Teaching Chinese

Which iPad Should You Get? A Comparison, Buying Guide, and App Recommendations (Campus BTS Deal Available!)

If you ask around, most people will say: go Android for your phone, iPad for your tablet — and after trying both, I agree. This post covers the key things to consider when buying an iPad, introduces the Apple Education Store and BTS Back to School deal for students and educators, and recommends some great apps.

Getting 2 Google Educator Certifications in One Day — Essential Skills Checklist

How I prepared for and passed both Google Educator Level 1 and Level 2 certifications in a single day, after just two days of prep. Includes study resources and a hands-on skills checklist to help you get ready.

10 PPT Activities for Online Teaching — 13: Lottery's Big Adventure RPG

This post introduces the 'Lottery's Big Adventure RPG' activity from the 10 PPT Activities for Online Teaching series — a pixel-art-style adventure game built in PowerPoint that puts course content inside a dungeon-crawling experience, giving students the feeling of clearing stages.

10 PPT Activities for Online Teaching — 12 Snakes & Ladders (with myViewBoard)

This post covers the Snakes and Ladders activity from the 10 PPT Activities for Online Teaching series — combining PowerPoint with myViewBoard for a team competition game that adds a luck element to make things even more exciting.

Teaching Slides Design (4): 40 Free Image Resources — Photos, Icons, and Illustrations All in One Place! [Updated 2021/08/05]

A guide to free image resources for teaching slide design. Covers Creative Commons licensing, then walks through 40+ resources organized by type: all-in-one, photos, icons, illustrations, typography, and miscellaneous.

Teaching Slides Design (3): Background Removal Made Easy — PowerPoint Tips to Instantly Upgrade Your Slides

The background removal chapter of the Teaching Slides Design series. Learn how to remove image backgrounds using PowerPoint — a tool almost everyone already has — and instantly elevate the quality of your teaching slides.

Teaching Slides Design (2): Free Licensed Fonts for Presentations (Updated 2022/01/15: Added Kosugi)

The fonts chapter of the Teaching Slides Design series. Learn why PMingLiU and DFKai-SB are poor choices for presentation slides, plus a curated list of free and paid licensed fonts suitable for teaching presentations.

Drawing Tablets for Teaching: iPad, Graphic Tablets & LCD Writing Tablets Compared

A guide to three common drawing tablets used in online teaching: tablets like iPad or Android tablets, graphic tablets (without a screen), and LCD writing tablets. Each has its own strengths and trade-offs — here's how to choose the right one for your needs.

Teaching Slides Design (1): Information + Design = a Beautiful, Content-Rich Gift

The introductory post of the Teaching Slides Design series. A brief look at why slides matter in teaching, with an overview of the two key dimensions — content and design — and how to make them work together.

10 PPT Activities for Online Teaching — 11 Lucky Dip

This post covers the Lucky Dip activity from the 10 PPT Activities for Online Teaching series — click an animal on the board and it punches a hole through to reveal a question or reward hidden underneath.

10 PPT Activities for Online Teaching — 10 Shoot the Balloons

This post covers the Shoot the Balloons activity from the 10 PPT Activities for Online Teaching series — click a balloon to pop it, with answer choices or vocabulary written on each one for a fun interactive Q&A.

10 PPT Activities for Online Teaching — 09 Guess It

This post covers the Guess It activity from the 10 PPT Activities for Online Teaching series — a mask effect creates a spotlight that roams the screen, letting students glimpse only a small portion of the hidden image or text and guess what it is.

10 PPT Activities for Online Teaching — 08 Whack-a-Mole

This post covers the Whack-a-Mole activity from the 10 PPT Activities for Online Teaching series — a pixel-art-style interactive Q&A game where animals pop up with answer choices for students to pick from.

10 PPT Activities for Online Teaching (7): Monopoly [Web Version Live 2025/11/24!]

This post covers the Monopoly activity from the '10 PPT Activities for Online Teaching' series — a fun, comprehensive game that combines a spin wheel for movement with Chance and Community Chest cards.

10 PPT Activities for Online Teaching — 06 Tic-Tac-Toe (OOXX)

This post covers the Tic-Tac-Toe (OOXX) activity from the 10 PPT Activities for Online Teaching series — using PowerPoint triggers to create a polished interactive classroom game that adds a fun competitive element to any lesson.

10 PPT Activities for Online Teaching – 05: Bingo Machine (Slot Reel)

This post introduces the Bingo Machine activity from the 10 PPT Activities for Online Teaching series. It can be used for cold-calling, random topic selection, or grammar practice exercises. Add a Trigger switch and you have full control over when it starts and stops.

