English Toolbox Tips

We inquired last time about any extra teaching you may be doing outside of your regular class schedule. A couple of you wrote that you had outside, "private" students you saw one-on-one; one respondent also teaches a university class in addition to his work teaching Business English as an in-company trainer. The answer we liked the most, however, came from April J. in Kuala Lumpur. Malaysia, who teaches a full load of classes for children Monday through Friday, but still manages to do some video training a few times a week. "For one thing, I need to speak to adults occasionally so I can keep my Business English skills fresh," April wrote. "For another, I can always cancel or re-schedule a video class more easily than a face-to-face class if I'm feeling too tired: there's always another teacher who can pick up the slack." Very nice, April: you've won five free English Toolbox credits!

Our next contest will focus on the differences between what you were taught in your EFL preparatory course, and what you experienced with real students once you actually started teaching. What was your biggest surprise as a new teacher? Was there anything that was the opposite of what you'd been told while you were getting certified? The most interesting response will win the responder five free English Toolbox credits, even if s/he does not currently subscribe. Send your contributions to info@englishtoolbox.com by 31 August.

Students driving you crazy? Grammar rules getting more confusing for you than for the students? Tired of doing the same thing over and over and over again? Well, watch this, and feel the stress melt away:

If you think you needed a lot of training to teach in China or France, be thankful you didn't need to get the training to teach English in California. Click this link to read the full article; here's an excerpt:

To enroll in the intern program, I had to fill out more applications and then complete 40 hours of pre-service training in teaching English language learners, a course that in theory would have been very useful but in fact only entailed reading a stack of paperwork and writing essays I suspected would be stuck in my file unread. I also had to summarize what I'd learned in a page of sentences that began with "I used to think," and ended with "but now I know ... ."

Whatever the actual purpose of this exercise, writing about my former state of ignorance felt like some kind of forced confession by a totalitarian state.

We wanted to know if you had any specific deadline or target for giving up TEFL. Or did you all plan to stay in the profession for your entire working lives? A few of you wrote along the lines of, "It's always been my dream to spend some time living in Country X, and once I do that I'll go back home and get a real job." But the reply we liked best came from Iris Y. in Cameroon, who said, "I'll stop teaching on the day I stop learning from my students." Lovely, Iris: we may even have that stitched onto a pillow for our office sofa! You get five free English Toolbox credits.

Next time, tell us about any supplementary teaching you may be doing, i.e., outside of your regular class schedule. Do you have any private students, or do you do any internet training? Or is your regular schedule more than enough work for you? The most interesting response will win the responder five free English Toolbox credits, even if s/he does not currently subscribe. Send your contributions to info@englishtoolbox.com by 15 August.

On the heels of the expulsion of the British Council, Moscow has just been named the world's most expensive city. English teacher salaries remain relatively low, and visas are harder to obtain than in the past. Oh, well--who wants to pay $10.83 for a cup of coffee anyway?

This eye-opening article warns about TEFL job-site scams. Sample quote:

It turned out that said job scam was one that, besides posting fraudulent job ads on prominent EFL job boards, involved the use of forged official forms and documents from a government ministry... [The] Gulf News reported on an almost identical scam that lured teachers from the United States, Great Britain and elsewhere aspiring to teach EFL in the UAE.

We asked our subscribers how they utilize the interactive files they've downloaded from English Toolbox. Most of the replies mentioned that the teacher e-mails the students the files to work on individually on an office or home PC. But Rebecca M. in Indonesia has incorporated her files into a private blog that her students can access via a password. "This way, they can either do them online, or copy them to use later when they're offline," Rebecca told us. Great idea--you've won an additional five free English Toolbox credits, which will be credited to your account!

(P.S. to Danny: yes, the interactive HTML files work just fine on Macs as well as Windows-based PC's)

Our next contest is for everyone, not just current subscribers. To qualify, simply tell us if you have a plan for when you will leave the English teaching profession. Do you have a target age or number of years in the field before you quit? Are there certain countries you plan to work in, and then retire afterwards? The most compelling answer will reap the sender five free English Toolbox credits, even if s/he does not currently subscribe. Send your e-mails to info@englishtoolbox.com by 31 July.