Teacher's Survival Kit
Here are some of the things that teachers around the world would like to add to the Survival Kit. Click here if you would like to add something to the kit.
- Ralph Grayson, Peru
I would NEVER leave home without my handy-dandy Swiss Army knife (The medium-size one, which includes screw-driver, scissors, ruler-knife, etc). You can't imagine how much it helps in a class: You can cut paper, cake, fix your tape recorder when it breaks down, open cassette tapes and fix them, and so much more! I actually take it wherever I go and it has saved my and other people's lives in all sorts of situations: from conferences and workshops to guest speakers whose suitcases have gotten stuck.
- Martin Wills, British
A small whiteboard which you can carry round the classroom. It's good for taking note of mistakes, on-the-spot correction or showing students lexis when they ask for it and can also be used for word games.
- Beatriz Pizarro Roldán, Spanish
Patience. Kilograms and kilograms of it!! According to the Oxford Student's Dictionary, PATIENCE is the willingness to wait for results, to DEAL with problems, CALMLY and SLOWLY. And we need it, SURE!
- Anabel Borras Gonzalez, Spanish
A puppet, because it's the best way to introduce and develop contents for very young children and primary learners.
- Martin Wills, British
A small whiteboard which you can carry round the classroom. It's good for taking note of mistakes, on-the-spot correction or showing Ss lexis when they ask for it and can also be used for word games.
- Louise Emma Ibraheim, Australian
A World Map (blow up inflatable ball) because you can use it for intro discussions, geography, direction games, travel scenarios, to nominate people. It's lightweight & fun, packs easily & is really inexpensive. Great for kids or adults.
- Valerie Koegler, British
Paper hankies because there's nothing worse than a student with a cold or hay fever during a test.
- Gulsah Robertson, Turkish
A small ball(or a small fluffy animal)to use in the warmer activities. It works an ice-breaker, lowers the anxiety levels, brings fun and laughter. The students write down their questions to be answered by the teacher to the toy (in grammar clinic), they pass it around to allocate turns, The teacher hides it in a bag and students have to ask questions to find out what it is( good revision of question forms etc.) There are lots more teachers/learners can do with it. It is necessary for every level and age group. I have a yellow chick I use who is called 'chicken' and she is almost a part of the curriculum... Every self respecting teacher needs one.
- Francesca Luna Aguilera, Catalan
Some aspirins , to take in case of emergency!
- Juan Zafra Jiménez, Spanish
A whistle. Because teenagers tend to be very noisy and my voice sometimes isn't enough to keep them quiet!
- Roxana Mabel Gonzalez, Argentinian
A handkerchief so that you can play many games with it by means of covering eyes: touching and guessing what it is for young kids; listening to a 1 minute movie-scene and guessing who the actors were; trying to stick missing parts of the body to big animal wall-pictures for kids...
- Sharyn S. Moore, American
A calendar, with daily tear off pages, that has jokes, quotes, trivia questions... It's a good ice breaker for each morning, and the used pages can be kept for future discussion classes, paraphrase exercises, memory exercises...
- Phyllis A. Tuggle, American
A sense of humor. Teachers need to laugh to keep from crying.
- Sílvia Lag, Spanish
One of those things to hold chalk so you can write on the blackboard without touching the piece of chalk.
- Sandra Guevara, American
A postcard of your hometown- you can create so many lessons with one postcard.
- Lada Smirnova, Russian
A small bell. As for me, it's a necessary thing for ELT to start and finish group and pair work and switch students' attention.
- Flt. Lt. Neil McBeath, British
Paper Tissues. I make a point of taking paper tissues from fast food restaurants, airlines and any other source I can find. I keep these, and then hand them out when students sneeze in my class. The advantages are simple.
(A) It prevents the spread of disease.
(B) It is an easy, but effective, way of showing concern for individual students.
