Resources for Teachers

There are a number of sites for teachers.  These have everything from discussions
on teaching methods to ideas for class activities to printable material for the classroom.
There are even lesson plans available, for both Internet related activities and traditional
classroom activities.  Listed below are some sites that I found useful and interesting.

3.41  Aardvark’s EFL Resources.
http://194.159.248.110/aardvark/
This page consists of organized links to other sites which have resources that may be
useful to EFL (and ESL) teachers.

3.42  Educational Hotlist
http://sln.fi.edu/tfi/hotlists/hotlists.html
This is the educational hotlist from the Franklin Institute Science Museum
(http://sln.fi.edu/).  Here you may find links to museums, literature, art, music, animals,
countries, and much more.  The information is not limited to the States--there are
Canadian museums listed too.  This could be a good place to look for resources and ideas
for activities.

3.43  English Language Trivia.
http://www.lingolex.com/paolo.htm
This site is appropriate for all levels and is part of John and Sarah’s TEFL Pitstop.  It is a
list of 80 trivia questions about English with the answers.  Cut and paste questions into a
Word Processing document for a handout or oral class activity, or paste into a page to
publish to the WWW for students to read and answer.

3.44  ESLoop.
http://www.linguistic-funland.com/esloop/esloop.sites.html
This is the list of sites belonging to the ESLoop.  The loop is a number of ESL-related
sites, all linked together.

3.45  Half-baked Software’s MiniTools.
http://web.uvic.ca/hrd/jbc/minitools/
These are three freeware programs by Martin Holmes that you can download to create
crosswords, cloze exercises, and scrambled sentence exercises that you may easily put
on-line.

3.46  InternetSmart.
http://www.internetsmart.com/
This site has many useful things.  There are lessons and handouts, a chat-room for
teachers, and articles.  There are also many links to sites, each with a brief description of
that site.

3.47  John and Sarah’s TEFL Pitstop.
http://www.lingolex.com/jstefl.htm
Here you will find activites and games for the classroom, which include instructions and
printable materials to use for the activity.  The Lessons with Laughter page has some
short exercises that are amusing (e.g., jokes with blanks, and students must fill in the
blank with the appropriate phrasal verb).  It is also possible to make a very simple web
page here, by typing in your information and submitting it.  There are also some sample
web pages posted with activity instructions.  You can request material as well, and there
are responses to requests teachers have made in the past.  Undoubtedly you will find
something useful.

3.48  Jon’s ESL Resource Page.
http://www.oocities.org/Athens/Olympus/4459/Esl.htm
Here you can find a few lesson plans.

3.49  Martin Holmes Quizmakers.
http://www.net-shopper.co.uk/creative/education/languages/martin/
These are some neat programs for making quizzes, for those who already some
experience at making web pages.  You only need to type in the questions and answers,
and the program does the rest.  There are many shareware and freeware programs here.

3.50  PIZZAZ!
http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~leslieob/pizzaz.html
This site has ideas, lesson plans, creative writing activities, and copyable handouts.
These resources may be used to in-class, non-profit use only.

3.51  Pronunciation Web Resources.
http://members.aol.com/sunburstM/PronWeb.html
This page has many links to sites on the WWW that have listening activities, organized
according to the software used and features (Shockwave, RealAudio, QuickTime, sound
files, providing text file).  It also gives a brief description of each site.

3.52  Puzzlemaker.
http://www.puzzlemaker.com/
This is a very versatile site for the teacher.  Here you can easily make up puzzles galore
to print for use in the classroom.  It is possible to create crosswords, word searches,
cryptograms, and more.  You type in the words, and the machine does the rest.  Use it as
a vocabulary review.

3.53  Puzzle Ring homepage.
http://www.oocities.org/WestHollywood/2555/puzzlrng.html
This is the list of the Puzzle Ring sites.  I did not have the time to go through the entire
list, however, out of eighty seven sites there should be something useful for ESL students
here, like word games.  Some of the puzzles are interactive--with the computer or a
partner--while at others you can create a puzzle to print.

3.54 Sample Edutainment Games. 
http://www2.gol.com/users/language/games.html
Some activities are outlined for use in the traditional classroom at all levels.

Top of Page

Making Webpages

It is beneficial for teachers to gain the knowledge of how to produce web pages.
It can be a very useful talent as you may put links and instructions on a course homepage,
and then the class can just access the page to find the instructions and links needed for an
activity.  If possible, the page could be placed as a permanent bookmark so it may be
easy to access.

The advantage to making your own pages is that you control the content, and
adapt it to any level.  If the equipment is available, you can embed video or audio clips,
along with the transcript if desired.  You can put pictures or links for additional
information.  Stories or articles can be presented with vocabulary links.  Priming
activities can be used before sending students off to a different site.  If you are able to use
JavaScript, that is even better as you can make interactive pages.  However, teachers are
not computer programmers, and knowing only HTML is sufficient.

There are a number of superb on-line tutorials for HTML.  If you are interested in
learning this language, I suggest visiting the following sites:

     HTML Goodies
          http://www.htmlgoodies.com/
          If you have never tried HTML, I would suggest beginning here, with the
          HTML Primers.  There are also tutorials on all you need to know about
          HTML, divided up into sections.

     HTML Crash Course for Educators
          http://sunsite.unc.edu/edweb/htmlintro.html
          I think the title describes the site content fairly well.

     A Beginner’s Guide to HTML
          http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/General/Internet/WWW/HTMLPrimer.html
          This information can be used for a non-profit activity.  It can also be
          downloaded in PDF format (for Adobe Acrobat Reader).

     HTML Quick Reference Guide
          http://www.ucc.ie/~pflynn/books/htmlcard.html
          Good for those who have some knowledge of HTML already.  It lists all
          the structural elements used in HTML3.

     Great Website Design Tips
          http://www.unplug.com/great/
          There are lots of tips, for beginners and experts, as well as numerous links
          to other informative sites.

     Royalty-Free Clip Art Collection for Foreign/Second Language Instruction
          http://www.sla.purdue.edu/fll/JapanProj/FLClipart/default.html
          This is a great collection of images, all subtitled (verbs, adjectives, nouns).

Today, with the powerful programs available, it really may not even be necessary
to learn HTML.  Microsoft Word 7 and Corel WordPerfect 7 both support Web
Publishing, and so you merely need to make your page as a word processing document,
then send it to the WWW by following the program’s instructions.  Netscape Navigator
Gold and Netscape Communicator also both have built in page maker capabilities, and
function similarly to a word processor.

If your Internet service provider does not support the publishing of web pages,
there are other options.  Geocities (http://www.oocities.org/) supplies free spaces for
web pages.  There are likely other free web space providers on-line as well that I am not
aware of.