The Motivated Classroom

This episode on behaviour comes with a big caveat. I realise completely that behaviour and classroom management looks very different in each of our different contexts. This episode centres around the educational psychology of behaviour, motivation and social norms. I am fortunate to work in a fantastic school with great students and in this episode I share some of the strategies that have worked best for me over the years based on the research.. but as always, this is just my take on it. I know your context may be very different to mine but hopefully you will still get something from it.

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In this special podcast collaboration episode, Claudia Elliott and I discuss the importance of community and connections for communication in the language acquisition classroom. Claudia hosts the excellent ⁠Growing with Proficiency⁠ podcast and she had some wonderful insights to share including lots of easy-to-implement stategies to boost engagement and motivation in the languages classroom.

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It is August, so that must mean The Motivated Classroom is back with it's start of the school year special. In this episode I give my Top Nine low-prep ideas and strategies for a motivated year. It could easily have been 29 and not nine, but these are the absolute essentials in order to allow both motivation and acquisition to flourish in your languages classroom this year! As always, this is just my take on it but I would to know what you think!

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Much of professional development is useful, thought-provoking, interesting and even impactful.. but does it actually result in any changes in our practice or indeed on student's learning? Research suggests that most of it, sadly, does not. In this episode we explore an alternative type of practice-focused professional development called Instructional Coaching. As I start my role as an instructional coach next year, I provide an overview of its potential for pedagogical development here.

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After many questions about what the dreaded oral exams look like in my classroom and in my context, I've decided to do an entire episode on just that topic! Most of us work in systems where they are a mandatory part of student assessment. So how can we make them more motivating and less scary whilst also ensuring they take the least amount of learning time possible. As always, this is just my take on it, having learned over the years from some brilliant teachers.

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Leading on from recent episodes on raising positive emotions in the languages classroom, I am delighted to be joined by the inspirational educator, La Maestra Loca, in this episode. Annabelle talks to us about how to use a CI approach in order to build a sense of belonging, joy and happiness in the languages classroom. She also provides us with some brilliant, easy to implement, brain breaks that can be used immediately in class; providing more input and also fostering a feeling of joy and happiness in the class. This is an episode not to be missed!

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Part Two of the series focusing on my recent research on how using co-created stories in the language acquisition class can foster happiness, joy and other positive emotions in the classroom. In this second part of the study, we look in detail at the methodology and findings.

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This first in a mini-series on the importance of positive emotions in the language acquisition classroom. This episode introduces my recent research study on how using co-created stories in the class can help to foster happiness, joy and interest in the language classroom. Next week's episode looks more at the methodology and findings of the study.

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This episode focuses on classroom practice and, in particular, how we can use questions in order to both build connections and to maximise language acquisition. I take you through my favourite strategies in the classroom and those from the research about how to employ questions in the language classroom for maximum gain.

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This third and final episode in the mini-series on Second Language Acquisition (SLA) research and theory. This one looks at Chomsky's concept of Universal Grammar; the idea that we all possess an innate mechanism that allows us to decipher and encode language with ease.

In this episode I try to look at both sides of the research on this and also at where the common ground lies. There is, always, lots of valuable practical implications for teachers too!

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