I used this video in my classes to help students learn the -ap word family.
Thursday, October 09, 2025
Wednesday, October 08, 2025
Vision & The Scarlet Witch: The Saga Of Wanda And Vision: Book Review
Started: September 1, 2025
(This is my first time reading this book, so according to my new rules, I'm doing this as a video only review.)
Links to stuff mentioned:
Related Playlists:
Book Review Playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOY-0V_l_9x7dao6py7ODX_PkUvrAEch7&si=EJ7CG8iO9IouNaYY
Books I read in 2025: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOY-0V_l_9x7Fev7Uv6_tzuSf84LtYwQu&si=Im1rdozRXrgGnr99
Marvel Comics playlist : https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOY-0V_l_9x6jeGutQ_mEv1Fvxk2_FW9Z&si=_xHOngBUgKRSWWJ_
Did you enjoy this review? Consider supporting me on Ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/joelswagman
Support me on Patreon: https://patreon.com/JoelSwagman
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Tuesday, October 07, 2025
What is it? It's a.... Lesson
(TESOL Materials--English World 1, What is it?)
[This a slideshow that uses images and video from English World 1 to practice the grammar structure "What is it?" "It's a...?". The slideshow also includes links to materials previously published on this blog here, here, here and here. The cards can be used for students to color with a color of their choice, and then use in a class mingle where they ask and answer, e.g. "What is it?" "It's a pink ball" ]
* What is it? It's a (color) (noun) Flippity Matching Game
The game makes use of images that are linked to from around the web, so hopefully the links will stay up, so the game will keep working. (Maybe test this game out before you use it in the classroom, especially if you're finding this a few years from the date of posting.)
When students turn over a card, the teacher asks "What is it?" Students have to be able to say the color and animal in order to get a chance to find the matching card.
All but one of the pictures is to an animal. (There's one picture of a cactus, everything else is an animal.) So this activity could also be used to practice animal vocabulary.
* Wordwall: J1A - Unit 1 p.26
This is a Wordwall game designed by a former colleague of mine. It was made to practice "What is it? It's a..." as well as "Is it a...?" It was made to supplement English World 1, but I have also used them independently of the textbook, so I'm posting them here as well.
* baamboozle: Writing J1A Unit 1
These are two baamboozle games that practice the language "What is it? It's a..." I made them to supplement English World 1, but I have also used them independently of the textbook, so I'm posting them here as well.
What is it? It's a...
(TESOL Ideas and Worksheets Subdivisions)
* LINK: What is it? Song
* LINK: Wordwall Game: What is it?
[Notes: Anyone have any ideas about what to classify these materials as? I'm thinking I'll put it as Functional Language, but I'm not sure.]
Started: The New Teen Titans Volume Eleven by Marv Wolfman
Check out this book on Amazon: https://amzn.to/42rDq9F (This is an Amazon Associate's Link. If you buy anything through that link, I get a commission.)
Sunday, October 05, 2025
* Present Continuous Yes/No Questions Kahoot
This is a Kahoot game for making yes/no questions for present continuous. I've used it in my class, and I've found it useful for beginner students who are still learning question formation.
Teaching ESL/EFL Reading and Writing by I.S.P. Nation: Book Review
Links to my reviews of other books mentioned:
This is part of my so-called "Scripted Review" series, in which I make a Youtube video based on an old blogpost. For more information on what this is and why I'm doing it, see HERE:
In this case, the old blog post is here: https://joelswagman.blogspot.com/2013/11/teaching-eslefl-reading-and-writing-by.html
Related Playlists:
Books on Linguistics and TESOL Playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOY-0V_l_9x5zyZvaYnc-TuZjDuX-txNS&si=OM-CROi6wukWFDyb
Scripted Reviews Playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOY-0V_l_9x5BKcEIufNKlS58JHU_glyL&si=Pje0KQqIqOgWGGUI
Scripted Book Reviews Playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOY-0V_l_9x53WSp_2mGcDRHBR7ubQkDa&si=T_0QPBDOZqhqN-oa
Teaching ESL/EFL Reading and Writing by I.S.P. Nation Playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOY-0V_l_9x7dEqRIJKbop9RE15uXlhuF&si=AQ-bKJHhOCCMSxPx
Did you enjoy this review? Consider supporting me on Ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/joelswagman
Support me on Patreon: https://patreon.com/JoelSwagman
Check out this book on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3WmRcXz (This is an Amazon Associate's Link. If you buy anything through that link, I get a commission.)
