Ken Said:

Attention Spanish./foreign language teachers!?

We Answered:

The BEST catalog for language teachers is Teacher's Discovery. They have a web site but I prefer the actual catalog. You can probably request a catalog at their website. Check it out; you will really like it.

They have great posters, books, videos, workbooks that you can copy from. There are a couple of great books called Snappy starters for foreign language teachers. I highly recommend them. They give wonderful ideas for a new teacher. Also I recommend Sing, Dance, Laugh and Eat Tacos. All of those CD's are good. They are a little juvenile, but my kids BEG to hear them.
Also read my post in response to a question in teaching about what to do for an after school bilingual homework club. It is near this post in the list.
I have an amazing packet full of ideas, but it is too big to scan and email to you. Contact me and perhaps I can give you more ideas if you need them. Melvic6@sbcglobal.net
One more idea; do a search for spanish powerpoints or educational powerpoints. There are some great ones on line.

Jacob Said:

Writing activity for English as a foreign language class?

We Answered:

Have you already been on the various examining boards' websites to retrieve exam papers for GCSE and Scottish Standard Grade/Intermediate 1 or 2 - the activities proposed therein for school pupils - short letter or e-mail etc, 'guided writing' exercises - might be useful.
when i taught beginners' Spanish i used to make them do crosswords [which i'd made up, as I knew their vocab level] and before making them actually write full sentences, had them doing fill-the-blanks as warm-up/confidence builder.
Take any coursebook for learning Italian, like the BBC Buongiorno workbook, and reverse the exercises.
What about translation of something not too difficult - i.e. an Italian children's book like Pinocchio - into English. [not all of it! a few paras!]
when I started French., we were encouraged to write doggerel verse - quite amusing for the pupil.

Marian Said:

foreign language teachers or elemntary teachers?

We Answered:

The foreign language teachers I work with love Teacher's Discovery for their supplies. http://www.teachersdiscovery.com/ They specifically have a lot of items for language teaching.

At the elementary school where I work, we order supplies from Kurtz. http://www.kurtzbros.com/ They have the clocks (a lot of different kinds of them - I just saw them in the catalog today).

If you work at a school, you might want to make plans to share items with other teachers. It can be a little expensive to buy everything on your own.

My mother teaches pre-school, and she find a lot of items for her classroom at yard sales. It takes time to go through everything, but she's gotten great deals on some really useful materials.

You can also find some items (but not usually as much variety as in the catalogs) at teacher supply stores. You could try looking on Google Maps to see if there's one in your area. It can be fun just to browse and see all the interesting things they have.