Lesson Plan Ideas for the Busy Teacher: ESL Flow

The end of the long day has finally come. It's time to wind down and... plan the next exciting lesson for tomorrow's class. A new teacher has many ambitions, but one thing about teaching is that work usually continues after classes are finished for the day. Either you might have office hours, or more likely you will spend your “free” time whipping up some activities related to your lesson themes.

During my first few weeks of teaching, I definitely faced this situation and quickly found a new best friend in the very popular search engine, Google. I googled my way to many excellent resources that provide effective and convenient resources for busy educators. One resource I will share in this post is ESL Flow.

ESL Flow offers lesson plans for diverse levels of English study, from low beginner to high advanced. This productive resource consists of teaching ideas, worksheets and even graphic organizers that can supplement your regular lessons. The worksheets are typically related to a particular theme or unit of study, including Jobs & Careers, Relationships, Movies & Celebrities, Describing Places, Giving Directions, and Brainstorming. ESL Flow is also an excellent tool if you are looking for simple or challenging exercises in grammar, writing, vocabulary, or reading. 

This website is definitely a one-stop resource to meet all of your teaching needs. If you ever need any new ideas to spice up your lessons, you will benefit from using ESL Flow to get your students participating in dynamic activities. My recommendation is to mix-and-match the activities to incorporate speaking, reading/writing, and listening, depending on your class goals. Good luck and have fun!

The Amazing Field Trip: Practicing English in the Real World

It’s that time of year again... students are heading back to classes and language educators are hard at work with teaching, grading, and mentoring. But one thing that most everyone looks forward to is the long-awaited class field trip!

Language programs tend to offer students with various opportunities to apply what they learn in the classroom to the “real world”, learning how to accomplish daily tasks with their English knowledge. Field trips offer language learners a chance to engage in authentic dialogues and practice listening skills, not to mention explore beautiful and sometimes exotic locations. 

As fun as field trips are, it is important to keep in mind that skipping a day of class is not meant to just relax and skip a day of learning English. There is no doubt that students will talk to each other in their native language when they are outside the classroom, or just out of hearing range of the teacher. In contrast, a school day outside is a lesson to be learned in the “real” classroom. 

Here are several ways to make sure that students practice their English while having a good time:

1.  Order Food in English

Being outside is a great opportunity for students to practice ordering food in English. Not only do they have to know the correct question format (ex: Can I please have…, I want to get…), but they are encouraged to practice their pronunciation of tricky food names. Or at the very least, they can say a meal number or point to a delicious-looking picture!

2.  Pay in Cash

Students can pay with cash to learn how to distinguish bills, coins, size, and color. They can practice listening to the cashier mention the total amount of their meal, and in a sense practice reading by counting out the correct currency. Students can also use this great opportunity to say aloud the total amount in terms of ‘dollars’ and ‘cents’ to practice numbers.

3. Scavenger Hunt

This type of activity works extremely well in museums, or any activities that take place indoors. Teachers must first figure out a general theme of the location and provide things for the students to find. A few months ago, my co-teachers and I took our students to an Egyptian Museum. They were set with a task to take pictures (using either cameras or iPhones) of subjects/items related to mummies, old weapons, Egyptian clothing, and so on.

For a follow-up lesson, the students created a slide show of the things they found to be interesting, colorful, scary, ancient, etc. and presented them to the class. With a scavenger hunt, the students end up doing all the work but also have the most fun! Additional questions could include: What was your favorite part of the field trip? What was not so pleasant?

4.  Giving Directions

This activity is actually a test of navigation skills. Depending on how many teachers are on the field trip, students will be split into small groups, with one teacher for each group (to avoid the possibility of getting lost in an unfamiliar area!). Each group will have a map of the general area (produced from Google Maps or hand-drawn by an artistic teacher, for example). Half the groups will meet at Location A. The other half will meet at Location B. They must walk on foot and find Location C as a team, speaking in English and using direction terms, body language (i.e. pointing), and lots of negotiation! The first groups to reach Location C are the “winners”.  You can even create this task to resemble a scene from The Amazing Race, with short tasks given throughout. Teamwork will eventually lead the students to victory.  :)

It is true that field trips should be exciting and memorable. These are the special times when most students form tight bonds with their classmates by joking around, enjoying the scenery, and just having fun. However, it is essential to remind students that the only way to improve their language skills, maybe slowly but steadily, is to practice English in any situation possible. After all, the world is a playground, and practice makes perfect!