Saturday, October 04, 2025
Started: Gremlins: The Wild Bunch
Watching Progress (Dates indicate when episodes are completed)
October 4--Episode 2: Never Take the Tour
Friday, October 03, 2025
* Present Continuous: Questions and Short Answers Quizziz (Wayground)
This is an activity for present continuous questions and short answers I made on Quizziz (now called Wayground). It is made for low level students who still need practice with basic sentence formation.
Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai (Gremlins TV Show Season 1): Review
Started: September 27, 2025
This is my first time reviewing this series, so according to my new rules, I am doing this as a video only review.
I ramble on a bit at the beginning. The actual review starts at about 7:00
Links to stuff mentioned:
Red Letter Media Ranking Every Joe Dante Movie: https://youtu.be/RWP-ahN5sfY?si=Do1ha0EeA3YeqPxv
Related Playlists:
TV Show Reviews Playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOY-0V_l_9x6YpO1G45qHp2EEa5bGZLns&si=EuTe0qRY21WQDvSJ
Movies and series that I watched in 2025: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOY-0V_l_9x67grGI4ZJsBc8QYFa5cSvu&si=oZDgEqLXtgLsGB2A
Did you enjoy this review? Consider supporting me on Ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/joelswagman
Support me on Patreon: https://patreon.com/JoelSwagman
Check out this book on Amazon: https://amzn.to/4mJHoBT (This is an Amazon Associate's Link. If you buy anything through that link, I get a commission.)
Thursday, October 02, 2025
Present Continuous Questions and Short Answers PowerPoint
[Note: I originally designed this to supplement English World 2 page 26, and the illustrations are from that textbook. But I've decided that this could also be used as independent practice on present continuous questions.]
What are they doing? PowerPoint: Slides for Practicing Present Continuous
(TESOL Materials--Present Continuous)
[Note: I originally designed this to supplement English World 2 page 26, and the illustrations are from that textbook. But I've decided that this could also be used as independent practice on the present continuous.]
Wednesday, October 01, 2025
* Present Continuous Quizziz (Wayground)
This is a present continuous activity I made on Quizziz (now called Wayground). It is made for low level students who still need practice with present continuous formation.
Tuesday, September 30, 2025
The Gingerbread Cookie Mystery by Judy Katschke and Clare Elsom
(TESOL Materials--Graded Readers)
I used this graded reader with some of my students. I attempted to get several readings out of it--one reading for general understanding, and another reading for specific details (i.e. the old Celta method of gist reading and then specific information). Because I was using this book for reading groups time, I used it over several days.
My students enjoyed the gist reading, as they got hooked on the mystery of who ate the Gingerbread Cookie.
Unfortunately, once they knew the ending, they were not so enthusiastic about subsequent readings. Perhaps it was a mistake to try to milk this book for several readings.
However, if you were to try to work through this book in detail, it does have a lot of good vocabulary you can pull from it. The sentences are simple and basic, so it's easily understood by the students, even though some of the vocabulary is more advanced. And then once they've understood the main idea, then you can go and teach the vocabulary.
Check out this book on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3VJt4hG (This is an Amazon Associate's Link. If you buy anything through that link, I get a commission.)
The materials I used to teach this book are below:
* Youtube video HERE
Part 1 p.3-11
Part 2 p.12-21
Part 3 p.22-32
Monday, September 29, 2025
* Prepositions of place
I was looking for a Kahoot to practice prepositions of place. Once again, it turns out there are already a lot of good Kahoots out there for this topic. But in my case, I was looking for something which would complement the words I had taught in this lesson here.
Saturday, September 27, 2025
Started: Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai
Watching Progress (Dates indicate when episodes are completed)
September 26--Episode 5: Always Stab or Run
September 27--Episode 6: Always Buy a God a Drink First
September 28--Episode 7: Never Squeeze a Fox
September 20--Episode 8: Never Hug a Mogwai
September 30--Episode 9: Never Give Up
October 1--Episode 10: Never Ever Expose Them to Bright Light
Thursday, September 25, 2025
I was looking for a Kahoot to practice prepositions of movement. It turns out there are a lot of good prepositions of movement Kahoots out there. You can search the site yourself and find some of them.
In my case, however, I wanted to find a Kahoot that focused specifically on the prepositions of movement that I had taught in this lesson here.
