This week's post is all about us, teachers. Students may find it difficult to believe but we teachers have to study all the time. Seriously, once you start learning a lenguage you never stop (though I'd rather keep it secret from students and parents, it kinda scares them:).

As you know, I work hard on being a good teacher, so I made a point of brushing up my vocab and grammar from time to time. 

My recent experience is connected with a very nice resource Cambridge English Teacher

 http://www.cambridgeenglishteacher.org/

They offer a wide choice of online courses on a variety of topics from Teaching Vocabulary to IELTS. The price is reasonable, the certificate is a famous Cambridge ESOL AND they offer a course for free for you to a have a taste what it's like. I couldn't resist.

The course is called Grammar for Teachers: Language Awareness, it's 5 hours long (it took me longer, though) and it's pretty thorough. If you studied Enlish using Cambridge textbooks you'll find the course agreeable but for me their perspectives and classifications were unfamiliar and it took me a while adjusting.

Good points:

1. it's thorough and covers most "problematic" issues such as conditionals and reported speech
2. it's logical
3. it's well-structured 
4. all correct answers are provided
5. it has a journal for reflection

Weak points:

1. it requires you to type in some definitions over and over again. A good way to memorize them but it's so time-consuming!

Diagnosis:

A great means to update and refresh your grammar! It will also help you answer your students' questions about tricky grammar points. Another thing: if you plan to take a Cambridge ESOL exam, this course will help you to get used to their glossary (especially if you studied English using textbooks other than Cambridge or Oxford University Press).

How do you keep "grammar and vocab" fit?