Job Discussion Forums

jrwilheim · Joined: 02 Jul 2007 Posts: 34 Location: New York

Hi, everyone.

I'm talking with Reach to Teach in Taiwan and will probably be going over to teach there in mid-October.

I want to do some shopping for ESL materials before I leave and was wondering if anyone could give me some advice about absolute "must-haves". Are there any props, tools, etc., that you feel are absolute "must-haves" for ESL teaching?

Thanks.

Sgt Killjoy · Joined: 26 Jun 2004 Posts: 438

My must have book is Grammar Smart published The Princeton Review. You can pick it up at any decent bookstore.

denise · Joined: 23 Apr 2003 Posts: 3419 Location: finally home-ish

I've moved around so much that I've given up on lugging books around. I sort of trust the schools that I work for to have decent libraries (which they often don't... sob sob), and I get a lot of material from the internet. True, it takes a bit more time to do an internet search, find what you need, throw it together into a worksheet, etc., than just to photocopy a book, but after doing it for so many years I've built up a nice little library of stuff saved onto my computer.

d

tedkarma · Posted: Thu Aug 16, 2007 12:20 am Post subject:

A good, free 94-page grammar e-book that clarifies many common mistakes can be downloaded from this page:

http://teflbootcamp.com/Grammar.htm

It's a PDF file AND written to be enjoyable and fun - not a dry sleepy thing.

Add a few simple things to liven up your classes - I have a squeaky rubber duck for incorrect answers and a service bell for correct answers . . . and a couple magic tricks (deck of cards, magic thumb) that can get students talking quickly and are great ice breakers for a first class. None of it takes much space.

Good rubber chickens can be hard to find overseas . . .