 Hello, hello. Welcome to the weekly ITTT session. My name is Lisa and I'm glad that some people have been joining already. So, I hope everything works smooth here and you can hear me clearly and see me well. If anything goes wrong, please let me know in the comments section so that I could fix it quickly. And I'm happy to welcome you here today. Thanks for coming to this session. Today we are going to talk about a vital topic of lesson materials. I know that many people still struggle looking for resources and contents for the lessons. So, this is something I want to dwell upon today. And just while we are waiting for some more people to join us, please let me know where are you guys tuning in from. I'm located in the rural region of Russia in Yekaterinburg city. It's pretty chilly today and it is also snowy. So, my plan is to go skiing right after this session. Let me know where are you from. We have a comments section. You can use it for interacting with me, which is a really awesome idea because I will be able to know that there are some people over there behind the screen. I basically talk to myself right now and feel a little bit, you know, a little bit uncomfortable. So, just let me know where are you from and let's have a quick chat at the beginning of the session. It's always great to know where our viewers come from and, yeah, it's something to discuss and something to know as well. Okay, there are some people from Beirut. Hello, Rafiq. I hope I pronounce your name correctly. Right. Okay, there are people from Panama. It's so far. What time is it there? Okay, and I've already mentioned that I'm from Yekaterinburg. The weather is not sunny, so I feel pretty gloomy this day. Okay, Hugo is from Sweden. Nice to meet you, Hugo. And there are also people from Myanmar and Nepal. Nice to have you guys here today. And I hope the session will be interesting and you'll find it useful. Thank you for sharing your locations. Okay, so it's 4 a.m. in Panama. Why are you waking up so early? That's so cool. I'm not an early bird and I sometimes judge myself for being late every morning, but it's just who I am so I can't get up early in the morning. Hello, Margaret. Nice to have you today. Thanks for coming to today's session. And as I've already mentioned, we are going to talk about lesson materials. So I'll focus on online lesson materials mostly, but I believe all of these things can be really flexible. And if you teach in a real classroom, just feel free to adjust whatever tips you find interesting and useful for yourself. Right. And moving on, guys, just stay tuned for today's 30% off of all ITTT courses. We share this special offer with you at the end of the session. So just stay with us and you'll find your special offer. And please don't forget to like us and subscribe because we basically share a lot of useful contents on a weekly basis, on a daily basis even if we talk about the Facebook group. So, yeah, just stay with us and you will get notifications on the slides sessions and you won't miss anything interesting in terms of teaching, of course. Okay. And I also want to mention that we go live every week twice. My online sessions are every Tuesday and my colleague Linda goes live on Fridays and all of the live sessions are being recorded. So if you want to rewatch or you don't have to watch in real life, just go to the Facebook page or to our YouTube channel and you'll be able to watch everything we had before. And by the way, last week, we had an extremely valuable guests. They both are Tefl alumni and they shared their teaching experience. So if you didn't see those sessions, I highly recommend it because, yeah, you'll be able to learn firsthand about online teaching and teaching abroad in Japan. So if it is something you are really interested in, check those sessions out. You'll find them interesting. And now let's go to the main point of today's presentation. Okay, let me make the video a little bit bigger, the presentation a little bit bigger so that you can see it. Hello guys, thanks for tuning in. I am really glad to see some familiar faces. So it's always cool to know that some people join us regularly. Something just fall off. Sorry. Let's look at this slide. So this is something to discuss before we go to the recommendations themselves. So when you start looking for your materials, for your lessons, do you usually think of your students and do you consider their learning goals? Let me know in the comments section. Do you have any challenges with it? And also, let me know what's your teaching format. Do you teach online or you work in a real classroom? And what challenges you might have with it in terms of looking for teaching materials? Let's just have a quick discussion here. Use the comments box and I'll share some of your answers. I think that this way will be more interactive and we will be able to have like an experience exchange. As for myself, when I prepare for my lessons and look for additional materials and basic materials, I always find it difficult to keep up with my students' interests. What I prefer is having a special course and circle everything around it. But when it comes to my students' interests, I find it challenging to adjust because, for example, some of them come just to discuss something they like. And they don't want to talk about, I don't know, sports or books or anything else. And I just feel frustrated when looking for some specific materials. What about you guys? And by the way, my teaching format is completely