Memory Game for Basic Irregular Verbs (Present and Past Tense)
(TESOL Materials--Irregular Verbs, Past Simple)
This is yet another memory game on irregular past tenses.
I've previously created other memory games on the irregular past tense, but I was preparing a lesson for a new group of learners, and I decided none of my previous games were suitable. This one was based on a white board grid, and I decided I wanted a more traditional memory card game.
I've previously created other memory games on the irregular past tense, but I was preparing a lesson for a new group of learners, and I decided none of my previous games were suitable. This one was based on a white board grid, and I decided I wanted a more traditional memory card game.
This game, on the other hand, had some lower frequency irregular verbs, and for the group of learners I presently have, I needed something much more basic.
So, I made yet another with very basic irregular verbs. I made both a paper version, and a flippity version. I also put the irregular verbs into sentences to try to help my learners understand the difference between present and past tense.
Wednesday, September 24, 2025
These are both Gemini Storybooks for the CVC -an Word Family.
Both of these books were created using the same prompt: "create a story book for new readers based on these words: ban, fan, can, van, pan, tan, man, ran"
Zippy's Big Adventure and The Gap and the Map and also The Cap and the Map (this last one has the simplest language).
These are both Gemini Storybooks for the CVC -ap Word Family.
Both of these books were created using the same prompt: "create a story book for new readers based on these words: gap, rap, tap, lap, sap, nap, yap, map, cap, zap"
Both of these books were created using the same prompt: "create a story book for new readers based on these words: gap, rap, tap, lap, sap, nap, yap, map, cap, zap"
The Cat and the Rat and The Cat and the Hat
These are both Gemini Storybooks for the CVC -at Word Family.
Both of these books were created using the same prompt: "create a story book for new readers based on these words: cat, sat, pat, mat, vat, bat, rat, fat, hat"
The Gemini chat which created these storybooks can be viewed here.
Both of these books were created using the same prompt: "create a story book for new readers based on these words: cat, sat, pat, mat, vat, bat, rat, fat, hat"
The Gemini chat which created these storybooks can be viewed here.
Sentences and Pictures for CVC -at words
(TESOL Materials-- -at Word Family)
This was created using Google Gemini, as I mentioned in a previous post. I used the slideshow for reading practice with my students. I also printed out the slides, and then cut them up and separated the sentences from the pictures, and did an activity where the students had to match the sentences to the pictures.
Gus and Pat: Gemini Storybook
This is a Gemini Storybook, as I described in this post here.
The prompt was "create a children's book using only cvc words".
The prompt was "create a children's book using only cvc words".
I wasn't sure whether or not Gemini would be able to purely keep to only cvc words, but it almost did. Or at least, it almost kept to just 3 letter words. I caught only two words that had more than 3 letters ("fell" and "took").
For the original Gemini conversation, see here.
For the original Gemini conversation, see here.
Using Gemini Storybook to Create Graded Readers for your Classroom
(TESOL Ideas--Useful Websites)
As I mentioned in the previous post, I discovered this while making images in Google Gemini, and it's very useful.
Basically, you give Google Gemini a command about a storybook you want to create, and it makes it for you.
Basically, you give Google Gemini a command about a storybook you want to create, and it makes it for you.
I've found it very useful for creating graded readers in my class based around CVC (consonant vowel consonant) sets.
It appears to have the usual positives and negatives of AI writing. On the positive side, it adhered reasonably well to the prompt I gave it. It had a coherent story, and it kept the illustrations for all the characters consistent throughout the story.
On the negative side, the story wasn't particularly interesting. Some of the words I gave it got used in awkward ways. The story was mostly (but not perfectly) graded to the level I wanted it. Et cetera.
I wish it was also easy to share these storybooks once they get created. It does give me a link to share, but it looks like it doesn't have any embedding features, so you can only access it from the link.
From my own account, I have the option to print out any storybooks that I make. I can also save my storybooks to PDFs (using the print function). But it looks like other people accessing the link don't have these same options.
The PDF or print version of the book isn't great either--Google doesn't do a good job of converting the storybook to printable paper.
From my own account, I have the option to print out any storybooks that I make. I can also save my storybooks to PDFs (using the print function). But it looks like other people accessing the link don't have these same options.
The PDF or print version of the book isn't great either--Google doesn't do a good job of converting the storybook to printable paper.
