A New Year's Tip: DON'T THROW OUT THOSE OLD WALL CALENDARS!! Those beautiful pictures from old calendars can come in very handy in the classroom... especially in under-resourced schools that may not have a lot of decorations or visual aids. Almost any nice pictures will do - landscapes, paintings, people, wildlife, etc, etc (no pin-up girls, violence, or other inappropriate subjects, please). Just a few ways these can be used: Vocabulary building - colors, objects, animals, adjectives Story-telling Counting and simple arithmetic Illustrating concepts in science class Decorating the walls of a bare classroom Giving out to students as prizes Arts and crafts Spread the word to your friends and co-workers.  Remember that shipping is expensive, so try to save some space in your luggage or ask a family member or friend to bring them along if they visit you during the year. Other useful and free materials: Maps (National Geographic has some great inserts) Magazines

English as a Second Language Sites:

• ESL Dave's Internet Cafe is an outstanding resource for English as a Second Language; it's billed as "The Internet's Meeting Place for ESL/EFL Students and Teachers from Around the World!":  http://www.eslcafe.com/
• English as a Second Language Site by Rong-Chang Li  http://www.rong-chang.com/    Links to lesson plans for English teachers from the New York Times, dictionaries, etc. 
• Activities for ESL Students has a wealth of activities, clip art, etc. at http://a4esl.org/   There are over 1,000 quizzes, exercises and puzzles on the a4esl.org website to help you study English as a Second Language.
• Interesting things for ESL students are at:  http://www.manythings.org/   Word games, puzzles, quizzes, exercises, slang, proverbs and much more.
• Karin's ESL PartyLand has a section for teachers with activities, lesson plans, etc. http://www.eslpartyland.com/
• TESL/TEFL/TESOL/ESL/EFL/ESOL Links:  Links of all sorts that are of Interest to Students & Teachers of English as a Second Language:  http://iteslj.org/links/

"My students were demons that grew wings and acquired halos. They are very motivated, enthusiastic, and loving as a group. Motivation for them was words of encouragement and happy face stickers. For me it was hearing them try to form sentences with the new words they had learned and getting big hugs and shouts of excitement for English class." --WorldTeach Ecuador Year volunteer

General Resources for Educators:

• The AFS website has an excellent list of resources for educators.  http://afsweb.afs.org/Links.nsf/pages/educators
• Some good classroom materials for language arts and math are found on the EdHelper site at:  http://www.edhelper.com/
• NAFSA, the Association of International Educators has a broad resource listing on the Professional and Educational Resources page at: http://www.nafsa.org
• The Discovery Channel's resource page for teachers has a variety of useful things; it's at: http://www.discoveryschool.com