Google Tools for Teachers (4): Google Sheets to Google Form — Convert Quizzes Instantly with Form Builder

This post covers how to use the Form Builder add-on to create quizzes quickly. If you've already written your questions in Google Sheets, you can convert them directly into a Google Forms quiz in just a few clicks.

Google Tools for Teachers (2): Google Sheets VLOOKUP to Auto-Fill Quiz Grades

A guide to using the VLOOKUP function in Google Sheets to automatically transfer quiz scores into your class grade sheet — no more copy-pasting grades by hand. Useful for both online and in-person teaching.

10 PPT Activities for Online Teaching (4): Spin Wheel

This post covers the Spin Wheel activity from the '10 PPT Activities for Online Teaching' series. Use it for cold-calling, Monopoly step counting, random topic selection, and more — add a trigger animation for an on/off switch effect.

Google Tools for Teachers (1): Google Forms Quiz with Auto-Grading — Build One from Scratch

A step-by-step guide to building a quiz or test using Google Forms, complete with auto-grading and auto-scoring. Useful for both online and in-person teaching, from initial setup to distributing the form to students.

Google Tools for Teachers (3): FormLimiter — Set a Time Limit on Google Forms Quizzes

This post walks through how to use the FormLimiter add-on for Google Forms to set a quiz deadline and automatically close the form, ensuring students complete the test within the allotted time and reducing the risk of answer-sharing.

10 PPT Activities for Online Teaching – 01: Multiple Choice

This post introduces the Multiple Choice activity from the 10 PPT Activities for Online Teaching series. It's one of the most versatile classroom activities for boosting teacher-student interaction — and it doubles as a beginner's guide to PowerPoint's Trigger feature, which unlocks a whole world of interactive possibilities.

10 PPT Activities for Online Teaching — 03: Countdown Timer

This post introduces the Countdown Timer from the 10 PPT Activities for Online Teaching series. It works with virtually any timed activity and can be given a start/stop control by adding a trigger.

10 PPT Activities for Online Teaching – 02: Flip Card Matching (New Version 2024/08)

This post introduces the Flip Card Matching activity from the 10 PPT Activities for Online Teaching series. It can be used as a memory matching game or as a topic selection board in the style of a game show — and it's also a great advanced application of PowerPoint's Trigger feature.

Podcast Editing: One-Click Audio Processing with Audacity

A walkthrough of how I use the free audio editor Audacity to do initial processing on podcast audio files — including creating a podcast template to save editing time and setting up a macro chain for quick audio cleanup.

TCSL Certification Exam: Chinese Linguistics Study Guide + Past Exam Questions Released (Updated May 2026)

A breakdown of the Chinese linguistics sections covered in the Teaching Chinese as a Second Language (TCSL) certification exam — what each subject tests, how to study for it, and where to practice with past exam questions.

Learning Chinese with Podcasts (1): 3 Reasons TCSL Teachers Should Know Podcasts

Riding the podcast wave, using podcasts for learning Chinese offers tremendous benefits for TCSL. This post is based on a paper presented at the 2020 Taiwan TCSL Conference — 'More Than Just Learners: The Diverse Applications of the New Generation of Podcasts for Chinese Learners and Teachers' — and covers why Teaching Chinese as a Second Language teachers should pay attention to podcasts.

Learning Chinese with Podcasts (2): 10 Recommended Podcasts for Learners

Riding the podcast wave, using podcasts for learning Chinese offers tremendous benefits for TCSL. This post is based on a paper presented at the 2020 Taiwan TCSL Conference and introduces ten Chinese-language learning podcasts, including their formats, structures, and languages used.

Learning Chinese with Podcasts (3): 7 Theme-Based Mandarin Podcast Categories for Learners

Riding the Podcast wave, Learning Chinese with Podcasts explores how podcasts can enrich TCSL. Based on a paper presented at the 2020 Taiwan TCSL Conference, this post recommends 7 thematic categories of Mandarin-language podcasts for advanced learners.

Learning Chinese with Podcasts (4): 7 Teaching-Related Podcasts for TCSL Teachers

Riding the Podcast wave, Learning Chinese with Podcasts explores how podcasts can enrich TCSL. Based on a paper presented at the 2020 Taiwan TCSL Conference, this post recommends 7 teaching-related podcasts for TCSL teachers.

Podcast Prep: From Research to Titles — A Case Study with Language Is Fun [Updated: 2021/04/22 Audacity Editing]

This post walks through how I prepare solo episodes of Language Is Fun (語言好好玩) — from collecting and organizing research in Notion, to shaping that material into something listeners actually want to hear, to structuring the flow and writing the title. The same process applies to preparing a presentation or report.