But who knows how all of this will improve in the future. It looks like this is a brand new feature, so this is all early days right now. Maybe it will get a lot easier to share these creations in the future?
Another interesting feature is that Google Gemini creates a unique story each time. I gave it the same prompt ("create a story book for new readers based on these words: cat, sat, pat, mat, vat, bat, rat, fat, hat") in both my work Google account and my personal Google account, and it created two completely different storybooks for each.
This can be frustrating if you fall in love with a certain version, and then can't get Gemini to recreate it. (I actually prefer the Storybook that got created at my work account, but because of the restrictions on my Google account for work, I can't get a sharable link for that version.)
This can be frustrating if you fall in love with a certain version, and then can't get Gemini to recreate it. (I actually prefer the Storybook that got created at my work account, but because of the restrictions on my Google account for work, I can't get a sharable link for that version.)
However, if you're trying to give students a lot of different practice with a certain vocabulary set, the advantages of this are that you can have Gemini create multiple stories based on the same vocabulary set. You could read one story on one day, and then the next day do a completely different story, but using the same vocabulary.
For example, I created a story using CVC -at words here, and then created another story here.
For example, I created a story using CVC -at words here, and then created another story here.
The possibilities for creating classroom readers are endless!
A couple more notes:
* I can't seem to figure out if these storybooks created in Gemini count against my Google account data storage limit. (I am getting very close to hitting my 15 MB limit.) I've searched the web for an answer on this, but can't seem to find one.
* I can't seem to figure out if these storybooks created in Gemini count against my Google account data storage limit. (I am getting very close to hitting my 15 MB limit.) I've searched the web for an answer on this, but can't seem to find one.
I'm also not sure how long Gemini will keep these storybooks. I'm assuming they will save them indefinitely, but it's not really clear to me how my creations on Gemini are stored.
* If you click on the above links to the storybooks I created, you may notice that Gemini credits me as the author on the front page. I think this is a little bit patronizing. (I didn't write these books--AI did. I don't need to be credited as the author.) But that's the way the program works, I guess.
Update: So, just after publishing this post, I was fooling around with the above links to see if they worked, and unfortunately the bottom part of each page was missing. The full text was visible, but the bottoms of the picture got cut off. Which in some cases is unfortunate--e.g. in this story, on the page that says "The cat sat on the mat", you can't actually see the mat in the picture.
I can still view the whole picture book on my end if I go back to Google Gemini, but I can't seem to get a good link to share it. Which is unfortunate. But apparently this is a new feature that is still in development, so maybe this bug will get better later on.
I can still view the whole picture book on my end if I go back to Google Gemini, but I can't seem to get a good link to share it. Which is unfortunate. But apparently this is a new feature that is still in development, so maybe this bug will get better later on.
I've discovered I can also share a link to the Gemini conversation which created the storybook. For example, if you click on this link here then you should be able to see the prompt that I entered, and the full illustrations that Gemini created for each page. But you can't flip the pages like you would in storybook mode.
2nd Update: Actually it looks like when I access the link on my phone (as opposed to my laptop) then I can see the full illustrations.
Another Update: October 9, 2025: After having used this feature a lot in the past few weeks, another frustration I have is that I can't edit the texts. There are some times when I'm relatively happy with the illustrations, but want to tinker with the text a bit. But you can't. I imagine (hope) that in the future Google will fix this so that you can do some light editing of the text if you want to improve it.
Using AI to Create Images for Clarifying Grammar and Vocabulary
(TESOL Ideas--Useful Websites or Apps)
A couple weeks ago, I made a post explaining how AI could be used to make pictures to illustrate student generated sentences.
It probably goes without saying that AI could also be used to illustrate teacher generated sentences. But I'm going to say it anyway.
Long time ESL/TESOL teachers will no doubt be familiar with scouring Google images to find the perfect picture to illustrate your grammar or vocabulary lesson. With simple vocabulary like "apple", of course, it was always easy to find what you were looking for. But for more difficult vocabulary or grammar, finding the perfect picture to illustrate your lesson was a lot more difficult. (If you look back through my archives, you can certainly find examples of me struggling to find the perfect image to illustrate my sentences. A prime example is my jokes slideshows, but there are lots more examples I could point to.)
