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The first tool is something I cannot live without: File folders! They were an essential part of my classroom organization and greatly helped with my management of paperwork. I used them to hold articles I wanted to save but which didn’t fit neatly into any category; to store forms I had to fill out, such as blank ESL monthly attendance forms and ESL report cards; for teaching ideas I wrote on scraps of paper; and to keep track of info from other teachers. I did have file cabinets but for the papers I used most frequently, I kept them in file folders in a bookcase near my desk for easy access.
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File folders from Staples; source: The ESL Nexus |
My second classroom tool that I want to share with you is a dictionary. Actually, I had several dictionaries; some were for beginning or intermediate proficiency level ELLs, one was for idioms, one was a rhyming dictionary, and I had sets of other regular dictionaries as well. But the one I found especially useful was an academic content dictionary. I’d never seen one like that until I went to a TESOL Convention one year and saw it on display at the Cambridge University Press table in the exhibition hall. It was expensive but I bought it on the spot. It helped that it was on sale to celebrate Cambridge University Press’s 400th anniversary, or something like that. (Wow!)
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My go-to dictionary for middle school ELL vocabulary; source: The ESL Nexus |
So those are my two essential classroom tools. If you have a tool you are especially fond of, please share it in the Comments section below.