40 Hepful Tips for Making Your ESL Teaching Easier and More Fun!

ESL Teaching can be a daunting task. Occasionally, teachers need some guidance and inspiration to make sure they are on the right track and not teaching merely to fulfill routine chores. Here are 40 tips from Handsonenglish.com that could help you make your ESL teaching easier and more fun.

1. Join a professional organization
Teaching can be a lonely occupation. Connect yourself to a network of people who do what you do and who share your concerns. You’ll usually receive newsletters and reduced fees at conferences as a benefit. But consider joining also as a way of lending strength to an organization that can speak up on behalf of immigrants’ rights and educators’ concerns!

2. Attend workshops and conferences
Even if you haven’t joined an organization, you can still go to conferences, and there’s no better way to meet fellow teachers, get some inspiring ideas and see ESL books and materials on exhibit. (Note: if you only want to see the book exhibit, some larger conferences will sell you an exhibit pass for a reduced fee.) If you can’t make it to a conference, try at least to attend some teachers’ workshops. Most school districts and community colleges offer training sessions or workshops you can attend. But don’t limit yourself just to ESL! You can get good teaching ideas from other areas as well.

3. Start your own support group
Find some fellow instructors who are willing to meet occasionally or have lunch together for the purpose of exchanging thoughts and ideas. A long-term relationship with other teachers can be very beneficial! The members of your group don’t have to be from the same school–in fact it some times works better if they are not.

4. Get online
If you have access to the Internet through work or through a commercial e-mail service, sign up for some discussion groups, called “lists.” One that we know about is called TESL-L, which provides an opportunity to talk with thousands of ESL professionals internationally.

5. Get a pile of catalogs
Finding just the right ESL materials for your students can sometimes be a challenge! Get yourself on the mailing list with lots of different publishers so you’ll receive their ESL catalogs. You’ll find it useful to have a library of catalogs to browse through when you need to.

Read the rest of the tips here.