Seasonal / Teachers' Day
Teachers' Day Activities & Lesson Ideas for Adult ESL Classes
World Teachers' Day is celebrated every year on 5 October. It honours teachers and the work they do, and it is a natural moment for adult English classes to talk about learning, memorable teachers and what good teaching looks like. The activities below need no preparation and work from A2 to C1.
Reviewed by Brando Oxley · 6 Aug 2026
About Teachers' Day
World Teachers' Day has been celebrated on 5 October every year since 1994. The date marks the signing of the 1966 ILO/UNESCO Recommendation concerning the Status of Teachers, an international standard about teachers' rights and responsibilities. [1]
The day is organised by UNESCO together with the International Labour Organization, UNICEF and Education International, and many countries also have their own national teachers' days on other dates. [2]
For an English class, the day is less about the official history and more about the conversations it opens: everyone has been a student, everyone remembers a teacher, and many adult learners are parents watching their own children learn.
Key vocabulary
an experienced person who guides and supports someone with less experience
to make someone want to do or learn something
able to stay calm when something takes a long time
a feeling that someone is important and should be treated well
a job that needs special training, such as teaching or nursing
Classroom activities
A thank-you note to a teacher
A2–B115 minStudents write a short thank-you note (4–6 sentences) to a teacher they remember, saying what the teacher taught them and one specific moment they still recall. Offer sentence starters on the board: 'I was in your class when…', 'You taught me…', 'I still remember…'. Students read their note to a partner, and the partner asks one follow-up question about the teacher.
My most memorable teacher — pair interview
A2–C120 minIn pairs, students interview each other about a memorable teacher: who they were, what subject they taught, what made them different, and one thing they said or did that stuck. Interviewers take short notes, then report their partner's answers to another pair in the third person — natural practice of past tenses and reported speech without a grammar worksheet.
What makes a great teacher? — ranking task
B1–C120 minWrite eight qualities on the board: patience, humour, clear explanations, fairness, subject knowledge, energy, empathy, high expectations. Small groups agree on a top five, in order, and must justify each choice with an example from their own school days. Groups compare rankings; finish with a class vote on the single most important quality.
The teaching swap
B1–C125 minEach student prepares and delivers a two-minute mini-lesson teaching the class one small real skill: a useful word in their first language, a stretch for desk workers, a cooking trick, a phone shortcut. After each mini-lesson the class gives one piece of positive feedback. Students experience how much clarity and patience teaching actually takes — which is the point of the day.
Discussion questions
- Tell your partner about a teacher you still remember. What made them special?
- In your country, how do people usually show respect to teachers?
- Is teaching a popular career where you live? Why or why not?
- Which is harder to teach: children or adults? Explain your view.
- Should teachers be paid more than they are now? Why?
- What subject or skill would you enjoy teaching, and what would your first lesson be?
- How has technology changed what a teacher's job looks like?
- What is one thing a teacher did that changed how you learn?