Blogging is my top tip. I teach English language AS and A-level most of the week, and there are always pieces about language appearing in newspapers, on websites and on TV and radio.

In a normal teaching week, remembering something you read, creating a resource out of it and using it in class isn’t quite so easy. Blogs are a quick and simple way of archiving and linking to such pieces, with brief ideas on how students, or you, might use them.

In the past two weeks on our blog, the three of us who contribute to it have posted articles on dialects, new words in the dictionary, the language of San Francisco hip hop - and Kenyan slang. Don’t worry, it makes sense when you read it.

And blogging can be a great way to get your students to engage with language. Three weeks ago, faced with a pile of marking taller than the bottle of wine needed to get through it, I got my students to submit homework via the blog. No need for marking - result Website To set up your own blog go to http:www.blogger.com and to visit ours go to http:englishlangsfx.blogspot.com Dan Clayton, teaches at St Francis Xavier college, Clapham, London