Talk a Lot : Celebrating One Year of Free Online Lessons!

Celebrating One Year of Free Online Lessons! It’s one year since I started to teach free Talk a Lot lessons online, so now is a great time to look back and celebrate a whole year of free English lessons with English Banana.com! During this special lesson we will: * look back at memorable lessons from the past year * hear testimonials from regular students * explore how the lessons and podcasts are put together * find out what the process of teaching online means to me * look forward to what’s in store in future lessons * PLUS! Some extra special surprises...! http://www.englishbanana.com 1st Anniversary of Free Online Lessons! Saturday 19th June 2010 – 4 PM (CET)

Celebrating One Year of Free Online Lessons!
During the past year:
50+ free online lessons
50 free downloadable podcasts (50-60 mins)
It’s an average of 1 free lesson per week (with 2 weeks’ holiday!)
Books published:
Talk a Lot Elementary Book 3 (423 pages – free download )
Talk a Lot Intermediate Book 1 (Units 1 & 2 – 63 pages each )
http://www.englishbanana.com

Celebrating One Year of Free Online Lessons! http://www.englishbanana.com WIZIQ.com Jun-Aug 2009 & Jan-Jun 2010 eduFire.com Aug-Dec 2009

Celebrating One Year of Free Online Lessons! A Few Memorable Lessons from the Past Year: 12 th June 2009 Talk a Lot Free Spoken English Course : Vocabulary : Discussion Words : Music (WIZIQ.com) http://www.englishbanana.com/podcasts/talk-a-lot-lesson-1-discussion-words-music.mp3 20 th July 2009 Talk a Lot : Sentence Stress and Connected Speech : Lesson 2 : Transport (WIZIQ.com) http://www.englishbanana.com/podcasts/talk-a-lot-lesson-9-sentence-stress-and-connected-speech-2-transport.mp3 http://www.englishbanana.com

Celebrating One Year of Free Online Lessons! A Few Memorable Lessons from the Past Year: 2 nd September 2009 Talk a Lot : The Big Word Game : Round 1 (eduFire.com) http://www.englishbanana.com/podcasts/talk-a-lot-lesson-16-the-big-word-game-round-1.mp3 8 th October 2009 How to Pronounce “th” in English (eduFire.com) http://www.englishbanana.com/podcasts/talk-a-lot-lesson-22-pronounce-th-sounds-in-english.mp3 http://www.englishbanana.com

Celebrating One Year of Free Online Lessons! A Few Memorable Lessons from the Past Year: 28 th March 2010 The Story of a Music Group : ESL Lesson Plan Demo (WIZIQ.com) http://www.englishbanana.com/podcasts/talk-a-lot-lesson-36-the-story-of-a-music-group-lesson-plan.mp3 28 th March 2010 Learn English Idioms and Slang via The Scott Mills Show on BBC Radio 1 (WIZIQ.com) http://www.englishbanana.com/podcasts/talk-a-lot-lesson-37-scott-mills-show-english-idioms-phrasal-verbs-slang.mp3 http://www.englishbanana.com

Celebrating One Year of Free Online Lessons! First things first… http://www.englishbanana.com

Celebrating One Year of Free Online Lessons! First things first… A very, very big… http://www.englishbanana.com

Celebrating One Year of Free Online Lessons! First things first… A very, very big… THANK YOU! http://www.englishbanana.com

Celebrating One Year of Free Online Lessons! First things first… A very, very big… THANK YOU! To all of my online students during the past year 2009-10 http://www.englishbanana.com

Celebrating One Year of Free Online Lessons! First things first… A very, very big… THANK YOU! To all of my online students during the past year 2009-10 Without you there would’ve been 0 lessons! http://www.englishbanana.com

Celebrating One Year of Free Online Lessons! Testimonials from Regular Students: http://www.englishbanana.com/nadias- testimonial-17062010.jpg From Nadia (Russia): “ Learning with Matt is so relaxing, it looks as if you gain the knowledge of such complicated things like phrasal verbs, political correctness language and idioms almost without any efforts. You become more and more proficient, your level of expertise is raised by Matt so that you don’t notice when and how… “ It is valuable for me to attend Matt’s classes and learn his methodology, learn how to use his materials, learn various forms and methods of working with EFL students. The experience is priceless. I view Matt’s classes as in-service training course as well. It is a unique chance to have such highly qualified teacher trainer.”

Celebrating One Year of Free Online Lessons! http://www.englishbanana.com/merves -testimonial-17062010.jpg From Merve (Turkey): "The thing that I love about Matthew's classes [is] that they are full of English. They are not classes that we only listen to some English, but we talk and discuss... He's quick to spot mistakes, and never lazy about correcting them, which makes him an invaluable teacher in my opinion..."

Celebrating One Year of Free Online Lessons! http://www.englishbanana.com Selected feedback from WIZIQ.com:

Celebrating One Year of Free Online Lessons! http://www.englishbanana.com From eduFire.com:

Celebrating One Year of Free Online Lessons! http://www.englishbanana.com Your feedback:
What have you learned from studying English online with Matt?
2. Has your level of English improved? How?
3. What moments do you particularly remember from the past year of free lessons?
4. What would you like to do more of in future lessons?
5. Do you have any other comments about the free Talk a Lot lessons?

