How to Make Mondays Your Best Days

Just another Manic Monday! How many of us sing that to ourselves on Monday morning? I used to hum it to myself on Monday mornings when I was young.

I used to hate Mondays!

When I first started teaching, years ago, I dreaded Monday mornings, more than anything. Fresh out of school, and used to sleeping in, I found this new Monday morning work routine agonizing. On top of this, I had little second graders and was quite young myself (I graduated from college at 19). Honestly, if my classroom hadn't been directly across from a secretary's office, I would probably have put on a documentary and dozed at my desk! As it was, I had enough trouble keeping students busy on Mondays while I got myself together.

Things got better.

Over time, thankfully, I've learned to plan better, and have developed some strategies to make Mondays as good as any other day (at least for students!). 

Here are some things I do to help myself & my students thrive on Mondays.

1. Plan Mondays & Tuesdays on the Friday before.

This includes having all copies made and placed in a special folder on your desk. Ideally, we would have planned the whole week, but plans change as the week progresses anyway, so it's not always feasible or possible to do this. In any case, I've found that planning Mondays and Tuesdays gets me to Wednesdays even, much of the time, since I don't always accomplish everything I've set out to do.

 

2. Keep your Substitute Folder well-stocked.

I like to keep at least 5 copied activities in my Substitute Folder. This is great for emergencies, like when you have to be absent unexpectedly, or are out of commission mentally (this seems to happen most often on Mondays!). 

3. Learn about a few simple games and activities that you can use.

Choose activities that don't require making copies. Sometimes I'll use a page from a textbook as a guide, for example using a page of adjectives to have students guess synonyms & antonyms. Students can then write a describing paragraph using these words. Another game students enjoy is playing 20 questions in pairs, using class dictionaries. Or, try these activities from onestopenglish.com: Teaching English with Minimal Resources.

4. Have a Monday Morning Folder

Get a colored manila folder and, yes, label it Monday Mornings. Also, create a folder on your computer Desktop labeled Monday Morning. When you come across a simple, high-quality language activity that your students enjoy, save a copy of it in this folder.

To Really Make Your Monday Mornings Shine:

Visit my blog! I plan to have something for you here, on my blog, every Monday morning. Each Monday post will feature a quality ESL activity suitable for the first morning of the week. You can use this activity first thing in the morning, or for any day you feel like doing something a little different, but still easy. Hopefully, you'll like the activity enough to save it to your own Monday Morning folder.

All activities posted on Monday fulfill the following criteria:

1. They require no preparation except copying a single page.

2. They take at least 30 minutes to complete & can be extended to 50 minutes.

3. They build language. 

I hope you'll look for my post & worksheet first thing tomorrow, Monday morning! 

Thanks for reading, and see you tomorrow!

Why I Love Worksheets!

I love worksheets! 

As an ESL teacher, I don't know what I'd do without them. Like many teachers, I have a whole bookshelf of workbooks that I use for my classes.  Of course, I also have tons of worksheets, on file, on my computer.

My favorite worksheets are grammar worksheets that are simple and effective. I like to use Betty Azar's grammar books, but I haven't found anything I really like for testing. Really good grammar quizzes are hard to come by, so I usually make my own. An hour's work, properly filed away (the keyword here being properly!), saves me time & effort down the road.    

I use these two grammar quizzes as a pretest and post-test. Each takes about 10 minutes. The verbs are the same for both tests. 

I like pretests for two reasons:  

1. They help me to see where students are. 

2. They help students to see where they are! 

I always have a few students who are over-confident and think they know everything. This is not always a bad thing, but in this case it usually means the student turns smug and stops paying attention!

I'd be happy to post more grammar worksheets.

The quizzes can be used as practice or homework worksheets, as well.

I've only posted the pretest below, but both quizzes are available in the PDF file.

A. Simple Present - Regular Verbs

A. Write the correct form of the verb, for each sentence. (1 point)

1.     I _____ my mother in Texas every summer. (visit)

2.     Jane _____ a blue pen for tests. (use)

3.     My teacher _____ us when there will be a test. (tell)

4.     Most people _____ three meals a day. (eat)

5.     My children _____ at 8 o'clock. (sleep)

6.     I _____ to school with my dad. (ride)

7.     My mother _____ pancakes for dinner on Sundays. (make)

             

8.     I _____ where Fred went! (wonder)

9.     Karen _____ French with her mother. (speak)

10.  I _____ in my diary every evening. (write)

11.  Larry _____ by airplane when he goes to Mexico. (travel)

12.  Jim fell and _____ his knee. (hurt)

13.  The printer _____ more ink. (need)

14.  My sons _____ their new toy! (love)

15.  Hercule Poirot _____ hot cocoa every morning. (drink)

16.  They _____the news every evening. (watch)

17.  After dinner, Fred and I _____ the dishes. (wash)

18.  It _____ every winter in New York. (snow)

19.  Both of us _____ French classes. (take)

20.  My alarm clock _____loudly at 5 o'clock every morning! (ring)

B. Write one sentence in the simple present. Choose from the verbs listed above. (5 points)

______________________________________________________________________________

To download both quizzes, click below.

Back to Bed!

Once, many years ago, I got ready to go to work after staying up late the night before. It was snowing badly and I really didn't want to go. My mother-in-law was visiting that week and I wished that I could spend the day with her instead. (I have this really wonderful mother-in-law. Don't know how I got her, but there it is.). Anyway, when I got to school, I was the only one there. It was a snow day and I hadn't heard. This story reminds me of that day.

LEVEL: Beginner 

PRE-READING 
1. Do you go to school, or do you have a job?

2. How do you get to your school or job?

READ THE STORY

Ted is a student. He does not have a car. Ted goes to school by bus. Ted waits for the bus at the bus stop.

Sometimes the bus comes late. Most days, there are a lot of people on the bus. When there are a lot of people on the bus, Ted must stand. Ted likes to sit so that he can read his book on the bus. Today, there are only a few people on the bus. 

Ted is surprised. Why are there so few people on the bus? Ted sits and reads his book. When Ted gets to school, there are no students! 

Ted sees his teacher Mr. Ames. 

Mr. Ames says, "Hello Ted, what are you doing at school today? There is no school for students!"

Ted forgot that there is no school today! Ted goes back to the bus stop and waits for the bus to go home.

Ted says to himself, "When I get home, I'm going back to bed!" (163 words)

A. ORGANIZE STORY IDEAS - Cause & Effect

Complete the graphic about Ted, below. List the effect of each cause. Use information from the story.

B. CHECK YOUR UNDERSTANDING

Read each question and answer it.

1. Does Ted have a bicycle?

2. Does Ted like to sleep?

3. Where does Ted's bus go?

4. How many people are on the bus?

5. Where does Ted wait for the bus?

6. Is Ted’s teacher surprised to see him?

7. What does Ted do, when he gets home?

 To download & use as a worksheet, click on the icon below.