Read the blog for practical teaching tips, strategies, and classroom ideas to support EAL/D and ESL students. I share stories, lesson plans, and teaching resources that make supporting English learners easier and more effective.
Discover simple Harmony Day arts and craft ideas for your classroom. These creative Harmony Week activities help students celebrate culture, diversity, and belonging while making meaningful classroom displays.
Discover simple Harmony Day arts and craft ideas for your classroom. These creative Harmony Week activities help students celebrate culture, diversity, and belonging while making meaningful classroom displays.
Want Harmony Week to feel deeper than decorations and orange shirts? Explore meaningful Harmony Week activities for your classroom that build real belonging, cultural pride and confident multilingual learners.
Discover why Reader’s Theatre works so well for ESL students and why so many teachers keep coming back to it. Learn how this simple strategy builds fluency, confidence, and real spoken English without pressure.
Who is an EAL/D teacher and what do they actually do in Australian primary schools? This practical guide explains the role, responsibilities, and why EAL/D matters for multilingual and dialect learners.
Supporting new arrival students in the first weeks of school sets the foundation for everything that follows. In this post, I share how I support newly arrived learners in a Sydney primary school — from orientation and buddy systems to gentle assessment, visual support, and language learning grounded in research and real classroom practice.
Teaching news writing to ESL students doesn’t have to be stressful. In this post, I share 5 simple ways to teach ESL students news writing using clear modelling, visual prompts, and scaffolded planning that actually works in Stage 3 classrooms.
The Gingerbread Man Readers’ Theatre became a meaningful end-of-year ESL activity that brought together reading, speaking, fluency, and confidence. In this post, I share how a simple Reader’s Theatre helped my Kindergarten and Stage 1 EAL/D students showcase their progress while having fun.
There are certain phrases I will never say to my ESL or EAL/D students — not because I’m trying to be perfect, but because I’ve seen the impact they have. Many well-intended classroom expressions sound supportive, yet they quietly shut down real understanding for English language learners. In this post, I unpack six common phrases to avoid and share clear, practical alternatives that actually support comprehension in ESL and EAL/D classrooms.
Reader's Theatre quickly became one of the most joyful parts of our fairy tale unit. My new arrival EAL/D students loved practising English through simple scripts, puppets, and expressive voices. With predictable lines and playful acting, even absolute beginners found themselves speaking confidently and proudly in English.