Celebrating One Year of Free Online Lessons! The Journey of a Podcast – From Lesson Idea to Podcast in your Ears! http://www.englishbanana.com 1. Inspiration strikes!

Celebrating One Year of Free Online Lessons! 2. Set up the lesson

Celebrating One Year of Free Online Lessons! 3. Check the details

Celebrating One Year of Free Online Lessons! 4. Invite contacts

Celebrating One Year of Free Online Lessons! 5. Promote…

Celebrating One Year of Free Online Lessons! 6. Promote…

Celebrating One Year of Free Online Lessons! 7. …and Promote Some More!

Celebrating One Year of Free Online Lessons! 8. Teach the lesson

Celebrating One Year of Free Online Lessons! 9. Check feedback

Celebrating One Year of Free Online Lessons! 10. Record and edit the audio

Celebrating One Year of Free Online Lessons! 11. Edit the .xml feed

Celebrating One Year of Free Online Lessons! 12. Check the podcast details

Celebrating One Year of Free Online Lessons! 13. Upload the .mp3 file to our server

Celebrating One Year of Free Online Lessons! 14. Check that the feed is right…

Celebrating One Year of Free Online Lessons! 15. …and that it works on iTunes. Finally, have a listen!

Top 7 Problems for an Online Teacher:
Audio not synced in the lesson or on the podcast
No recording = no permanent resource after the class
Technical problems with the audio / video / connection
Students making inappropriate comments!
Students appear to wander in and out of the class
(e.g. if the connection is lost)
6. Noisy neighbours and distractions during the lesson!
7. Forgetting what time I’d scheduled the lesson for…!
http://www.englishbanana.com

Teaching online is really valuable for me… I can:
Try out new materials and get feedback about what works… and what doesn’t work. It forces you to work to a deadline 
Practise and improve – both as a teacher and a writer
Meet new people and make friends with students and teachers online
Receive support that didn’t exist before 
Learn from others
Promote English Banana.com, Talk a Lot, and our unique offer (1,500+ Free Printable Worksheets; Free Copying Licence and Free Licence to Run Courses, etc.). Podcast gets up to 4,000 listeners per week worldwide
Find paying students (occasionally!)

What’s in Store in the Future?
We’ll continue to follow the Talk a Lot Intermediate syllabus:
Unit 2: Problems (due to be completed in August 2010)
Possible future units in this series:
Amazing Lives, British History, Space, Art
Your suggestion…!
Special one-off topics:
New pronunciation topics, e.g. “How to Pronounce -th Sounds”
Cultural events, e.g. World Cup 2010

Celebrating One Year of Free Online Lessons! Surprise #1…! Download the first 15 .mp3 lessons in a single .zip file! Available to download now: http://www.mediafire.com/?nonoxgqumt2

Celebrating One Year of Free Online Lessons! Surprise #2…! Brand new regular podcast: Available to download now: http://www.englishbanana.com/ 10-english-idioms-in-10-minutes-free-podcast.html

Celebrating One Year of Free Online Lessons! Final Thought http://www.englishbanana.com/podcasts/teaching-esl-using-talk-a-lot-ray-connors.mp3 http://profraysonlineenglishacademy.blogspot.com/ Ray Connors encouraged me and inspired me to try... Thanks a lot, Ray. It’s helped me a lot. It’s given me so much. If you have benefited from my lessons in any way over the past year, you need to thank Ray.  I ran EB.com for 6.5 years without feeling the need to teach online. But I’m so glad I got started! http://www.wiziq.com/online-class/144479-Teaching-ESL-using-the-TALK-A-LOT-curriculum

Celebrating One Year of Free Online Lessons! Testimonials: http://www.englishbanana.com/rays- testimonial-20062010.jpg From Ray Connors (Vietnam): “ Regarding the Talk a Lot program, as you know I have been an avid fan as a teacher for a while now, and I have recently been involved in introducing it as the primary learning source for teens and adults in 2 centres in the south of Vietnam… “ Introducing it has seen great benefits to the centre as it has set it apart from the run of the mill centres which all use the same Cutting Edge, Gateways etc. that everyone has flogged to death … It has been very successful for both centres, and they unfortunately don't use it in its entirety, but are able to extract what they do need, and the students really seem to like how it works…”

Celebrating One Year of Free Online Lessons! Final Thought My challenge to you today: Can I encourage you to teach online? Could you teach online? Everybody’s an expert in something. What are YOU an expert in? What are you passionate about? Could you share your expertise and your passion ? Could you learn to teach others? Could somebody benefit from your work? Could you be on WIZIQ.com as a teacher? If not, why not?  Remember: you don’t have to be PERFECT when you start! “ I haven’t always known what I know now… I had to learn it.” Keep going – regular workouts strengthen your muscles! Just do it!

Celebrating One Year of Free Online Lessons! Thanks for coming! http://www.englishbanana.com

Talk a Lot : Celebrating One Year of Free Online Lessons!

by Matt Purland on Jun 20, 2010

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