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Does Tutoring Help Students? 2500 Studies Say “Yes”… Possibly.
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Does Tutoring Help Students? 2500 Studies Say “Yes”… Possibly.

At the beginning of this year, 2023, the U.K.-based Education Endowment Foundation published the results of a meta-study of more than 2,500 studies of what helps, (and what doesn’t really help), with a student’s academic success. This analysis, the Teaching and Learning Toolkit, considered 30 different educational strategies and ranked them on the amount of…

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How to increase what students remember
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How to increase what students remember

It’s no revelation that students forget pretty quickly the lesson of the day. Repetition, drilling, revision and testing are the traditional tools that teachers use to to try to limit forgetting and help students remember, but it often feels like trying to hold back the tide. There’s possibly a biological reason for this. Just as…

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Why should you register your independent teacher business?
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Why should you register your independent teacher business?

Very often while perusing the chats and boards and comments of the sites I regularly visit I see the same question being asked, “Should I (or how do I) register my own private business?”. Equally as often I see this question being answered with inaccurate or misleading information, so in this article I’ll try to…

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7 Things You Should be Thinking About to Give Your Online Teaching Career a Strong Foundation
7 Things You Should be Thinking About to Give Your Online Teaching Career a Strong Foundation 1600 901 martinp
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7 Things You Should be Thinking About to Give Your Online Teaching Career a Strong Foundation

It has been said numerous times in various ways that nothing can succeed without a solid foundation – not a building, a relationship or a career. A career as an independent online teacher is no different. You need to approach your online teaching career with an awareness of certain fundamentals upon which to build. Your…

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Online Classroom Management: the Essential Toolbox
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Online Classroom Management: the Essential Toolbox

As with any profession with its own unique set of tools, online teachers must also have at hand their own online classroom management toolbox. Teachers will often have much more than what is listed below to accommodate their particular niches and needs, but broadly speaking these are the fundamentals. There is certainly debate and discussion…

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Primer: Practical Online Teaching Strategies to Overcome Unique Teaching Challenges
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Primer: Practical Online Teaching Strategies to Overcome Unique Teaching Challenges 1200 798 martinp
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Primer: Practical Online Teaching Strategies to Overcome Unique Teaching Challenges

In my experience, the majority of online teachers are guiding children and young people between the ages of 8 and 15, and so have access to many resources for curriculum, experienced advice and support. Broadly speaking, online teachers are walking the same path of uncountable traditional teachers and any difficulties can be traced to the…

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Primer: Recognizing Initial Online Teaching Challenges
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Primer: Recognizing Initial Online Teaching Challenges

It goes without saying that taking on a new adventure comes with hurdles that we might not anticipate. However, when it comes to online teaching challenges, enough have gone before you that the path is littered with guides, tips and advice. Here is my own collection of wisdom to dissipate some of the fog, particularly…

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Primer: Determine Your Online Teaching Path Wisely
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Primer: Determine Your Online Teaching Path Wisely

Teaching others seems to be hard-wired into our behaviours as humans, and is a natural outgrowth of communicating. When we share our experiences, philosophies, plans and perceptions, we can be said to be teaching. Some discover a natural aptitude for teaching as they become professionally trained, while others realize it as they tutor their children…

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Accent or intelligibility; which should you be teaching?
Accent or intelligibility; which should you be teaching? 786 343 martinp
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Accent or intelligibility; which should you be teaching?

At the end of September I attended the ELT Together 2021 webinar series hosted by Oxford University Press. Though I enjoyed almost all of the presentations, a few particularly stood out. The plenary session from the Pronunciation webinar was one such memorable and thought-provoking experience. Professor Jane Setter Presented by Jane Setter, professor of phonetics…

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Creative (and educational) Autumn activities
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Creative (and educational) Autumn activities

I’d like to claim that autumn days are particularly great for getting outdoors for some fun and exploration, but in truth there are few days at any time of the year that aren’t great. Nevertheless, fall offers unique opportunities to feel and observe changes in the cycles of life and of the Earth. From cooling…

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