Isolation is a common side effect of becoming a teacher, especially in ESL. ESL specialists are often the only one of their kind in a school and will sometimes teach in two or more schools at a time. Moreover, in remote regions, it is not rare for them to cover hundreds of kilometers in one week. With isolation and lack of time, educators share, well, a parking lot? Growing in the profession is important, and we believe this can be done through collaboration: Exchanging ideas, activities and material. Sharing success stories, questions or problems. Enriching teacher and student learning.

Capture d’écran 2016-04-04 à 14.50.09An example of collaboration that inspired us was the Funny Miss Valerie Blog. Miss Valerie is an ESL / Dramatic Arts teacher at CS des Phares. She created a blog to share her material and projects with other teachers. All of the material she presents can be downloaded by other teachers.

On her site, you’ll find a lot of educational resources, creative teaching tips and ideas.

She also shares pictures of her ESL classroom , which is beautifully decorated. Miss Valerie provides links to download her decorations here. Our personal favourite is the clock pencils:

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Teachers can also browse through activities using the labels she created to organise her blog (for example, Food, Jobs and Occupations, Grammar, Verbs, Animals, and so much more). Also available – Funny Miss Valerie for students.

Another teacher blog (in French), is La classe de Karine. She has also shared images of her classroom, and uploaded printables for other teachers.

We would love to see what your classroom looks like! If you would like to share pictures on ESL Blogs, send them in!