Hello, good evening and welcome.

Welcome to my new blog.

Come in. Draw up a chair. Take the weight off. Have a cup of tea. Do you want a biscuit?

I have another blog but it's rather more random than this. This one is quite specific. It's all about teaching and mostly about teaching in China. If you aren't in China, though, don't let that put you off. There are plenty of things here that will be of use to almost any English teacher. Lesson plans, for example. Everybody needs lesson plans.

Back in the UK I had enough paperwork in the average week to bury a car - a big car - and all of it useless apart from the lesson plans. Actually about two thirds of each lesson plan was also useless - all the bits that the college wanted me to fill in, in fact. My approach to lesson planning is quite straightforward. I need to know 

- what grammar or vocabulary I'm trying to teach

- what topic I'm going to use to teach it

- what I intend to do in the lesson

- what order I intend to do it in

- how long I expect it to take

- what resources I need

And that's it. I don't need group profiles (as if they would be useful in classes of eighty students!), detailed minute by minute breakdowns, individual learning plans, 'Every Child Matters" tick boxes or any of the other stuff that used to clog up my days as efficiently as used nappies clog up a drain.

So none of that stuff here. If you want it or, more likely, your institution wants it, go right ahead and add it. You will find more information about how my plans are written and laid out by clicking the "Lesson Plan Layout" tab at the top of the page.

As for the other things here, you might find them entertaining or useful or you might not. Some of them probably not unless you live and work in China. Advice on how to teach a class of eighty students isn't much good if your average class size is twenty.  Advice on aspects of Chinese city living or Chinese culture won't help you if you live in Wolverhampton or Washington DC.

Of course you could read them anyway. I'll try to make it all entertaining.

Anyway, once more welcome. Time to get on with the show.