Before I began teaching, I had assumed that the many stories I had heard about how students don't like poetry were just myths. After all, I liked (some) poetry, so why wouldn't my students like (some) poetry? But unlike nearly every other myth I've dismissed in my time as a teacher, the one about poetry proved to be true: Nothing makes my students whine more than being handed a poem.  Continue reading...

Michelle Dunaway, who teaches English and journalism at Francis Howell High School in St. Charles, Missouri, writes that interviewing is an integral part of teaching students about public speaking. She encourages English teachers to think of interviewing as "a way for students to start small in building up their public speaking repertoire."  Continue reading...

Teachers, if you are looking to infuse your 2012 curriculum with some timely material, this official "Get Set" website can provide you with all kinds of Olympics-focused teaching resources. From biographies of the star athletes to interactive games and challenges, "Get Set" can help motivate your students to become part of the action.

An eponym is a word that is derived from a person's name — or, in this case, an ancient figure's name. Instead of calling something harsh, students can learn to call it draconian, herculean or sisyphean — after they learn about the ancient figures that served as inspiration for these adjectives.  Continue reading...

Our words matter.

Of course, you know that — you're choosing to read words about words here at the Visual Thesaurus, so the chances are very good that you love words, love learning about them, love using them. You may even love correcting people who've misused words.  Continue reading...

In his best-selling grammar book for teachers of English as a foreign language, Basic English Usage (1984), Michael Swan famously used the term "taboo words" to discuss words that we tend to skirt around in the classroom, and this term entered the EFL teachers lexicon from that point on.  Continue reading...