Stay Informed with Breaking News English

What is Neil Armstrong famous for? How much food do Americans waste? What is the danger of global warming?  These are the tough questions that can be answered by reading the most recent articles posted on BreakingNewsEnglish.com, a superbly thorough and meaningful resource site for language educators. The concept of this website is simple enough: Current events from around the world are written in plain English, with no unnecessary news jargon that requires you to look up every other word in the dictionary. Half a page of news worthy material is strategically condensed to a maximum of two paragraphs, keeping the meaning and interesting facts in the reading passage. 

Not only does the website creator Sean Banville do an excellent job with the news articles, he provides an extensive lesson plan (enough for about 2 hours+ of class!) for each article. The extra activities help the students actively engage with the written material, not only by absorbing information but also by sharing opinions. This may be a good time to say that the news content is most appropriate for students in the High Intermediate to Advanced class levels.

Despite the abundance of a variety of news articles that discuss different events, the lesson plans always follow a similar structured format to keep things organized and facilitates easy learning habits. I would like to break down each section of the lesson plan and share my thoughts about how each part can be used effectively in the language classroom.

Warm-Ups

This section consists of many good ideas for encouraging the students to work in pairs. Some ideas include discussions about the most interesting and boring words/concepts in the article, completing a table about the subject (ex: sharing opinions),  debating about beliefs, ranking concepts from best to worst, and writing word associations. All these activities promote active thinking and clear expressions of opinions, but it may be best to choose just one or two to get the ball rolling.

Before Reading/Listening

This section includes questions to show what the students already know prior to reading or listening to the article. This includes True/False statements, synonym match (similar meanings of words), and phrase match. These can be used as small group or pair work activities, and answers can be discussed as a whole class.

While Reading/Listening

Creating English sentences is like a jigsaw puzzle. Words that correspond to different parts of speech must fall into the correct place in the sentence: nouns come after articles, adjectives come before nouns, and so on.  One activity in this section is the Gap Fill: students must fill in each blank with one correct word that they can choose from a word list on the side. This exercise tests logical reading skills. Another activity in this section is for students to fill in each blank with the word they hear, given the context of the story. The teacher (or an advanced student) can be chosen to dictate the script. 

After Reading/Listening

It is important to follow any reading activity with review activities to ensure understanding and comprehension. This section offers several different ways to review the reading, including a word search (finding collocations to the given words), article questions, vocabulary (circling and discussing unclear words), and testing each other with word meanings.

Survey

Students have a chance to interview their fellow classmates with three questions that they create relating to the topic. When everyone is finished, the teacher can call on some students to share their answers. 

Discussion

This is my favorite activity in the lesson plan for pair discussions. Student A gets a set of 10 questions relating to the subject matter, and interviews Student B.  After Student B answers the questions, he/she will ask the other 10 questions to Student A.  After all students are finished, the teacher can select a few questions to prompt a comprehensive class discussion.

Language – Multiple Choice

This section allows students to choose the correct fill-in-the-blank answer from the given four choices. This can be used as a pre-reading activity or post-reading (comprehension) activity.

Writing

This section allows students to write freely for 10 (or more) minutes about the given topic. After writing, students can exchange papers for peer editing .

Homework

Some homework ideas provided in the lesson plans include searching for more information about the topic on the Internet, making a poster to display the findings, and writing a magazine article about interesting facts. It is up to the teacher to decide what homework activities work best for the class.

At the end of each lesson plan, you will find the correct answers for the various reading comprehension activities.  Perhaps the best thing about these activities is that they are adaptable to student level, student interest, and class time. Unless you plan to devote the entire class session on the news and current events, it is possible you will not use everything. It is helpful to pick and choose what your students need the most help on, what kind of activities you want them to practice (ex: reading, listening, vocabulary acquisition, sharing opinions, etc.), and what will grab the students’ attention.

Reading about current events and engaging in discussion is now more exciting and meaningful. Go ahead and check out the breaking news!

Practical Uses of Post-It Notes in the Language Classroom

Teachers lead busy lives. You may have used post-it notes before to jot down important reminders, such as appointment times, upcoming test dates, and a last minute shopping list. But these little sticky notes that come in a variety of colors and cute designs are not only meant to be reminder pads… they can also be used as a simple yet effective teaching/learning tool. I would like to share three practical ways to liven up the language learning experience for your students by using post-it notes.

