Jason's Initial Web Pick

The website, Using English, seems to be a pretty solid resource for finding a medley of handouts, quizzes, lesson plans, exams, articles by teachers, english language references and even contains a forum where you can connect with other teachers and students for personal feedback on any questions or ideas you might have. Without registering you have access to most of the resources on the site but if you register you also gain access to more of everything that is already offered without registering plus some help with irregular verbs and online tests. The website even has a store where you can purchase text books for help with teaching and learning. The forums are really nice and well maintained and used. There are over 300000 posts in the "Ask a Teacher" section of the forums if you are trying to learn English. However, one negative point is that there doesn't seem to be that much on the forums for the teachers themselves for discussing the various aspects of teaching English. In fact, there is only one sub-forum for the teachers as opposed to the 12 or so sub-forums for learners.

The layout is pretty solid for this website and it is pretty easy to get around and find what you are looking for. One thing I find annoying is that instead of having the Teachers or Students button on the webpage menu bar as the first or second button, they have their members button in the way instead. There is also a special members forum but that is no use for those of us who don't want to put our information all over the internet by having to sign-up for stuff like this.

Finally, one last point is that there is a really great Language Resources section that gives you links to all kinds of other great language websites for teaching and learning English. One disadvantage to this website is that there doesn't seem to be any audio section for listening to the language being spoken. Pronunciation and general speaking of the language is a huge part of learning English. This website seems to focus a lot on the grammatical side of learning and less on the listening and speaking side of learning. Another point is that while all of these resources are great, if a person is not a great teacher or doesn't know how to use these resources in the best way, then you are really out of luck because none of this will help you. It also seems like these resources are geared more towards large classrooms of students learning the language rather than small groups or one on one lessons.

Just a quick critical analysis summary of the disadvantages:

You have to register to gain the most benefit

Limited help for teachers on the forums

No audio files

Geared primarily towards the grammatical style of teaching

A person has to know how to use the resource

And the advantages (Finish on a positive note):

Large database of FREE resources for professionals

A Forum where your students can get a lot of help if you are a terrible teacher for them

A store for buying books to assist you

Great page of links to other resources