The Ultimate ESL Teacher Resource Guide

Welcome to the ultimate ESL teacher resource guide. Just a few years ago, I had just arrived in Granada, Spain. Those of us who work as language assistants often make extra money by teaching private classes in the afternoons (clases particulares). I remember thinking “but how do I teach private classes? Like how do I create lesson plans?”

The other day, I was texting with a friend of mine who is going into her second year in Spain and first in Granada. I gave her some of my old private lessons as I am not in Granada this year. Through our conversation, I was giving her ideas of what to do with the kids. Things like activity ideas, my favorite youtube channels and websites where you can find materials. She joked that I was her auxiliar guru. I responded “hahaha maybe I should make a blog post with all my resources.” “I would bookmark the sh*t out of that!” she responded. So that sparked an idea.

So here I am. I’ve decided to break this post up into different categories from where to advertize yourself as a teacher and where to find materials depending on the type.

Where to find and teach classes

The only country I’ve lived in is Spain, so my information on how to find classes in-person is specific to Spain. Here are the three ways I found classes:

• Tus Clases Particulares. You can post an ad for your specific city and subject you teach (people use it for other subjects too). Students also post on there when looking for a teacher.
• Milanuncios. This is Spain’s online classifieds. There’s a section where you can list yourself as an English teacher.
• The Speaking School. This is a company in 14 different cities across Spain. They set you up with families near you and based on your schedule. I worked with them my first year in Spain.
• Word of mouth. Join all the Facebook groups you can for auxiliares, expats and English teachers in your city and region. Join any whatsapp groups that may exist. So many classes are just passed along by word of mouth. I know in Granada, many of my families would send their friends who wanted classes my number. If I couldn’t teach it, I would make a post in the group. September/October is when you will find all sorts of posts like this.

Make sure you have a working Spanish phone number. I cannot tell you how many people who were interested in classes just called me. Spaniards seem to prefer just talking rather than sending messages or e-mails. I moved to Spain already fluent in Spanish, so it wasn’t really a problem for me. However if you aren’t feeling as comfortable on the phone, you can always tell them that or just ask them to speak slowly.

If you’d like to teach online, here are a few companies to look into:

• Verbling. I teach on this site, and love the freedom and flexibility. Teachers decide their rates, their schedules and their lesson plans. Students decide who they want to take classes with. It’s not regulated too much simply because the people on the platform know that if you suck at teaching, students won’t book you. I will say that it was slow going at first. However now I have about 5-8 regular students and teach at least 5 hour-long classes a week (oftentimes more).
• VIP Kid
• 51 Talk
• Gogo Kid
• DaDa ABC

There are MANY others. Just do a search online if you wish to find others.

Where to find materials

This was one that really threw me for a loop when I was starting. Sure, I had teaching experience. I had worked with children before. However how on earth will I create effective classes for students? How will I meet their needs?

First of all, almost all your students will be learning English in school. Some may even go to bilingual schools where they will learn other subjects in English as well. Coordinate with the parents. Ask if you can take a look at their English book from time to time. Take some pictures of the chapters and topics they’re working on. I even had a parent that would forward me the general concepts her daughter was studying over whatsapp. I would then look for materials, games, activities and videos to reinforce these ideas.

Here are a few websites that I use to find materials:

• Islcollective. This website is a database where people can upload worksheets. The downside of this is occasionally they might have errors. I usually come here with a specific idea in mind. For example, I might search “describing people” and find 30 results. From that, I can pick the materials that I like the best.
• Teachers Pay Teachers. This is a website where teachers share their classroom materials. You can pay for stuff or you can download stuff for free. I always go for the free option and find great stuff.
• Education.com. This website has a lot of free materials. The only catch is that they only give you a certain amount of free downloads per month. You can also pay to get more if you want.
• Have Fun Teaching. This is another website with free materials.
• Readworks. This site is perfect to find reading. All the materials are free and divided up by grade level. Each story comes with a set of questions as well. It is designed for American children, so I always go maybe a grade level or two down for my students as they are still learning.

For adults or more advanced kids:

• Ted.com. I like to use this as homework. It can also be used in class. Basically, let them pick a talk and listen to it. Both of you get access to the transcript. I like to pick out words/phrases that are new to the student. I create flash cards out of them and we learn them!
• Subscribe to a new Youtuber. One way I practice my Spanish is through subscribing to youtubers who talk about things I like. Have your student find an English-speaking youtuber and subscribe to them! Then they can choose one video and have them answer some questions about it. You can even have them write about it. Also fun fact: you can slow down the speed of videos on youtube.
• News in Slow English. This website has tons of news stories to listen to. You can listen to the slow version or the normal version.
• Read a news story. You can literally pick any news website (CNN, New York Times, Washington Post, NPR, etc).

Videos and songs

Videos and songs are my favorite things to add into a class. If the children are young, I suggest you throw in a video in between every activity. They get bored and restless easily. Here are some of my favorite Youtube channels:

• Super Simple Songs. This channel has lots of different songs and really well-animated videos. I love it!
• English Singsing. This channel is great for teaching vocabulary. They have videos where they just repeat words based on a theme (for example places in town, weather, clothing, etc) in a very fun way.They also have short dialogues with slow and clear English. Listening and repeating are very important in language learning. I also sometimes think me talking at kids for an hour can get boring. So I’ll play a video with words and phrases from what we are studying.
• The Singing Walrus. The songs on this channel are also very clear and well-animated. I especially love their days of the week and months of the year songs.
• Maple Leaf Learning
• Dream English. The singer guy is kind of weird but all my kids love it. Go figure.
• Kids Hut. This channel was good for stories. I liked to use this with kids that already had a little bit of a level.