1. Vocabulary Review

The process of learning and reviewing vocabulary words can be dry and mundane. Repeating the same activity over and over can just become a boring task for the students, so adding some variety when teaching vocabulary can make students energized and excited to apply their new knowledge. As much as possible, it is important to have students get involved in the learning process. 

Activity: Vocabulary Challenge      (High Beginner +)

Each post-it note has a vocabulary word that had been taught in the unit. The students will choose a note, and write the definition and a sentence for the word they receive. Then, they get into small groups and create some “test questions” together using the information. For example, they can make a crossword puzzle out of the words (with the definitions as hints), or fill-in-the-blank sentences (using contextual clues). At the end of class, every student solves the questions and check answers together.

2. Facilitate Questions

Another way to use post-it notes is to practice asking questions. Asking and answering questions is perhaps one of the most important skills L2 learners should acquire, as it keeps a conversation going in a meaningful direction.  However, it is also one of the more difficult aspects of language learning due to sentence structure, word placement, and intonation.

Activity: The WH- Questions         (Beginner +)

Each post-it note has one of the WH words: Who, What, When, Where, Why.  The student chooses one note at random, and he or she is prompted to ask a question relating to the content of the academic unit being taught. One of the other students will volunteer to answer the question.

Activity: Open/Closed Questions    (High Beginner +)

Each post-it note has a vocabulary word relating to the particular theme of the unit. The student chooses one note, and asks an open question (informative) or closed question (Yes/No) to the person sitting next to him or her. The student will answer the question, and the activity continues until everyone has had a turn.

3. Games

Activity: Who am I / What am I     (Low Intermediate +)

Students tend to enjoy guessing games, which are great ways to learn question formation and review what they already know or just learned. 

One game is called “Who am I?“ Each post-it note has the name of a famous person on it. Students will go around the room and ask each other Yes/No questions (“Am I…”) to figure out who they are. For example, they can ask about gender, age, occupation, height, and so on. Similar to this game is “What am I?” Each post-it note has the name of something that is non-human, such as names of vegetables, objects, or animals. Students will go around the room and ask each other Yes/No questions (“Am I…”) to figure out what they are. For example, they can ask about size, color, taste, and so on.

Before you head out to your next class, make sure to pick up the post-it notes that are lying around your house and take advantage of a great teaching tool.  

Get the Ball Rolling with Stickyball.net

You are an educator. A hard-working, patient, and determined educator striving to make a change in the lives of the students you teach. But sometimes, life just gets in the way of planning your lessons... running errands, gym workout, going out to dinner with those special people in your life, and simply the desire to balance your work life with a healthy social life.

If you find yourself in a time crunch and need to plan a lesson for (let's say) tomorrow morning's class, it is wise to utilize a reputable ESL resource that you can easily find on the Internet. One such resource is called Stickyball.net. This website provides a wide selection of activities that you can use depending on what language topics you plan to teach.

ESL Writing Exercises: If you need some ideas for writing homework or warm-ups in class, this section provides the writing templates and teaching ideas for teachers. Indentation, capitalization, and paragraph organization do not come naturally to many L2 learners. The writing activities can be modified to accommodate different fluency levels.

ESL Vocabulary: Perhaps the most important part of any language learning experience is to increase vocabulary knowledge and apply the words correctly in real-life contexts. This section provides educators with the definitions of themed words and fill-in-the-blank worksheets.

ESL Dialogues: This section is especially helpful for beginning students to show how vocabulary words are used in real-life dialogue by reading the lines provided. More advanced students can create their own dialogues using the given vocabulary words and a chosen topic.

ESL Games and Activities: Being able to accompany learning with fun language activities takes time, creativity, and lots of energy. Students who learn a second language will likely remember the materials more if they are engaged in educational games and activities. Being able to interact with others and move around also makes the students stay awake!

Stickyball.net has many more ESL topics and resources that you can explore. The goal in any classroom is to first get the ball rolling, and everything will come together from there. Have fun!

Entertain with a Purpose in the Language Classroom

A full agenda is lined up for the Lesson of the Day. Grammar, writing, vocabulary… students are here to learn, not to be entertained. Maybe you have heard this statement from co-workers, or even  friends of co-workers. In my first year of teaching, this saying was so ingrained in my teaching routine that I didn’t realize why my lessons seemed so lifeless. I would notice the students’ energy level drop and sneaky eyes glance at the clock every two seconds. It came to the point that even I wondered if class was over yet. What was going on?

