Some Useful Websites (including my blog)
 

Hello all. I hope you are well. I have returned to the UK to teach EFL to young learners and the occassional adult class. I thought I would share the websites that I use in my classes:

1. Cartoon Maker: Make cartoons for use in class. For an example, visit here.

2. Wordle: Create vocabulary sheets with Wordle.

3. Tagxedo: Create vocab sheets in a range of patterns and use images as a backdrop.

4. Teaching English (British Council): A good website offering a range of lesson plans etc.

I have also created a blog called ELT Experiences and am seeking followers. On my blog you will find links to other websites including ESL HQ. Please feel free to comment or suggest areas of development on my blog. Thank you in advance.

Re: Some Useful Websites (including my blog)
 

Just a quick note, I have posted a new article about music in the classroom. I hope it helps.

Re: Some Useful Websites (including my blog)
 

hello whistle, welcome back and thanks for your contribution! :)

Re: Some Useful Websites (including my blog)
 

Thank you Beatrix. How is you teaching getting on? Since leaving Korea, I went for a period of transition where I had to settle and get used to a whole new classroom environment. An international class is more challenging than a monolingual classroom but both have their advantages/disadvantages. Nice to have a sympathetic Director of Studies.

Re: Some Useful Websites (including my blog)
 

Looks good and good luck with the blog!

Re: Some Useful Websites (including my blog)
 

The ones I could open were good sites. Of course I am in China and blocking websites is just a gov't hobby. The gov't is a like a trigger happy kid shooting down any website or bunch of sites and ips for fun.

Re: Some Useful Websites (including my blog)
 

Managed to by-pass the firewall. Can now see all the sites. Thank God for VPNs.

Re: Some Useful Websites (including my blog)
 

I am still looking for people to subscribe to my blog as I would like to share some ideas and experiences amongst those that are interested and really get the blog quite active. I have had a little feedback but still am trying to get more followers.

If you have a look at my blog you will notice a lot of links to other EFL Websites including ESL HQ.

Re: Some Useful Websites (including my blog)
 

Hi:)
sorry for the late answer. My teaching is fine, thanks. What are disadvantages of a monolingual classroom? It seems to me like a more interesting class than a monolingual one

Re: Some Useful Websites (including my blog)
 

Just posted a new lesson plan in my blog with some complementary ideas. Hope this is useful. You can view it here.

I am still wanting to have some comments on my blog. If you can spare some minutes providing feedback or wish to follow my blog, please do. It would be greatly appreciated.

Re: Some Useful Websites (including my blog)
 

I have quite a few people come through my site(s) and my main advice is don't expect comments :(

In general, I hardly ever hear from people unless there is a mistake or they have a question about something. So, if you have a really good lesson plan and well thought out materials to go with it, you probably won't get any feedback.

What I do is look at the statistics for the sites. If the numbers are going up, take that to be your comment. People like what you are doing.

** On a bit of advice, don't post One Stop materials or other website materials, links to where they have been ripped or shared without permission. Just give people the links to the actual website and let them make a decision about signing up with those sources. **

Re: Some Useful Websites (including my blog)
 

Sorry, I don't want to discourage you. Comments do come, but remember you're not the only one blogging out there. There are probably thousands of people blogging these days about teaching English and posting their lesson plans on their blogs. Competition is high for those followers and comments.

Re: Some Useful Websites (including my blog)
 

Thank you mesmark for the advice. I will continue to blog and keep my fingers crossed. Duly noted about material.

Re: Some Useful Websites (including my blog)
 

One other thing on this front is unless you already have an outlet to draw readership from, you are really only going to see increased visits via search engines. That might mean that what you are writing about today will eventually draw visitors to the site 3 months down the road when the information has both been indexed and moved up in related search rankings. High profile bloggers for MSN, Yahoo, About, etc. will pull readers from those big sites. Those just starting out have a bit of a mountain to climb.

Anyway, keep it up! If you are doing it because you like to share your ideas then in time it should be fruitful. If not, well you were doing it because you enjoyed it and therefore it wasn't a waste.