(C) It means that students are presented with authentic pieces of advertising text, but text that we can talk about. "I got this when I went to that conference in Dubai". "Have you ever eaten at Burger King? We don't have them in Oman any more."
It seems to work. I've had senior NCO's get quite indignant because I've exhausted my supply of, say, Omanair tissues, and have given them something from Emirates instead.
- Wendy Lambert, Canadian
Stickers, especially of Japanese cartoon characters -- kids love them for prizes.
- Katie Curchin, Australian
A few coins from home. Use to practice numbers and in shopping role plays. They also double as counters for board games and help you make tricky decisions - flip to see which team has to answer, or whether A or B goes first. Students can also bet on their knowledge of a grammar point - great for revision. For example auction off a mixture of correct and incorrect sentences and see who can buy the most correct ones if all students start with equal money in the bank. Alternatively play double or quits. First make some quiz questions to revise language points. A student who answers correctly receives a coin and can then choose to stake their winnings on another question. The pictures on coins also make talking points, for example if you have a set of Australian coins you have a set of pictures of unique Australian animals.
- Jacob Cuevas Lucero, Mexican
I would take a small ball, in some activities and games is very useful a ball in order to make all students participate. In case of going to another country or a far location we I would take a very traditional ball from my country so it by itself will call the attention of the students and everybody would play with it.
- Eva Paco, Spanish
Chewing gum, to improve my American English pronunciation and as an award for the most excellent student.
- Tony Gill, British
Cuisenaire Rods. So versatile - I use them for prepositions, tenses, stories, etc. Indispensable!
- Monika Sobejko, Polish
A couple of transparencies for the OHP that's sitting in the corner in my classroom. The device is there but the transparencies are missing. I think I could do with the OHP sometimes to present exercises prepared beforehand - it's great for short five-minute tests!
- Maria Tzovaras, Greek Australian
Stickers - there is no student in the world (young and old believe me) that do not find a small dose of joy in receiving a sticker for a job well done.
- Maria Luís, Portuguese
A Bible. It would be a ceaseless source both of spiritual inspiration and of written texts to work on.
- Doris DeVore-Barnes, Caucasian
I would add white out or some type of liquid eraser. Erasers do not erase ink, and a lot of what we write is in ink. Sometimes we do make mistakes!
- Susana Franco, Mexican
Staples, of course. Don't you know how frustrating it is trying to use an empty stapler? And it was an emergency...
- Hall Houston, U.S.A.
Post-it notes (otherwise known as post-its) Why? Post-it notes have a lot of uses: students can label things in the classroom, write new vocabulary on them, even create new sentences on the board (something like magnetic poetry). And teachers can use them to take notes of learner errors and mark their favorite activities in teacher's resource books.
- Noreen Coyle, Irish
An its-online magazine or at least the e-mail address (Editor's note: OF COURSE!)
- Ana Belén Vidal García, Spanish
I would add one or two lime tea bags, especially if your students are angels from 6 to 11 years old: wonderfully spontaneous, they always do and say whatever comes into their heads, although it has nothing to do with what you are trying to teach. Fighting, crying, laughing, even sleeping at the same time...Don't we need to relax. I do.
- Simon Andrewes, British
A bottle of water. To protect the voice, a very important and underrated teaching tool (according to M Rinvolucri, Alan Maley etc.),and important stressbuster (according to Jane Arnold).
- Nicky Rigby, British
I think a set of blank index cards is essential. They can be used to create a "Vocab Box", so every time a new word comes up you write it on a card and use them as a vocabulary revision tool. You can use them to create a game of pelmanism or personalized cue cards. You could get different colours for different topics, you can use both sides (you could write the translation on the back or draw a picture)and you can keep them for the following year! Not only can you use them for vocabulary, but also for grammar (e.g broken sentences)and pronunciation (word and sentence stress - a cheap alternative to cuisenaire rods). You can also use them for role-plays, name badges, or even for writing your lesson plan on whilst on the bus! Well, it saves paper!