Flash forward to life in 2012. At times, teaching can still be a little rough around the edges, but fortunately I have come across a new motto: Entertain with a purpose. Language textbooks that are created for class use are intended to complement activities from the “real-world”, resources that teachers have to find or create to accommodate student levels and needs. To create an energetic learning environment, you must show the energy vibe yourself. Try to make your class more dynamic by implementing music, puzzles, role-plays, game-show themed vocabulary review, or YouTube videos to illustrate the main take-away ideas. 

One great site to check out is ESL Topics: Making Teaching Fun. This site offers “free and easy-to-use printable classroom activity handouts for teachers.” No matter what class you are teaching, the most valuable skill that students will gain is becoming a better communicator, whether it is through writing, listening, or speaking. This site offers different topics to supplement your lessons, including: Word Banks, Vocabulary Quizzes, Interactive Crosswords, Word Searches, Discussion Activities, Advice Columns, Board Games, and Bonus Handouts.  

In particular, the use of role-play dialogues and advice columns has proved to be the most applicable in many students’ lives, due to the nature of dealing with everyday problems and scenarios. So have some fun while teaching, and explore the possibilities of entertaining with a purpose!

Conversation Strips in the Language Classroom

I must admit that I use a lot of worksheets to supplement English lessons that I teach. Grammar activities, conversation scenarios, reading passages, I have seen plenty and used a variety of printed resources. However, I am definitely wary of wasting paper in this Go Green environment, especially if I print things that I never use but keep in a "just-in-case" folder. Before I go print crazy with the abundant resources on the Web, I am now thinking of ways to reduce paper and in theory, increase more student engagement in the language learning classroom. Instead of looking down at the assigned papers, students will be looking around at each other!

One activity (strategy) that is highly adaptable to fit any class level and lesson theme is the use of conversation strips. You can fit about 25 strips on one piece of paper by creating a Table template; all you have to do is write appropriate statements/questions for the class and cut them out before the next lesson. For more advanced classes, you can even have the students write relevant topics on the strips as a warm up activity! In a listening or conversation class, students can go around and ask each other questions or tell each other quotes from the strips, expecting a detailed response from classmates. In a reading class, you can have students pull out different writing prompts from a fun bag, container, or a silly hat; they will each have to write about the topic they chose for a certain length of time, and to change things up, they can swap papers and read aloud (or edit) each other's work. There is room for lots of variation on how to use conversation strips.

I think that relying less on printable handouts in the classroom and more on student input is definitely one way to improve your teaching skills!

TEFL World Wiki: Ice Breakers for New Students

Reflect on the first day of attending a new class. It can be any class and any grade – elementary, junior high, high school, even college. You’ll probably remember the new faces, new teacher, new everything. More likely than not, the teacher facilitated some kind of ice breaker to have all the students mingle and get to know each other better. By the end of the class, some students have already found their best friends for the academic season, and more importantly, teachers have a better idea of the students’ social and academic prowess.

Ice breakers used in an ESL classroom range in content, purpose, style, and creativity. Some activities are solely created to entertain the students, while others are already subtly teaching some linguistic aspects of English without the students’ knowledge. You may be thinking that ice breakers are all about having fun and will be a piece of cake to facilitate on the first day with little to no prior preparation. After all, how hard can it be to motivate students to meet each other and have fun while doing so? Well this is true to some extent. Ice breakers are meant to ease tensions among student-student and teacher-student interactions, so it should definitely be light hearted. But it should also be informative and goal-driven. You can only make a first impression once, so adequate preparation is crucial to have a smooth ice breaker that the students will remember for a long time. If there are any gaps or hiccups in the activity flow, students may feel like it is not useful or a waste of time. As a new teacher, there are many important factors to consider before choosing which ice breaker to use for the first day. How many students do you expect to show up? What is the fluency level of the students? What should the students learn from this activity: new vocabulary, forming complete sentences, asking questions? How much class time will the ice breaker take? Do I need any extra materials or props?

There are 3 specific steps that you can take to make sure the ice breaker goes as planned. First: Explain the rules in detail so that the students can easily perform the task. Remember to use simple language and speak clearly. Second: Demonstrate an example for the class. Choose a student to help you reenact the ice breaker rules. Third: Be the first person to start the ice breaker. Students will likely imitate what you do and feel less nervous. Encourage students to speak and participate by providing positive comments.

