After deciding to become a teacher, I found work as a Nursery Nurse but, deciding I wanted to TEACH not change nappies or wipe snotty noses, I left to complete my CELTA and travel.
After a few weeks teaching at a Summer School in wonderful Worthing (on the south coast of England) I found myself a job in Xi'an, China. My stint in Worthing was enough to tell me I enjoyed teaching and was, dare I say it, not to shoddy at it!
My time in Xi'an meant I was using a lot of PowerPoints. And, being a vaguely creative being, I started making more and more elaborate presentations. I take pride in my work and spend a fair amount of time making it look good. This does tend to mean form comes before function initially. Function however comes before I put anything up for you wonderful people to download!
Once I had a few tried and tested projects up my sleeve, I decided to put the internet to good use and start a blog to share my ideas and productivity with the world!
After spending fourteen months in Xi'an (every second of which I loved), I headed home for Christmas, hence the gap in posts, and then headed back to China. Although this time the call of the huge city was strong and I found myself in Beijing.
But it turns out that huge cities really aren't my thing. So, realising that, I headed back to my old job and old desk in Xi'an. It was here that I was promoted to Senior Materials Developer, as well as teaching, for the year. I was tasked with producing activities for other teachers to use in Open Door classes (with the parents present) all over the city and China too! Another year in Xi'an sped past.
Wanting to be closer to home I felt the call of the small town and headed towards Tekirdag, Turkey. Teaching at four schools didn't give me much time to work on all of my projects, but only having access to black and white printers and photocopiers did change what I could easily create, meaning I was able to offer you a whole new type of materials.
Deciding that I had had enough of Turkey (for many reasons, but here is neither the place nor the time to vent) I decided on a move to a colder climate and headed toward Moscow (I know, another huge city...)! Once again, black and white was normal and a lack of Smart Boards keeps me working on more photocopiable worksheets, and teaching more adults means I am having to teach a LOT more grammar, hence the Grammar Collection (which reminds me, I really must update that soon...)
But it turns out that huge cities really aren't my thing. So, realising that, I headed back to my old job and old desk in Xi'an. It was here that I was promoted to Senior Materials Developer, as well as teaching, for the year. I was tasked with producing activities for other teachers to use in Open Door classes (with the parents present) all over the city and China too! Another year in Xi'an sped past.
Wanting to be closer to home I felt the call of the small town and headed towards Tekirdag, Turkey. Teaching at four schools didn't give me much time to work on all of my projects, but only having access to black and white printers and photocopiers did change what I could easily create, meaning I was able to offer you a whole new type of materials.
Deciding that I had had enough of Turkey (for many reasons, but here is neither the place nor the time to vent) I decided on a move to a colder climate and headed toward Moscow (I know, another huge city...)! Once again, black and white was normal and a lack of Smart Boards keeps me working on more photocopiable worksheets, and teaching more adults means I am having to teach a LOT more grammar, hence the Grammar Collection (which reminds me, I really must update that soon...)
ESL Matt-Erials remains small, free and run by one, small ESL teacher. But the ideas keep coming and are hopefully, always useful!!