Advanced Search Login to My Zone

Using Teachers Pet

This is a step by step guide on how to use Teacher’s Pet, a fantastic toolbar for Microsoft Word or Open Office which cleverly uses macros to create language learning exercises in a matter of clicks.

A wonderful timesaver for busy teachers, Teacher’s Pet is ideal for preparing paper worksheets instantly or for using on the interactive whiteboard as a starter or plenary. By simply highlighting some text and clicking one of the exercise types on the toolbar’s dropdown menu, you can produce activities which practice vocabulary revision, grammar, reading comprehension, spelling and dictionary skills.

The tutorial is designed to show teachers how easy it is to generate a range of useful exercises tailored to the needs of their pupils which allow them to rigorously practise language they are studying in class in a variety of engaging and purposeful ways.

What does the training consist of and how long will it take me?

  • There are twenty-three short video tutorials. These tutorials offer step-by step guidance on how to download, install and use the toolbar. Each tutorial is accompanied by a PDF transcript which can be printed out
  • It is recommended that the tutorials are viewed in order and that colleagues copy the instructions carefully. They can be used in a group or by individuals working independently
  • The whole module will take between two and three hours and by the end of the module, the teacher should be confident they can use Teacher’s Pet confidently in their school or college.

Index of tutorials

1) Installing the Teacher’s Pet Toolbar

2) Getting started with Teacher’s Pet

3) Creating a crossword puzzle (Premium*)

4) Creating a word search puzzle (Premium*)

5) Creating flashcards (Premium*)

6) Creating bingo cards (Premium*)

7) Creating a simple crossword

8) Jumbling a word

9) Jumbling a sentence

10) Jumbling a list

11) Creating a pair matching puzzle

12) Jumbling a paragraph

13) Creating a synonym and antonym question

14) Moving and copying selected words to end

15) Replacing words with gaps

16) Replacing words with choice

17) Creating a multiple choice question

18) Removing spaces

19) Removing letters

20) Removing accents

21) Underlining letters

22) Removing punctuation

23) Saving a word list

Download the example document which the author uses in the tutorial so you can follow the same process he goes through to create each exercise type in turn.

Please note the author has not included the Verb Tense Test macro as it only works for English verb conjugations. An example of how to use the macro can be found on the Teacher’s Pet website if you would like to explore further.

* If you register your toolbar on the Teacher’s Pet website and pay a one off fee of $19 you can also have access to the four premium macros which let you produce crosswords, word searches, flashcards and bingo cards.

  • Primary Languages
  • Languages Work
  • lingu@net europa
  • Languages ICT
  • ITT MFL
  • Vocational Languages Resource Bank
  • Our Languages