TEFL World Wiki offers several different kinds of ice breakers, including Brief Reminders, Guess Who, Sherlock Holmes, Trading Places, and Truth and Lies. Students must ask each other questions and guess about each other’s lives to find out more details to share with the class.

I would like to share a fun ice breaker that can be adapted to different levels and themes. This activity works best for smaller groups of students, since it involves a good deal of memory. The goal is to have every student add on to what the previous person says, and continue the chain until the last person repeats what everyone has shared. Let’s take the theme of favorite foods as an example. Teacher: My name is Sally, and my favorite food is pizza. How about you? Student 1: Your name is Sally, and your favorite food is pizza. My name is Tina, and my favorite food is sushi. Student 2: Your name is Sally, and your favorite food is pizza. Her name is Tina, and her favorite food is sushi. My name is Ben, and my favorite food is chicken. Student 3: Your name is Sally, and your favorite food is pizza. Her name is Tina, and her favorite food is sushi. His name is Ben, and his favorite food is chicken. My name is Paul, and my favorite food is steak. … and so on… By the end of the drill, everyone will know each other’s favorite food! Other themes relating to ‘favorites’ include: color, animals, movie/TV shows, books, ideal job, music, sports, hobby, author, biggest fear, etc. The more creative and wild the theme/content is for the ice breaker you choose, the more memorable the activity will be for everyone!

TEFL World Wiki: It all starts with Grammar

The other day, I was browsing the web for grammar teaching tips when I came across this website: TEFL World Wiki (TWW). As you may know, the original Wikipedia is an open source encyclopedia which allows people from all over the world to edit and add information to the extensive articles on the site. Not only is it a great resource to enhance your teaching experience, but it is most importantly a useful learning tool.

Even though TWW is primarily directed towards language professionals who teach English as a foreign language (TEFL) in a variety of international countries, the abundance of interdisciplinary articles and adaptable language activities makes this Wiki page applicable to all language educators in the fields of TEFL, TESL, TESOL, and English teaching.

TWW provides a wealth of teaching resources that are categorized in different themes. The categories include:

Teaching (tips), Grammar Guide, Forum, Employment & Finding Work, Skills, Books & Materials, Linguistics, Glossary, and even TEFAL (Teaching English for a Laugh).

The TEFL World Wiki Grammar Guide emphasizes the importance of English grammar as the “glue” which holds words together and gives sentences contextual meaning. Grammar represents the set rules we use in any language to create and understand meaning through written or spoken modes of communication. Thus as teachers, we have an important responsibility to help our students build a strong foundation in grammar, not necessarily with tedious drills, but integrating grammar instruction into meaningful learning games and reading/writing activities.

If you don’t exactly remember how to explain determiners, the future perfect simple, gerunds, imperatives, modals, participles, subjunctives, or subordinate clauses, the Grammar Guide is the perfect place to brush up on your grammar knowledge!

Keep the Conversation Going: Communicative Themes

Being a teacher of an advanced ESL conversation course can be intimidating and thrilling at the same time. Before teaching any lesson, it is important to approach your teaching endeavors from the perspectives of the students. What do you hope for the students to achieve in each class? Heightened fluency in casual dialogue? New acquisition of vocabulary and idiomatic expressions? Expand their critical thinking skills?

Advanced students need a challenge in the classroom to consistently build on their current English knowledge. My teaching experience at the university allows me to create my own curriculum and decide the topics of each lesson. My first year of teaching this advanced conversation course allowed me to be creative and try new strategies to keep students engaged in their learning. To do this, I facilitated mini-projects based on weekly thematic topics. If you are a new teacher and need some ideas to structure your conversation course, here are a few themes that worked really well with my students:

- Business and Entrepreneurship: Pairs of students created a business proposal to build their own company, promote their product/service, and practice sales pitch strategy using business related idioms and vocabulary during the presentation.

- News Broadcast: Students research a news article from a given news category and present The 5 W's (who, what, when, where, why, sometimes how) to the audience. This allows students to be creative with presentation style - deliver a newscast, reporter interview, etc.

- Stereotypes: Students learn about words related to stereotypes and read articles about current events that display stereotypes in American culture. During my teaching, I used the success of Jeremy Lin (as an American Born Chinese) in the predominantly non-Asian sport of basketball to display what kinds of stereotypes people may have in the sports realm.

- Travel: Early in the week, students learn about travel-related vocabulary and idioms. In groups, students perform research on a country of interest and create a travel brochure. For advanced students, each person will represent a different role to present unique details during the final project (i.e. tour guide, travel agent, recreation director). Students can present their findings using a poster and/or PowerPoint.

