISTE Standards when we already have TESOL technology ones? What can we glean from them that we can strive to include in the TESOL standards? Join us for a discussion on the importance of including the concepts of the ISTE standards as we blend technology in ESOL.

In this episode we meet up with ESL Instructor, Robert Jonte, to discuss several games that translate well into Zoom! He discusses how to recreate classic favorites as Zoom versions; best of all, these require little to no prep because as Robert shares, all you need is the ability to share a screen, annotate, and use the chat function. Listen in as we dive into ways to use up those few minutes left of class and target specific language areas!

In the second installment of a three-part series, we take time to discuss understanding technology standards for ELLs. Why is it important to have a plan when introducing students to technology? How can we approach what can be a daunting task in an organized way? What approach should we take when teaching media literacy skills? Brent and Ixchell review the rationale for a framework and discuss the TESOL Tech Standards Framework and its three goals and eleven standard. Finally, we share ways to apply the standards in our own classrooms.

Breakout rooms are a great way to get your students communicating, and they're more likely to share and practice in small groups, but you can't just send them away and hope that it will work. In this episode, Brent & Ixchell talk with Savyonne Steindler about the ins and outs, the technical setups, and the activities you can do with breakout rooms in your online ESOL classrooms.

With the COVID rush to teach from home and meet the needs of our students, we’ve been pushed to sample all sorts of tech tools. This urgency has exposed us to testing a plethora of educational technology. That has been both exciting and overwhelming. How do we make decisions on what the best tool is? Do we have a framework to apply when choosing something? What standards exist in our approach to selecting tech tools? Join us in this episode to find out!

Weina Li Chen is a Visiting Instructor of the MA in TESOL program at Pepperdine University and teaches MA TESOL candidates, MS in Educational Leadership, and Learning Design and Innovation. She has extensive experience and passion for multilingualism, educational technology, hybrid, and online learning. Join our conversation on the importance of creating a risk-free environment for language learners and on the importance of supporting teacher candidates in creating habits to foster creativity and life-long learning.