Job Discussion Forums

[jessicahills]

I will be teaching in South Asia in March for 3 months and am looking for good resources to bring with me. Can anyone recommend

1) a resource that they think is a "must have" in the suitcase, knowing every pound allowed is precious!

2) resources that require little material preparation. I am not sure what kind of access to resources I'll have in South Asia.

Thanks!

[tttompatz]

[denise]

Can you check with the school to find out what resources they have? I agree with the laptop idea. If you're not sure the school will have reliable internet, do a bit of prepping before you go.

Plan on being flexible if you do end up out in the jungle somewhere. Bring postcards that can be used for conversation prompts, do dictation activities (there are some creative ones--they don't all have to be the standard "listen and write") when you can't print materials, etc.

d

[Jbhughes]

Interesting cultural realia from home that you won't be able to find out in the sticks.

An example would be coins and small denomination notes (perhaps every pound is more precious than you first considered!) - it's great being able to show sts things from our countries that they would otherwise never get to see OR for those heading out to our countries having some experience of these things is useful.

I realise that this doesn't necessarily fall into the category of resources per se, however; I have not wanted anything else from outside of Vietnam in the couple of years I've been here.

As for resources, I agree with the other posters - it really depends where you're going.

[mmcmorrow]

Oxford Basics is a set of books designed for teaching in this environment. Each book describes a number of activities that can be done with large classes and minimal resources (ie without photocopying).

The British Council Teaching English and Language Assistants sites have a lot of resources and tips, some of which might be relevant in your context.

Publishers also produce a lot of free resources (though for many of these you need photocopying). For instance, there are numerous topical articles with accompanying lesson plans at MacMillan Global website (some of which I've written).

I would also recommend you to collect together photos of yourself as a child, your family, pets, your home, school etc. Hard copies might be useful, as you may not have any web access. These are resources that can be used again and again for almost any lesson; language learning is nothing if not personal!


Good luck,

Martin McMorrow, New Zealand

[cks]

I currently teach in a developing country and have downloaded most of my resources from rapidshare. If you have means to a printer, you can save the kilos and print from your computer. PM me if you want to know the books I use.