Post TESOL Certification:Lesson Plan Creation

In the middle of 2009 with the financial crisis at its peak, I was looking for new ways to generate an income. Having already done some basic ESL teaching during my time in Brazil, it seemed like a good path to follow to create a means of subsistence. I decided to go with the TESOL Training from Oxford Seminars. Training was thorough and I felt like it prepared me for the challenging task of teaching abroad. But one thing that I kept pondering was what material would I use and where would I get it?

The ESL market has a number of publishing powerhouses like Pearson, Macmillan, Oxford and others, all of which produce multiple books for all ages and customer segments. These companies offer books for general purposes (standard English courses) and English for Special Purposes (ESP) such as: English for Marketing, English for Aviation, Business English and other niche areas. These books are great, but as all teachers come to know, there is never a one-size fits all book. So we constantly need to look for additional activities, better explanations, and other material to cover our classroom needs.

On a smaller scale, there are many websites that have filled this gap. Sites like DavesESLCafe, A4ESL.org, manythings.org, rong-chang.com and others have made a dent in the market with some of their lesson plans, activities, teacher discussion and job forums. Although these sites have a myriad of activities and lesson plans, they can be very time consuming to browse through and use. Quality can be another major issue on these sites. Lesson plans may not have been checked nor had peer reviews, so you might find an occasional error or might feel like, “Well I wasn’t taught it like that” or “That sounds strange.”

After using both pricey published material and online lesson plans and activities, I found that I was still spending a lot of time looking for high quality lessons and exercises, learning how to deliver that class, and then correcting all of the homework. There must be a better way to deliver quality and be time efficient. That is when my partner and I launched EnglishKey.
At EnglishKey, we take care of all the legwork. We prepare high quality lessons that have been reviewed by multiple teachers to guarantee both quality and effectiveness. The amount of time it takes to find a lesson is drastically shorter. You can quickly search for what you want and find it on the EK site. Furthermore, every lesson has its own vocab, grammar, listening, speaking, reading and writing activities and exercises. Seventy percent of these activities can be corrected and graded automatically through our system. More interestingly, as a teacher, you will be able to track your students’ progress and save time on exercise correction. Students will be able to get instant feedback on the exercises.

Come and join the thousands of other English as a Second Language (ESL) teachers who have made EnglishKey their one-stop shop for ready-to-teach lessons. Give your students a great learning experience and save yourself time!