
This book is called Teaching English: 25 ESL PowerPoint Ideas That Get Students Talking.
You can buy it right now on Amazon or Smashwords for $3.99 and it’ll be available on iTunes, Barnes & Noble, Kobo and many other retailers in another week.
So what’s this book about? Well, anyone visiting this site has surely read about some of the wonderful ESL PPTs that are here, and this book talks about 25 of them.
What’s more, there are links to 10 of the ESL PowerPoints, and you can get those for free right here on the site.
Well, if I can get them for free, then why bother buying the book?
It’s a good question, and I figure this way you have all of the information in one place and don’t have to look through the nearly 150 blog posts I have on this site.
There are also many free ESL PowerPoints in the book that aren’t on this site, like the following one about your very first ESL lesson.
That’s right, remember way back when you gave that lousy affair? I mean, if yours was anything like mine, it was rubbish!
That’s why when I went to China my second year abroad I was prepared, and had a great introductory lesson.
You can download the ESL Introductory Lesson that I used (16.5 MB), as well as a template (462 KB) for Your First ESL Lesson right here, both for free!
And here is the chapter from the book:
aLL aBOUT yOU
You can get this PPT free on my site, and I’ve even made a cool template for you so that you can stick your pictures in there and then just change the text around. That should save you a lot of time, which when you’re just starting out in your new country, you’ll want more of to do fun things, not worry about class.
Let’s go through several of the Introductory Lesson’s slides and see how it can help you.
lAYING dOWN THE LAW
I didn’t make that mistake my second year, and the very first slide of this Introductory PPT lays down the rules.
I had a lot more respect from them that year, and I can’t help but think it’s because I was upfront about what I expected, both from them and from myself.
INTRODUCING YOURSELF
All students learn differently. Some learn by listening to you talk, others by reading, and still others by watching or doing. Few learn the same way so you have to give them options.
See, with your introductory lesson you’re probably going to be doing most of the talking. This isn’t a bad thing. Students are nervous, you’re nervous – it’s good to break the ice. And the more you can make them laugh with your words or pictures, the easier that’ll be.
sHOWING WHERE YOU'RE FROM
HIGHLIGHTING YOUR EXPERIENCE
sHARING YOUR INTERESTS
What’s so great about this Introductory Lesson is that you’ll get a ton of ideas for your later lessons. See, when you get a good reaction from some of your pictures or some of the things you say, make a mental note of that.
Obviously your students are interested when that happens, and that’s the first step in making a good ESL Lesson. I can’t tell you how many times I had bad days because I made lessons on things that I thought were cool but bored them.
I did this lesson only one year, my last year in public schools, and it worked well. I got a full week out of it, then did it a bunch the next week with classes I hadn’t had yet. I had it prepared before I even got back to China, so I had lots of time to explore my new area.
I urge you to make your own Introductory Lesson like this one, as your students will love learning about you and it’ll give them an idea of what the PowerPoints in your class are going to be like all year long.
So what are you waiting for? Buy Teaching English today for 24 more awesome ESL PowerPoints!