Long time ESL/TESOL teachers will no doubt be familiar with scouring Google images to find the perfect picture to illustrate your grammar or vocabulary lesson. With simple vocabulary like "apple", of course, it was always easy to find what you were looking for. But for more difficult vocabulary or grammar, finding the perfect picture to illustrate your lesson was a lot more difficult. (If you look back through my archives, you can certainly find examples of me struggling to find the perfect image to illustrate my sentences. A prime example is my jokes slideshows, but there are lots more examples I could point to.)
Well, now instead of having to find an image online, you can just create an image. You can tell AI exactly what kind of image you want, and it will create it for you.
I've recently discovered this is very useful for teaching phonics. I am currently teaching CVC -at words (e.g. mat, cat, rat, vat, sat, bat, hat, pat) and I was trying to find a graded reader that used only CVC -at words. And then it occurred to me, I could just make up my own reader, by getting Google Gemini to create illustrations for my sentences. I then copied those sentences over to a slideshow (slides, pub) to create a reader for my class.
...actually while I was doing this, Google Gemini suggested to me that I might want to create a picture book using their new Storybook feature. And I found that the storybook feature is very useful. But I'll talk about that in a separate post. Stay tuned.
Monday, September 22, 2025
Present Continuous Lesson
(TESOL Materials--Present Continuous)
[Note: I combined slides from two different lessons of English World 2 (this lesson here and this lesson here) to make one single lesson on the present continuous.]
News Round Up
We live in times that make you just want to scream, huh?
Philip DeFranco is once again worth watching in full:
Philip DeFranco is once again worth watching in full:
...the video mostly stands for itself. But one thing I do want to add is that whenever you see Christian nationalist politicians raising their heads, it's always useful to remember all of these guys are playacting. This has always been true, so I guess I shouldn't be shocked, but I find Pete Hegseth to be a particularly nauseating example of this. When he talks in the above video (at about 2:11) about fighting a spiritual war, just remind yourself of his past behavior.
Jenny is wife #3 who was married to someone else when she had his baby while he was married to someone else. During the overlap of the relationships a woman claimed he raped her. He claims it was consensual. Jenny had just had his baby. He just got divorced. No really. https://t.co/EZXZx5zEci
— Decoding Fox News (@DecodingFoxNews) January 14, 2025
I double checked this Tweet, and it all checks out. Go ahead and do your own research. Or check out any one of numerous articles on Pete Hegseth:
Anyway, in other news:
The Daily Show did a great satire on Trump's crackdown on freedom of speech:
The Daily Show did a great satire on Trump's crackdown on freedom of speech:
I also thought the discussion on PBS newshour was quite good:
On my Twitter feed, I found this:
Border Czar Tom Homan was caught by the FBI accepting bribes - on camera - to deliver government contracts in exchange for $50,000 in cash.
— Adam Schiff (@SenAdamSchiff) September 20, 2025
Pam Bondi knew.
Kash Patel knew.
Emil Bove knew.
And they made the investigation go away.
A corrupt attempt to conceal brazen graft.
Like so much of what we hear today, it sounds unreal, doesn't it? Like, you think that this couldn't possibly be true, but, go ahead and Google it. It's true. I'm surprised this hasn't gotten highlighted more in mainstream news articles, but it's definitely a real story.
This video does a good job of breaking down how blatantly corrupt the current administration is:
Last thing is this Tweet,
Our tax dollars at work, costing children's lives worldwide. @SecRubio, do you want this to be your legacy? My column: https://t.co/DlMW4ZULBh pic.twitter.com/Tl0upoPyND
— Nicholas Kristof (@NickKristof) September 21, 2025
which leads to this New York Times article, which is very sad to read.
I know... it's bad times, isn't it?
Addendum: Freddie Deboer's Things Are Really Bad is worth reading.
Sunday, September 21, 2025
Matching Cards for CVC words with -an
I use these cards in several stages.
I start out with some of the alphabet cards from this previous activity. I take the "A" card, and ask students what sound it makes. Then I take the "N" sound, and ask what sound it makes, and then put the two cards together, and try to get students to tell me the sound.
I then take out several consonants, and get the students to tell me the sound, and then put these consonants together with the -AN to make different words, helping students to sound them out.
At this point I put out the picture cards, and as we do different CVC -at words, I get students to identify the pictures.
Once all the words and pictures have been identified, then we play a memory card game to match the words and pictures.
Lastly, I put away the word cards, and just show students the pictures. The students have to write down the word on their mini-white boards.
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