Favorite Supplies for a Successful English Class
So you’re going to teach English? But you are wondering… Where do I start? What do I need?”
Now obviously, every situation is different, so do yourself a big favor by asking a few questions ahead of time. Let’s first look at some of the questions that you should be considering. You may know the answer to these questions or you may need to shoot out an email to someone who does.
- What are the ages of my students?
- How much English do they know?
- What is the goal of the class?
- How much space and what type of space will be available for my class? (Is it indoor? Outdoor? Will I have tables for all my students? Etc…)
- What supplies will be available for me to use?
The last question is one that we will be focusing on today. It is very helpful to at least have an idea of what is available to use. If you plan to do a worksheet that uses a scissors and you get to class and there aren’t any available, you will have to do some fast thinking to come up with Plan B. Believe me, in teaching English there are those moments when Plan B is needed, but you want to do what you can ahead of time to avoid those kinds of harried last minute scrambles.
So what are the most necessary tools for teaching English? I am going to start really basic and then move on to some things that aren’t a “must” but can be really helpful.
1. A pencil for every student
2. Several Erasers
3. A pencil sharpener
4. Paper
Obviously these first four are the most basic supplies needed. If you have these things and a little creativity, you can have a great English class that is fun and engaging for your students! However, your options will grow if you have access to at least some of the following supplies.
5. Scissors
An ideal scissors for students is one that is small enough for little hands to handle, blunt enough to not cause a serious risk, but sharp enough to cut well. Consider giving your students a lesson in scissors safety before handing out the scissors to the class. If a student is carelessly flinging it around, remove it from them for a time. Repeat the safety instructions before giving it back and have the students demonstrate how to safely use it.
6. Glue sticks
Glue sticks are my favorite class time glue for simple projects. They are easy to use and make minimal mess.
7. Crayons, colored pencils or markers
8. Tape
Tape is really handy for taping your flashcards or pictures to the board and any other small jobs where you want to stick something up temporarily.
9. Cardstock
Cardstock is better than regular paper for printing things such as flashcards, gameboards and certain crafts.
10. A laptop and printer
This is something that you might want to check into ahead of time. If you don’t have access to a printer, you may want to print out some worksheets ahead of time and bring them along. However, it could be very difficult to know how many to print and what age level/ability level to print.
11. A ball
A small soft ball is handy for a lot of activities. You can simply use it to toss from student to student while practicing the target vocab. For example: Throw the ball to a student and ask “What is your name?” They answer the question, throw the ball to another student and repeat the question.
12. A few dice
Dice are handy for playing simple board games. (Think Candy Land or Chutes and Ladders) Or you can print your own game board onto cardstock. There are gameboards available online. Like this.
13. Bingo chips
Of course you can use these to play bingo, but they have other uses as well. Use them for game pieces for your board game or to keep track of how many times a students answers a questions correctly.
14. Small laminator
Now obviously this probably isn’t something that you would take along on a short trip to teach English. However, this is something you might want to invest in if you are planning to teach English long term. They are super handy for helping your flashcards or game boards last longer and stay nicer. When you put all that time into designing and printing something such as a flashcard, you don’t want it to get ruined during your first class period.
15. A whiteboard, markers and erasers
Of course ideally this will be provided in your classroom, but unfortunately, we don’t always get our ideals fulfilled when we are teaching English. Even a small whiteboard such as this would be better than nothing and can be used for writing your vocab words, drawing pictures of your vocab, keeping score in a game, etc…
16. A Bluetooth speaker
Consider investing in a Bluetooth speaker if you want to use videos in your teaching. You Tube has some great options of fun songs for teaching such as this, this and this. Your students need to be able to hear the video clearly in order for it to be effective.