online. So I also have to organize my lessons for online experience and it's also complicated in terms of design. So what about you? If you teach either online or in the classroom, what challenges do you face when you look for any teaching materials? Can you share your experiences, please? And I'll show it on the screen so that everyone can see it and either agree or disagree. So what do you think? I hope that you can add something to this part of the session because it's really vital to know that we are on the same page here. So let me know, please. So do you usually think of your students or you try to come to teaching generally and you don't pay much attention to their personality or their vital interests? What do you think? I hope you can share your ideas. If not, it's not a problem. I'll just go forward and maybe later we can come back. Okay, I just wait for a couple of more seconds and go further. All right. Okay. And so when it comes to preparing, it is always better to think of some points beforehand so that you limit lots of options you find on the internet or in the library. And you can be more focused. So this is my point. And when it comes to looking for specific teaching materials, they can be either ready-made, professional or self-created. And now I just want to share a couple of thoughts because there are some people who've just sent them to the chat box. So, Myo, I hope I pronounced your name correctly, says that so she believes that technological engineering students are quite complicated. And yeah, I figure out it's quite difficult to adjust to their needs. Okay. And Louise from Italy says that she teaches B2 C1 levels and they are totally online. So Louise, what struggles may you have when you prepare for your online lessons? Let us know. And I'll just go further with my thoughts. So there are different types of materials, but I would divide them into two main groups. They can be ready-made, professional and self-created. What I mean by ready-made professional is that there is a coursebook or any other professionally designed materials which you can use as a whole syllabus. And as for self-created materials, they are just single worksheets or maybe parts of your lesson. You can do it either with your hands or you can find them online. Many teachers distribute their works on the web. So it's just easy to copy and give it to the students as well. I believe that both methods, both types of materials are really important in English teaching. But it is important to think of some balance between the first one, the first option and the second one. Okay. And there are some professional materials I usually use. They are mostly from Cambridge, Oxford, Macmillan and there is a really great coursebook from National Geographic. Have you ever heard of it? It is called Perspectives. It is so cool. We will come back to these types of materials a little bit further, but still these publishers are the best. And I just feel like it is really important to use them in teaching because it is so helpful in terms of preparation. It saves time. It's very handy to use ready-made professional materials. Because there is a course structure, the skills are developed gradually throughout the whole course and the books are so user-friendly itself. I really like it. And as a constant student, I would definitely prefer to have a coursebook over some just odd materials because it helps to just have everything structured. And what do you think, guys? And on this slide, I would like to share some of my favorites. I handpicked some of these books during my professional teaching experience. And I should say these are not only coursebooks I usually use myself, but I feel like they are the best. So here you can see a couple of books from Cambridge. They are for young learners. These books are from young adults or teenagers. And these ones on the bottom are for adults. But basically, for example advanced grammar or English vocabulary, they can be also used for teaching young adults. They are quite flexible. And the same with the prospective book. These coursebooks are quite fascinating in terms of design. They look really beautiful. And when students get those books, they really want to study every topic they get. Because there are beautiful pictures and interesting articles. And the whole structure of the books is really, really awesome. And if we, for example, talk about this one, Fun for Movers, this book is for exam preparation, like for the earliest stage in the Cambridge exam scheme. But it is very adjustable to the needs of those students who struggle with reading, with listening, and with sentence building. So I use this one with one of my daily English students. She wants to improve for school. Like she has some English lessons at school, but she just doesn't understand anything. And her main problem is reading, spelling, and everything related to it. So this book is really, really nice for adjusting to the needs of the youngest students. Right. And you don't need to write anything down. Here are the same books mentioned. And there are some links, some useful links for you. At the end of this session, I will share this presentation and you will be able to click and go to the resources mentioned. And of course, there are not only these books, but there are even more course materials on the professional websites. So you will be able to find whatever suits your needs and your students. So make sure you wait for the presentation at the end of the session, sorry. And