This is a list of mostly non-mainstream resources that I use with my classes. Most of the resources cost up to 10 USD and if more, they are worth the cost. I tend to use materials published by small, independent publishers.
Please note I am not getting paid for promoting them nor do I have any agreement with the owners of these sites.
Work in progress – I shall be adding more links to the list.
If you know any yummy mats, let everyone know in the comments!
Books and e-books:
Pete Clements&Richard Mccully: 30 Roleplays for TEFL– A delightful, three-dollar book full of imaginative roleplays for the rainy day. Huge success with my learners of Czech (I adapted the language).
Fortune and Adrift series by Chasing Time English – my latest find that has become so very popular with my students. A crime story format and the videos, along with very generous pricing make for a great supplement to your lessons. Honestly, I wish all publishers were that reasonable about prices, unlimited downloads and awesome content. Looking forward to more series.
Paul Walsh: At Work – a one-dollar book that will give you many ideas for BE lesson plans. I usually rewrite the instructions in ppt and reuse with different classes.
Patrice Palmer: Successful Group Work – some useful activities to help your students work in teams. I use it with my 25-30 Ss English university class
Taylor Sapp: Stories Without End – a collection of well-written unfinished stories for your students to finish as creative writing exercise.
Rob Whyte: Teach Essential Writing Skills – A collection of photocopiable writing activities. Check out the blog, too: http://www.eslwriting.org/
Jungle Listening (free) – excellent for pronunciation and listening to fast speech.
Online tools:
ESL Library (paid) – a huge collection of materials you can print out and share with your students
Textivate – (paid) – a tool which instantly creates all sorts of exercises from any text you enter.
Random.org – (free) randomizes lists, instantly generates dates, clock times and numbers to practise with students (essential for teaching Czech because all these need lots and lots of revision)
Dreamreader – (free) a collection of simple, interesting texts with an audioversion
Tube Quizard (free) – to practise bottom-up listening – excellent resource by Olya Sergeeva
Pobble 365 (free) – a visual for every day with a creative writing prompt
Marc’s Get Great English Resource page (free) – lots of good resources, mainly TBLT or listening/pron focused
Paul Walsh’s Decentralised Teaching and Learning (free) – free lesson plans for Business English
NG Life Communicative Worksheets: (free) – ok, large publisher, but these are free to download, usually picture stories etc. I don’t usually follow the instructions but use them creatively as presentation prompts, for storytelling or picture description. Some of their business writing worksheets are ok, too, but a bit dry for my taste.
Graded readers:
Perfect to create a thread between lessons. My students love a “book club”. If I can, I have each student read a book.
Kamila of Prague 
Wanted to let you know that Taylor Sapp has a new book out, History’s Mysteries that takes on famous historical mysteries or controversies, some serious “Could Marlowe be the real Shakespeare?” or “What happened during the Salem Witch Trials”, some sensational, “Who was Jack the Ripper?” or “Who killed JFK?” and some fun ones too, “Is Bigfoot real?” “Has the US government been in contact with aliens since 1960?” Teachers can use it as a research and discussion tool, or as a creative writing tool or both. More info at: https://www.alphabetpublishingbooks.com/book/history-mystery/
We also just put one a new writing book. Conversational Writing, a collection of worksheets with 4 or 5 writing prompts on a particular theme. The twist is that students respond to a prompt and then pass the paper to another student who fills out a different prompt and passes it on again. The result is a collective story written by 4 different voices. This can be a simple freewriting warm up or the start of a longer piece. For example, students can curate the ideas on the page and pick the best one to write a story: https://www.alphabetpublishingbooks.com/book/conversational-writing/
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Thanks for the update, Alphabet Publishers! Both books look great. Cheers!
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