Our Ultimate Back to School Guide
While we might not be quite ready to admit it yet, the summer will soon be coming to a close. That can only mean one thing - it’s time for a new academic year. For an EFL teacher, this often brings new students, a new classroom, a new school, or even a new country! TEFL can take you anywhere, so it’s important to be prepared for any eventuality.
Limited Resources
A new school year might bring you a new school environment. It’s not uncommon in the world of TEFL to find yourself in a classroom with very limited resources. There might often be no textbooks, no listening materials, and no printer. You may even potentially find yourself in a classroom with no projector or whiteboard! We all know preparation is key for creating successful learning opportunities, but you might not be aware of the resources available to you before you enter the classroom. In scenarios like this, we would recommend that you get as prepared as you can before you go.
Realia. Gather as much realia as you can over the summer. Items such as train tickets, plane tickets, newspaper and magazine articles, posters, maps, receipts, and souvenirs are all examples of versatile realia that can be used in so many ways in the classroom. Make sure you think about how much you can physically carry though! While bigger realia items such as balls, chairs, and toys all have their uses, you might struggle to bring these into your classroom - especially if you’re moving to a new country to teach.
Teaching without textbooks. If you know that the school or organisation you’ll be working for don’t have specific textbooks or curriculum to follow, your best bet is to instead think about taking a communicative approach with your teaching. Rather than focussing on a specific syllabus, you instead focus on conversational communication. To create conversational lessons, you’ll want to create your own lesson plans, factor in lots of realia and authentic materials, and think about how you can incorporate current events and contemporary issues into your teaching.
Teaching without listening materials. You might not always have access to listening materials in your teaching. It’s best to create some of your own listening materials before you begin teaching. You can do this by recording your own listening materials. Record yourself, or create listening materials that feature a variety of accents and voices to help differentiate in the classroom. You should try to bring lots of different voices into your classroom.
We know that it can be daunting going into teaching when you have limited access to resources, so we’ve put together a specialist 10 hour course, Teaching with Limited Resources, that will have you fully prepared for any teaching scenario! We delve deeper into how to use realia, your environment, and your classroom as great teaching resources, as well as looking further at how to prepare for teaching without textbooks or listening materials. The course even offers some great filler and activity ideas, to get your preparation ball rolling! Find out more about the course and enrol here.
Be prepared
It’s a good idea to start gathering your resources before your teaching begins. You can find lots of great EFL resources online. Some of our favourites paid for resource sites include: Ellii, which has ready-to-teach materials and digital tools, and FluentU, a learning programme with a library of authentic English videos which students can watch with interactive dual-language subtitles. ESLPrintables.com is a free website where English Language teachers exchange resources, such as worksheets, lesson plans and activities. Upload your own resources to receive points, and use your points to download others resources.
UK-TEFL have resources that will also be useful for your classroom preparation. Download our lesson plan pack, which features 20 ready-to-use lesson plans, or purchase our Absolute TEFL Manual, and use it throughout your teaching career.
Set class goals
A great way to structure your learning and motivate your students is to start the new academic year with some class goals. Think about what you want your students to achieve this year, and how you’re going to help them do this. In doing so, you create a plan of action, including lesson plans, a resource bank, and your teaching approach. Make sure you create goals as a class. Speak to your students and ask them what it is that they’d like out of your lessons. This will guide your preparation and influence what you include in your lessons.
A helping hand from UK-TEFL
We know it can often be overwhelming thinking about everything you need to do to get prepared for a new academic year, so we’ve put together the ultimate back to school guide. The guides talks you through goal setting, warmers, ice breakers, and useful realia you can prepare in advance of your teaching. It features a handy checklist that ensures you’ll have everything you need to hit the ground running once your teaching term begins. Plus, we’ve included a foolproof back-to-school themed lesson plan, that will get your students engaged and thinking about what they want to achieve from their learning. You can purchase our Ultimate Back To School Guide here!
Don’t forget, our friendly team of TEFL advisors are always here if you need any EFL related support or advice. Reach out here. Still need a TEFL Certificate? Enrol today on our Interactive Online TEFL Course!
