The Birth of Clever Fox Lesson Box

Expectations

Whilst spending 8 and a half years teaching in China, I learnt a trick or two about teaching. Teaching ESL to 11-13 year old children for such a long period of time, well lets just say if you set a high standard for yourself (like I do) they won't let you go back on it. Lucky that when I trained at ATA TESOL College for my ESL certification they introduced me to the Rassias Technique (which involves animated gestures, movements and lively participation to help remember languages). My class expected a performance (of types) every class and if that's what it took to keep them controlled and learning...I set myself to deliver.

Classroom Material

Everyone knows that there is a plethora of ESL stuff on the net to assist ESL teachers but I frequently found myself stumbling on good ideas that had not been spell checked, had inappropriate contents for my classes, PowerPoints that had major errors and crashed or just stuff that was totally outdated and dull. My mission (if I chose to accept it) was to study studiously at becoming a PowerPoint Guru and design lively, interactive, informative and fun PPT Games. I worked on these day and night and came up with the idea of turning many of my own childhood schoolyard and camp trip games into ESL lessons. It wasn't long before other ESL teachers in my city started contacting me for some of my materials. I'd had the honor of the education department themselves viewing some of my classes with raving reviews on how engaged the students were.

Halloween Hang Time Game

TpT Magic

Somewhere along the line I also happened to stumble upon TpT (Teachers Pay Teachers), A cool American based website where teachers can earn extra income by selling the outcome of all the blood sweat and tears (their lesson plans, games, materials) to other teachers....BRILLIANT IDEA! Thus Clever Fox Lesson Box was born. I now had a platform where I could earn extra income from the PowerPoint games, card games, lesson plans etc that I had to design for my classes anyway.

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Clever-Fox-Lesson-Box

Obsession Gone Mad

Now to say I am a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to class presentation is an understatement. Years on and now I'm tutoring back in Australia AND training others to be ESL teachers themselves and I still have a blossoming business online where I sell all "my stuff", tried and tested in the toughest of classrooms. I continue to craft power points, lessons, games and even have branched out selling my sound files, compositions etc (I studied music at university) for other teachers to purchase and use in their own PowerPoint games, videos and such.

The Message

I guess the message here is that you never ever really know what different pathways bloom out in to. One thing leads to another and another....
Enjoy your journey!

I Believe I Can Fly

I have often learnt how I should be looking at life, just by observing my dogs. This is my girl , showing how to let go and live for now. Left picture in China, Right picture in Australia.
Bringing a dog back home to Australia from China is a HUGE deal....Info Post coming soon

If only people realized just how much they can learn from their canine companions and learn how to communicate with them, they would find a wonderful, lasting bond that brightens everyday.

Return to Blogging

I totally stopped this blog.  I got busy with life and everything and just stopped blogging. In that time I have returned to Australia after a whopping 8 and a half years living and teaching ESL in Yichang, China.
I am now tutoring ESL in Oz and I also train and accredit people who wish to teach ESL overseas like I did. This is through the company I originally trained with way back in 2008 that started my China Odyssey , ATA (Australasian Training Academy).
Do I miss China?  Absolutely!  But being home after such a long absence is also great. Anyway my plan is to get back to this blog as a kind of therapy for my integration back home . So much news to tell you all including how I bought my dog home with me, how I lived in Malaysia for a while, how I'm still contacted by my Chinese teacher friends and students and exactly how over 8 years of China living panned out.
Much love
xx