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    Keeping Sane: English Teaching Strategies for ESL Teachers: Teaching ESL, #9
    Keeping Sane: English Teaching Strategies for ESL Teachers: Teaching ESL, #9
    Keeping Sane: English Teaching Strategies for ESL Teachers: Teaching ESL, #9
    Ebook113 pages1 hour

    Keeping Sane: English Teaching Strategies for ESL Teachers: Teaching ESL, #9

    By Greg Strandberg

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    About this ebook

    Um…ugh…alright…well…uh...um…

    What are you going to do when you get in that ESL classroom for the very first time?

    You can stutter and flounder about and generally come off as someone that doesn’t know what you’re doing. Or you can pick up this book and learn all kinds of strategies that will help you in the ESL classroom, and outside of it.

    Having trouble keeping students interested? Are those mixed-ability levels driving you crazy? Feel like the walking dead because you haven’t eaten enough? Thinking of getting some extra tutoring work on the side?

    Keeping Sane asks all those questions and then answers them, giving you thoughts and ideas on what you’re doing now as an ESL teacher, and how you could be doing it better.

    It all means fewer headaches for you and teaching days you no longer dread. Pick up this book for ideas to make your ESL teaching time better, you’ll be happy you did and your students will learn more too.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherGreg Strandberg
    Release dateOct 7, 2014
    ISBN9781310776359
    Keeping Sane: English Teaching Strategies for ESL Teachers: Teaching ESL, #9
    Author

    Greg Strandberg

    Greg Strandberg was born and raised in Helena, Montana. He graduated from the University of Montana in 2008 with a BA in History.When the American economy began to collapse Greg quickly moved to China, where he became a slave for the English language industry. After five years of that nonsense he returned to Montana in June, 2013.When not writing his blogs, novels, or web content for others, Greg enjoys reading, hiking, biking, and spending time with his wife and young son.

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      Book preview

      Keeping Sane - Greg Strandberg

      KEEPING SANE

      English Teaching Strategies for ESL Teachers

      ––––––––

      Greg Strandberg

      Big Sky Words, Missoula

      Copyright © 2014 by Big Sky Words

      D2D Edition, 2016

      Written in the United States of America

      Cover Flag: Thailand

      All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

      Also by Greg Strandberg

      Selected Non-Fiction

      Write Now! 20 Simple Strategies for Successful Writing

      English Rocks! 101 ESL Games, Activities, and Lesson Plans

      English Last: True Accounts of Teaching in China

      Please Say Something! 25 Proven Ways to Get Through an Hour of ESL Teaching

      Teaching Abroad: Making the Move To and From ESL Teaching

      Teaching English: 25 ESL PowerPoint Ideas That Get Students Talking

      Teaching English: 10 Proven Ways to Make Shy Students Talk Now

      Bilingual Teaching: Making Your English Students Ready for America Fast

      Bilingual English: 25 More ESL PowerPoint Ideas That Get Students Talking

      Fun English: 10 Fast and Easy ESL Games

      Connect with Greg Strandberg

      www.bigskywords.com

      www.esladventure.com

      Table of Contents

      Introduction

      Part I – Theory

      That Frightful First Class

      If You’re Moving to China You’re Doing One of Two Things

      Your Biggest Problem as an ESL Teacher: Indifference

      Why ESL Teachers Have No Balls

      All You CTLC Teachers Going to China...Be Careful

      Is ESL Teaching Bottom of the Barrel?

      Why Did I Get Fired as an ESL Teacher from EF China?

      Are Your ESL Skills Worth Anything?

      Part II – Practice

      If You’re an ESL Teacher You’re Tired and Hungry

      What Do You Do When a Student Will Not Listen?

      The Typical Schedule of an ESL Teacher

      Tutoring in China: The Best English Teaching Jobs in China

      If You Hate EF, Check Out This Site!

      An ESL Training Center Ultimatum

      Dealing with the ESL Paperwork Headaches

      Handling Mixed-Ability Levels

      Problems You’ll Run into with Lesson Planning

      Part III – Implementation

      10 Things to Do at the Beginning of Your ESL Class

      Using iPads in Your ESL Classroom: 7 Helpful Links

      New ESL Cartoon Creator

      ESL Practice Tests for Students Coming to America

      Hilarious ESL Action Verbs PowerPoint

      Extra Homework Worksheets for Good and Bad Students

      Asking for Directions PowerPoint

      Using Math in Your ESL Classroom

      Free & Funny ESL Game Piece Images

      ESL Steve Jobs PowerPoint

      Conclusion

      About the Author

      Introduction

      This is a book about strategies and philosophies for dealing with your job.

      You’re an ESL teacher, and instead of apologizing to you, I’ll offer you some advice that will make your time easier.

      Some might strike you as great, others as odd and still others as undoable or simply impossible. Maybe you can’t wrap your head around it or just couldn’t possibly see yourself doing it.

      Either way, these ideas will help you cope with a very difficult job, and one few can understand.

      I taught ESL for 5 years in China and I know a lot of things that can help you. Most I tried myself, others are things I heard from fellow teachers. Both are presented here for you to learn from and implement.

      This book is kind of a mish-mash of things, a real useful ESL teacher book that can serve multiple purposes. I’m positive it will help you, and make you a better teacher as well.

      Because, really...what are you going to do?

      I know you’ve been thinking this over and over...just waiting for that first day of classes, or that return to the classroom after a weekend that was way too short.

      What are you going to do?

      Well, if you’re reading this then I’m sure you already have a pretty good idea what you’re going to do. After all, you’ve probably found my website full of free ESL games and handouts that will help you.

      – Try out the First Class Handout, which really saved my butt during my whole first week of teaching that second year in China.

      – Check out the ESL Battleship handouts that are always a popular destination for most visitors to my site – about 500 a month to that article alone!

      – If you want to get your whole class excited and having fun, while learning a bit of English in the process, try out the free ESL Jeopardy games.

      – And don’t forget that you can find detailed explanations on how to teach ESL, all kinds of games and lesson ideas, as well as what to do when you finish your ESL career, in my nine ESL books.

      There’s a lot of stuff here to help you, and I’ve got even more in my ESL Google+ group. Remember, if you’re teaching in China you might not have the best of luck using Facebook, so this group could be a real help to you.

      Other than that, I think you’ll just have to get into your first class and screw up a lot.

      Yeah, it doesn’t sound like that much fun, but you’ll learn pretty quickly what works and what doesn’t...and hopefully what to do about it.

      But if you’d like to skip out on hope and just go right to the useful advice, read this book. Good luck!

      Part I - Theory

      That Frightful First Class

      Um...ugh...alright...well...uh...um...

      What are you going to do when you get in that ESL classroom for the very first time?

      You can stutter and flounder about and generally come off as someone that doesn’t know what you’re doing. Oh yeah, and those young students of yours can tell if you know what you’re doing or not in about two minutes. And that means the tone you set and impression you make in that very first class is so important.

      The last thing you want is for your students to walk all over you all year. I’ve talked with teachers in China that have had this happen, and they leave at the end of the year feeling frustrated with teaching and disgusted with the country. That’s if they even make it to the end of their contract.

      Having a plan is therefore critical. I urge you to check out that free Introductory ESL PowerPoint Lesson that will give you a base framework to work with. Throw in your own pictures and information about your family and friends and what you like to do.

      You can eat up a lot of time with something like that, and if you get it going right from the get-go your students will see that you’re in control and have an inkling of what you should be doing.

      That Introductory lesson PPT

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