there is also this one, this resource library link. This is a really, really cool website. It is called Verpex. I'm not sure if it is in English, but I feel like it is. It's a great resource library with different PDFs of the most vital course books. And I know it's not right probably to download PDFs. But I suppose for teachers who just start the career, such resource is really convenient because we can't afford buying new books which are quite pricey. So why not using something from the internet? So I just recommend you checking out this link and maybe you'll find something useful for yourself. When you register there on this website, you'll have like 100 bonuses to download whatever resources you need. But when you run out with those 100 of bonuses, you can pay some extra fee like really, really cheap subscription and you will be able to download whatever you find interesting. Okay. And let's talk about some created materials. So of course there are a lot of websites that offer interesting materials like worksheets, lesson plans and whatever. They are usually done by teachers like we and people have communities there. So it's also a great idea to check some of these resources because they are really, really cool in terms of lesson preparation. And also make sure you check our ITTT website because we also have a lot of free materials. And you can just follow this link and you will find a whole list of different resources. And as for these websites, I would say that my favorite one is teachers pay teachers. This platform is not only for adults. And you can find any materials there because they have cool filters. You can basically choose your students level or age group, whatever, and find absolutely any type of resources. And if you create your own materials, you can also use this website as a platform for selling your contents. If you want to make some extra money, consider teachers pay teachers as well. And let's see some more ideas. So when we talk about creating materials and choosing materials for online lessons, I would say that the best recipe would be choose a base material and add something extra. And when I talk about some add-ons for your online lessons or even real classroom lessons, you can think of taking a YouTube video or a podcast. It's also always interesting to use a real article, so some authentic materials. I believe that students value it a lot and we as teachers have to facilitate this need. So don't forget to use whatever real materials you can. And let's just look at some useful YouTube channels. There are some useful resources on YouTube for adults and young adults. I use, for example, a great big story. It has short videos like two or three minutes or so. And the content of those videos is very, very easy to comprehend by students from pre-intermediate level or so. So it's a really great channel to use for your online lessons or in-class lessons. And as for channels for young learners, there are Maple Leaf, Super Simple. They are mostly based on singing things, but there are still some patterns to follow and learn as well. So these YouTube channels are really useful. And by the way, you can recommend your students using these resources as a home practice, as a part of their home practice. So sometimes I assign my students some of the videos from these channels and they watch for pleasure. And you can also add some extra resources like articles or podcasts. They can be from the Economies, National Geographic. Of course, you need to consider your students' age and level. But still, you can adjust the articles, maybe restructure them and just considering your students' level. Yeah, something like that. And podcasts are vital for building strong listening skills. So you can also recommend them as a part of homework or just for listening for pleasure. And if you are a non-native speaker as well, it's a great idea to listen to podcasts on your own because there are so many interesting ideas and language tips as well. So something like that. I hope that you find these resources interesting. As I've already mentioned, you will be able to get the same presentation. At the end of the session, I'll just share the link to this presentation and you'll have it at your hand. Right. Okay, let me check the chat box here. Yeah, the Economist is very difficult, but if, for example, you teach C1 students or Business English students, it's a great resource for, I don't know, for practicing. And also, the Economist is really helpful for exam preparation like IELTS or TOEFL because those international exams are usually focused on something really difficult and specific. So these resources still can be used by English teachers. Right. And I believe I've just covered everything pretty much. And this is the end of the main presentation, but it's where I have my Q&A session. So if you have something to share or to ask if you have any problems to discuss, let me know in the chat box. I'll try my best to assist you. And this is also where we share the 30% discount. If you scan the QR code, you will get directly to the ITTT website and you will have the coupon link. You don't need to apply straight away because the coupon will be saved in your browser. Other way you can get the same coupon is by following this link from the chat box. So if you follow it from your computer, then you will have it on your desktop browser. And the other option is to scan the QR code. And right now let me check the chat box. There are some comments. Okay. Could you repeat