The English teachers voice

  Did you know that dice can be a great way to increase motivation and spice up boring lessons and exercises in class? Dice can be bought at any dollar store in the US  in a pack of 10 for $1. I’m sure that they are also cheap in other countries. Because of the unpredictable nature of dice, there is something interesting about how they motivate students. Here are 10 ways to use dice to make your class more fun and interesting. 1.   Use dice to choose students for activities . Using addition or multiplication,  2 to 3 dice can be used to help the teacher have a random way of picking students for activities when each student is assigned a number. 2.  Use dice to help choose groups.   Though groups may get be a bit lopsided at times, using one die for each student can work if you have odd and even groups.  That way there is a greater likelihood that you will split the class into groups evenly. 3.  Use dice in conjunction with book exercises...

What’s an idiom? An idiom is a phrase or expression that has a meaning that in most cases cannot be deduced directly from the individual words in that phrase or expression. For example, the idiom ‘bite off more than you can chew’ doesn’t mean you bite more than a mouthful of a cake or something else and then struggle to chew. It means you try to do something that is too difficult for you. How are they different from proverbs? Proverbs are well-known sayings, stating a general truth or advice. For example, the proverb ‘a picture is worth a thousand words is a general truth. The idiom ‘bite off more than you can chew’, however, is neither a general truth nor advice. Before you get into the idioms, I would give you a tip if you want to use them (versus just knowing the meaning). It’s relatively easier to remember words than to remember idioms because idioms typically contain 3-4 or more words. Remembering a string of words in the correct sequence and recalling them in a flash while speaki...