After each class, send the parents the videos that you watched. Then if they want, they can have their kids watch it throughout the week to practice a little.

Games and Activities

I think one of the biggest challenges when teaching children is keeping it fun. I always say that my goal is for them to love English so that they will love the language for the rest of their lives. I feel like a lot of the adults I meet in Spain sort of dread English but also know they need it for their jobs or to travel. Likely this is from how they were taught English in school. However if a child’s memories of me were “that fun, kind and super positive American girl who came to my house weekly to play games with me in English,” then I’ve succeeded!

Games

• Memory. My first year, I bought these memory cards where you create your own images. I had one of my more creative students help me make different drawings for each pair. It was a great backup or thing to bust out at the end of the class. You could also use this to practice vocabulary for whatever you are learning. When the student draws a pair, they have to say what it is to get the points.
• Board games. There are all kinds of board games online. I have one where each block is a different question, for example. Also if you’re at all savy with graphic design, you could also design your own board and put whatever you want on it. I have one where each block is a different verb. I choose a tense and each one we land on, we have to make a sentence using that verb in the tense I said (for example, help simple past: I helped my mother after dinner last night). I never worried about dice or pieces as most kids already have a few board games that you can borrow them from.
• Cards. I found these awesome people cards that I used in a lot of classes. Each one had a different person and personal things about them like their age, eye color, hobbies, etc. From this, we could ask each other a million questions about our people.
• Guess Who. It’s super fun. You can google a board or create your own!
• Battleship. I found one online that had them creating sentences however you could create your own.
• Simon Says. No kid ever says no to this.
• Color or shape scavenger hunt. This is perfect for young kids. First, you watch a video about either topic. Then if it’s colors, you give each kid a colored stick and go “okay now let’s find all the green in the room!” If they don’t understand, just start doing it. They will catch on and love it. It’s so fun to see how excited they get when they mind the color. “Nina Nina!! Green! green!” This also gets them repeating each color word like 100 times and associating the word and color together. The same can be done with shapes.
• Have them give you a tour of their house. This gets them practicing the names of rooms and things in them. You could even record it and create a video if you want! Their parents would likely love that.
• Bake or cook something. This is great for kids with a bit of a level. Speak to the parents beforehand to make sure you have the ingredients and permission to use the kitchen! Give them a recipe in English to follow.
• If they love crafts, find a youtube tutorial in English and have them create that craft. Then they’re practicing listening comprehension.
• Create slime! It’s all the rage with them. Find a youtube tutorial of course.
• Create a video together. Youtube is popular. Take advantage of that! You two could create a video about whatever the student wants as long as it’s appropriate and they’re speaking English.
• Play Go Fish!

Out-of-the-house activities

I also just want to get out and change the scenery sometimes. You could literally look at the neighborhood as your classroom. Here are a few ideas:

• Go to the park! Throw the ball back and forth counting up to 100. You could also create a relay race.
• Have them give you a tour of their neighborhood. First, you have them brainstorm all the words that they know in English for places in a town (post office, school, library, etc). Then have them show you each one. If you have the space, make it into a video. I did this with one of the boys up here in Nájera. I filmed each clip separately of him going “this is the school” and “this is the library,” for example. I would post it here, but he specifically asked me not to put it anywhere on the Internet. Fair enough.
• Do a grocery store scavenger hunt. Like the neighborhood tour, start by brainstorming all the things found in a grocery store. Then take that list to the store. They have to not only find those items, but figure out how much each one costs. This will have you asking them “how much is it?” and “where is the ____” about a million times. You can also create a video of this.
• Do a scavenger hunt in the neighborhood or in a different kind of shop.

Last tips

I know it’s still probably a tad daunting to go teach your own class. However with the right preparation, you will be just fine! Here are a few tips:

• Plan the entire class out down to the minute. I remember my first private classes in Spain. I wrote something like 5-5:10: Sing the weather song and the how are you song. 5:10-5:30: play the matching game. I tried to figure out how much time each one took and planned accordingly. This is great for those of you who always need a plan.
• Have back-up activities. This is great for younger children. You simply cannot predict how a class with 3-5-year-olds will go. Sometimes that one activity you thought would be perfect flopped. Plan at least two or three extra activities. The worst that could happen is you don’t get to them and just use them for your next class.
• Keep some games and resources you can use again and again. I’m talking things like alphabet cards, numbers, games, etc.
• Set up a reward system. Some kids will be great and others will be more of a challenge. I love to do a 5-star system. Talk with their parents beforehand and ask that each star equal something. For example, each star is 5-minutes of television. If they misbehave, all you do is just take away a star. This can also be used for students with a high level. If they speak Spanish, they also can loose a star.
• Communicate with the parents. I’ve mentioned it above several times, so I obviously think it’s important. They’re the ones paying you, so you want to be sure that they’re kids are getting a lot out of it. They are there to support you as well. Parents typically love my more creative ideas because their kids are having fun and learning at the same time.
• Don’t be hard on yourself. Some classes may go differently than you thought. Don’t sweat it. It happens.
• Be positive and kind. Even though I probably expose myself to all kinds of germs, I’m all about an enthusiastic high five. The more you can connect with your student and empower them, the more they’ll learn. Then their parents will pass your number along to all their friends. You’ll never be out of work.

Do you have experience teaching English? What sorts of things did you learn? Do you have any activity ideas that I didn’t list here? I’m always looking for new ideas to implement in my classes, so feel free to leave a comment!

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