Teacher Discussion Forums

As a new ESL teacher, I was surfing the Web, looking for ideas for lesson-planning materials, and I came across the English Toolbox Web site (http://www.englishtoolbox.com/). This site is currently being advertised at the top of this forum page, so it's even easier to find (I discovered it when I was checking out Dave's ESL Cafe).

I was quite impressed with the quality of the materials the site offers and I was especially pleased with the fact that I could download lessons in Microsoft Word format. After looking up materials on the site's search engine, I decided to subscribe.

English Toolbox is a real time-saver: using the available exercises, I may never have to write my own exercises again!

I would be interested in hearing other feedback from teachers who have used ET.

Cheers, Ross Brown.

Do you work for this website, Ross?
I just checked it out but I'm afraid the two sample lessons are not enough to tempt me. The MS word exercise is something I'd come up with in five minutes myself... I'd need a bigger bait to get me to subscribe!
On a positive note, the website looks quite appealing - nice design and a clear layout.

Ha! No, I don't work for the Web site, but I find that with a busy schedule and full course load of students at different levels, I don't have a lot of time to prepare the number of various lessons. I find my ET subscription saves me time (okay, it does sound like I work for the company - really, I don't!).

I'm sure I'm not alone in believing that anything a teacher can do to reduce the amount of time it takes to lesson plan is worth it. My subscription to ET is reasonable, considering the time it saves me.

Now... where's my endorsement cheque?

Cheers, Ross.

I’m running a meetings workshop next month, and I downloaded all of the meetings exercises and functional language lists from the English Toolbox site. I’m very happy with all of them, and it probably saved me several days of work (it’s hard to find ESL materials for business people at an advanced level). I’m still looking through all of the stuff they have, so I don’t know if I’ll let my subscription ride for another month or not, but it was definitely worth the $8 I’ve spent so far!

People: There are plenty of quality exercises,handouts,lesson plans, etc. out there that are free. Check out ESL book publishers' websites. Many offer very well designed, high quality, and FREE exercises. You can also network with other teachers and exchange exercises/resources for example.

An example of some sites that may be useful for some. *One site costs 22 USD for a one year membership.*

http://www.macmillan.com/websites.asp

http://www.jamesabela.co.uk/bus/index.htm

http://www.smic.be/smic5022/teacherhandouts.htm

http://www.handoutsonline.com/navigation/biz.php: ("We're only $22 for a one-year membership.")