Regardless of your experience as an educator, every ESL teacher must be smart and have a collection of valuable online tools handy at all times. You may be struggling with a class of students with lack of interest in the subject or teaching those who always strive to learn more than it is planned in the program. Whether you are in the first situation or the latter, you must always have access to the best teaching recourses that will allow you to teach students with various learning styles.

What tools can you use to be a smarter ESL teacher? Read on to see which tools are a true MUST for every educator.

ESL Gold

This tool is primarily focused on students who learn English as their second language, but has become an invaluable tool for teachers, too. The website offers a grand variety of recourses, using different challenge levels that teachers can use to check and develop their students' success.

ESL Library

Our second choice of a teacher's tool is the ESL library. This tool is widely popular among ESL educators since it provides them with the unique opportunity of enjoying thousands of teaching recourses at one place.

Once you become a member of the website, you will gain full access to the lesson plan library with over 500 ready lesson plans and 2,000 ready-to-print flashcards and images. Additionally, the website gives teachers the opportunity to plan their lessons based on proposed ideas and latest news and trends.

ESL Printables

Recourse of thousands of ready worksheets, online exercises and presentations is only a part of what ESL Printables is to educators. If you have made a lot of your own curriculum, it is time to take a look at this website and look for an idea of what comes next.

Using this tool comes with a trick – you must contribute to the website to download its content. Once you do, you will gain access to worksheets that are organized by vocabulary, listening, grammar, speaking, reading and writing, and be presented with the opportunity to join the forum used by hundreds of ESL instructors.

Professional Writing Services

Sometimes your best solution when in struggle is asking for help from professionals. Consulting a professional writing service does not indicate that you are bad at teaching or cannot plan your classes, but can actually provide you with unique point of view and ideas you can use to further enrich your teaching abilities.

Boggles World ESL

Otherwise known as LanternFish, this tool is a valuable set for both teachers and learners. The Boogles World ESL website provides everyone with hundreds of lesson plans, worksheets and unique ideas to engage students in the classroom.

This tool is great for advanced students, too, since it offers a large database of creative writing prompts. They also have a collection of vocabulary exercises and games for students of all ages.

ESL Kids Stuff

Learning English is now much easier since websites such as ESL Kids Stuff exist. This is a great tool for ESL teachers who teach young students, since it provides them with great recourses in the form of flashcards, craft sheets, worksheets, songs, games and lesson plans.

ESL Teachers United

ESL Teachers United is launched in 2011 by experienced teachers, with the goal of being an international ESL watchdog organization. This is a great tool for teachers since its goal is to establish a Union that will protect the rights of educators that provide ESL English teaching services.

Busy Teacher

Some of the best ESL teachers in the world say that this is one of the best sources for an educator's classroom. The website has thousands of activities, writing prompts and worksheets that you can download immediately, without any fees or memberships. However, if you want to purchase the entire website's library, you can do this at a cost of $100.

ESL Toolbox

Starting with themed units and flashcards to speaking activities and games, ESL Toolbox is a must-have source for inspiration when it comes to teaching. Every unit has over 25 pages focused on a core vocabulary, which means that you can actually use this tool for a wide age range.

ESL-Lab

The last one on our list is the listening lab, often used as recourse for listening exercises in many ESL classrooms. If you are an ESL teacher, you surely know how important audio is in the classroom, which is why this recourse is a great tool for any educator that wants to add a bit to their existing curriculum.

Students learn in a variety of ways and as a good teacher, you must always be prepared to add something new to the curriculum. Check out these 10 sources and see what works for your classroom!

Tom Jager is professional blogger. He works at Bestessaytips. He has degree in Law and English literature. Tom has written numerous articles/online journals. You can reach him at G+ or Facebook.

Today, we use technologies in almost every area of our lives because they make it easier and quicker to achieve our goals. Studying is not an exception to this rule. The technology has been used in learning for a few decades now because of the unprecedented opportunities provided by the use of computers and other intelligent machines. For many professions, the technology skills have become an essential condition for success and competitive advantage on the labor market because they enhance the personal abilities and allow the most effective contribution as an employee.

You are probably using technology in your studies and some of its benefits are very well known to you, but did you think that technology could be the main key to your success? Here’s why.

It prepares you for a future career

Given that you have selected the career you want to pursue, you may already know the possible tasks and challenges that you might encounter on your job. The technology allows you to prepare for them by having you performing these tasks on a device before even thinking to send out a resume. For example, if you want to be a graphic designer, you need Photoshop software to learn and practice a variety of skills associated with the profession. Eventually, you gain the fair amount of experience when you start your career.

You become more responsible

The technology allows the students to take an unprecedented level of control over their own learning by extending the opportunities to a much higher limit. As the result, you learn how to make the decisions on your own and accept the responsibility for your mistakes, because you learn how to think for yourself. The security limits provided by technology also ensure that the students become more responsible for their works and prevent them from taking credit for decisions made by others.

You become more creative

In terms of creative power, technology can be of utter importance, because it extends the opportunities to achieve almost anything. According to this article from EdTechReview, there a number of specific tools that can enhance the creativity of learners, including blogs for creative thinking, infographics, mind-mapping and brainstorming apps, brain games, digital storytelling tools, and video and audio tools. All of them are freely available as well, so using them to boost your creativity is not a problem at all.

It allows to have access to the latest information

When learners used only printed books and manuals, they could not get the updated information so easily because they did not have the Internet. Today, however, all the latest information about any learning area is readily available in the classroom because of this technology. The employees at Proessaywriting, for example, get the latest information about the changes in formatting styles on the training sessions without having to refer to printed official guides of educational institutions.

It makes you happier

The passive learning methods are old news now because the technology has made millions of classrooms around the world a much happier place. Would you be excited about spending a couple of hours with books in the classroom, reading and highlighting the most important practical information? Of course not. But what about an interactive experience that allows making changes and correcting mistakes in the real time without applying any additional effort? Because of this reason, the students are more excited about being able to use technology and therefore are happier during the process.

It facilitates collaboration

Achieving certain learning goals often requires the collaborative effort of the students, which is perfect for technology because it can provide it. Also, it gives you the chance to communicate with the fellow students about the project, share your ideas, and take advantage of theirs. Technology therefore enables to engage in meaningful collaboration with other learners and learn team skills, which could be very useful for future career and development of communication skills.

It provides diversity in learning styles

Using various technological devices gives the chance to try different learning styles in addition to the traditional ones. The teachers can provide the learners with various means of achieving the same task, thus contributing to the diversity of learning methods and styles.

The Bottom Line

Technology is here to stay. It helps to solve one of the most important social issues: improvement of education and providing the learners with equal opportunities for obtaining advanced skills needed to have a better outcome. Electronic textbooks, the Internet, virtual labs, applications, and millions of digital resources can save a lot of money and provide you with an excellent educational experience. Taking advantage of them is a critical requirement for any modern student if they want to take in as much knowledge as they can and be successful.

Tom Jager is professional blogger. He works at Awriter.org. He has degree in Law and English literature. Tom has written numerous articles/online journals. You can reach him at G+ or Facebook.