- Jobs and Careers: Students learn job-related vocabulary and idioms. After building this foundation, they participate in a mock "Job Fair" in the classroom that helps students practice asking relevant questions to employers.


The following themes can be adapted (in terms of content and level) to fit your students' needs:

- Technology: Lessons using Twitter, Facebook, Blog sites.

- Charts and Graphs: Analyzing current trends. Use trends-related terminology (rise, increase, fall, decline, slightly, moderately, rocket, etc).

- Environment: Conservation Project.

- Lifestyle: Daily habits, food idioms, etc.


I hope you find this information helpful. Strive to implement engaging and hands-on academic content to keep the conversation going!

Communicative Lesson Plans: About.com

No matter how busy you may become with your teaching responsibilities, there are plenty of excellent resources to make use of... at the click of a button! Although the Internet offers a rich and abundant collection of teaching materials, it may initially seem overwhelming to find reputable websites, or figure out even how to find the relevant materials.

Over the past few years, I have found many gems in the arena of valuable teaching resources and would like to share one in this post: esl.about.com.

If you are looking for exciting variety in teaching a wide range of ESL classes, including conversation and/or pronunciation classes, Kenneth Beare offers lesson plans that are perfectly suited for the busy teacher. The lesson plans are organized as follows: introduction to the activity, step-by-step teaching guidelines, and printable student worksheets (to effectively supplement the lesson). The best part about a good majority of Mr. Beare's lesson plans is that they are adaptable to all levels of ESL: beginning, intermediate, and advanced levels. While beginning students may need the most emphasis on vocabulary knowledge and repetition of English dialogue patterns, advanced students can create their own dialogues using the lesson content.

If you happen to think of a unique vocabulary activity that you would like to share with other educators, you can easily submit your response here... and see your work get published online!

These teaching materials are freely accessible and can be easily adapted to best fit the needs of your students. Whether you are looking for conversation, reading, or writing activities, esl.about.com is bound to get your creative ideas rolling.

Sometimes Less is More

One thing that I have realized about teaching English to lower level students is that less is more. It is wishful thinking to expect college age exchange students to learn and remember all the vocabulary and grammar structures in a short amount of time - living in the Bay Area with so much to explore, who has time to study?! Attention span is one thing, the right motivation is another. Rather than bombarding them with lists of vocabulary words to remember and too much homework where nothing seeps in, much like tossing them into a lion's den (figuratively speaking), it can empower students when they begin to remember/memorize the definitions of just a few words in real-life authentic contexts. Tailoring to the realistic expectations of your students, no matter how little it may seem, can boost your students' confidence and motivation levels to use what they are learning in useful contexts.

Sometimes less is more, especially in the language classroom.

Getting Organized

You may have just finished an intensive teacher training program, and are now getting ready to teach the first ESL classes of your career. This is definitely an exciting time, but possibly quite overwhelming as well. Being a teacher entails not only teaching a class, but also lesson planning, creating supplemental curriculum, helping students during office hours, answering emails, and grading homework, tests, and other assignments. Perhaps the most important skill to develop during your early teaching years is organization.

Here are some ideas to keep things organized:

Teaching Portfolio. Create a personalized portfolio of the handouts you distribute to your students. A basic 3-ring folder will do the trick. I really like using plastic sheet protectors for some documents that you will photocopy the most, instead of punching holes into the original copies.

Lesson Plans. Plan out the number of minutes for each part of your lessons. How many minutes do you expect to take attendance? Give explanations? Assign class work for the students?

Observations. After each class, reflect on how the class went and write down some notes. Did the class go as planned? What materials did you use to teach? What did you do well? What can you improve for the next class? Did the students participate enthusiastically during activities?

Resources. Make a list of helpful resources that you can easily refer to when you need it. Take advantage of the excellent ESL websites that you can use for teaching ideas as well as engaging audio materials. It might help to 'bookmark' the sites that you use the most to save time. I will share some useful websites in the upcoming posts.

Activities and Games. Print out some language activities that you can use during class, and add them to your portfolio. You should try to add some variety to the kinds of activities you will use, for example using grammar activities to supplement reading assignments, or short language-related games if you have a few minutes to spare before the class ends.

Teaching is not always easy and can be an energy zapper at times, but if you follow some of these ideas to stay organized, you are on your way to becoming a great teacher!