please the name of the resource library? I will send you the link to the presentation just now. Let me do it. But I'll need to... Just wait a second. I'll send you this presentation link. And you will be able to follow all of the links I added on the presentation. Okay. Just quickly. Just one second. Sorry for being silent. I'll just copy the presentation and share with you. Okay. It is right here. Don't be afraid that the link is so long. You will get to the website I use for designing presentation presentations. It's on Canva. So by the way, this is a great resource to design your lessons as well. There are many templates you can use for lesson planning and just worksheets or whatever you need presentations as well. So if you follow the link, you will find all of the YouTube channels. I listed there all of the podcasts and so on. So I hope it will be useful. And let me know... Well, let me know later if you use some of the materials I've mentioned. Okay. There is another question. I'm struggling to find a student book for my adult learners. They are beginners. Can you help me out with this? So as I have already mentioned, let me go back to this slide. So I usually use some of these coursebooks. And I also choose between different publishers, for example, Cambridge or Oxford, have great course materials for beginners and for those who are over 18 years old. So you can follow the link I shared from the presentation and check the whole resource library on their websites. I won't recommend anything particular apart from these ones, but it's always up to you. If you find any materials useful and interesting, you can just check them and think if they will be useful for your students. Okay, let me see another question. I have just sent the link to the presentation. Could you please try to follow it? If not, then maybe I can save it on the Google Doc and share it with you this way. Let me see. I didn't see it coming, so I didn't prepare with the Google Drive. So just give me a moment and I'll send you another link. Just one moment. So someone says, Luis says that it works, the link works. So maybe you need to copy it from your browser and insert into the search line. Or something like that. If it still doesn't work, I'll send you a link to the Google Drive with the presentation. Just stay tuned and I'll do it. I'll do my best. Okay. And let me check the chat box while I'm downloading the presentation from Canva. There are still some questions. Okay, so they are basically all about this presentation. And Luis says that she likes fun for serious. Yeah, it's really cool. One of my students was a really, really bad reader at the beginning of the course. And we've worked through like six or seven units, but she has changed so much. Her reading skills are getting better and better. So I really like this course because it's well structured. And it's very useful to have some structure, but especially with exam preparation. That's right. Yeah, for exam preparation, it's something really vital. Okay, Luis has to go. Thanks a lot for coming. And by the way, we are just going to finish today's session as well. So thanks a lot guys for joining me today. I will stay a little bit longer to share the presentation with you because some of you still have troubles with opening the link to Canva. But I still need some time to download this presentation because it is quite heavy. Okay. All right. And if guys you have any questions related to teaching lesson materials, TEFL or whatever you struggle with, please let me know in the comments section. I'll try my best to help you here. And also, if you look for any teaching materials for free right now, you can go to the ITTT website and we have a whole library with those resources. They can be useful as well. So make sure you check it out. And yeah, I'm almost done with this presentation. So I'll quickly upload it on my Google Drive and we'll send you the link to it. Okay. Thank you so much for joining me today. I hope this session was useful and you found something interesting. And I hope that I'll see you next week again. If you have anything on your mind related to teaching. If you want any specific topic to be covered in this sessions, you can recommend me and I will just be super happy to talk about it. Because it is always better to adjust to the audience needs and to consider the audience interests. If you need anything specific to be discussed, suggest your topic and I will use your ideas in the next sessions. If you want to find anything interesting in terms of materials or English teaching tips, go to our ITTT resources and we will try our best to help you out with it. We share different materials daily on Facebook mostly, but we are also presented on Instagram and on YouTube, so stay with us and keep in touch. And thank you guys for coming today. It was really, really awesome to talk to you and to discuss all of these things today. Okay, I'm almost done with the presentation and I'll send you the link just right now. Quickly, let me see. It's almost done. So, right. Okay, let me send you the link right now. So, here you go. This is the link to my Google document where I store this presentation. So, if you guys need any materials later, if you want to review the whole presentation, just feel free to copy this link and follow it whenever you need. So, I hope today's presentation was useful and you will use these materials I've mentioned in your interesting lessons. And thanks for coming today. See you next week and bye-bye.