About Me

 

Lesson Plans Digger…who?  

My name is Gosia and I am an English teacher. I have been teaching English for quite some time, having worked in Poland, Dominican Republic, Spain, and Germany. I hold a BA degree in TEFL and an MA degree in American Studies. I completed a Trinity Certificate in TESOL course with Oxford TEFL in Barcelona in 2012. In 2014 I became a Cambridge Speaking Examiner for FCE and CAE exams. I am currently based in Warsaw, Poland and I deliver most of my classes online.

What I love about my job is that it constantly keeps me on my toes, it is never boring and allows me to unleash my inner performer.

As for the digging…

Every teacher knows that complementing our coursebooks is what we do often (if there even is a coursebook!), and what even more often means hours of researching, downloading, editing and tailoring whatever we had found; the practice to which I like to refer as lesson plan digging. My digging adventure might have started out of necessity, but as I have been gaining classroom experience, making my own lesson plans or adapting already existing resources for the particular needs of my students (fine-tuning might be the word!) has become very rewarding. It is great to see my students enjoy the class and learn using activities I have prepared myself (although they usually make fun of my choices of visuals!). This blog aims at providing fellow lesson plan diggers with useful teaching materials and ideas.

I am always on the lookout for new ideas and I love exchanging stories with other teachers. Please, feel free to use the materials featured on this blog and comment on how useful, effective or terrible you have found them. If my posts make you think anything at all teaching related, comment here, visit my Facebook page, or send an email to lessonplansdigger@gmail.com

Thank you!

46 Comments

  1. Gosia, hi! I’ve just discovered your blog and it looks AMAZING!!! I’m sure I’ll be using it a lot in the future. I just want to thank you for your hard work and for sharing it with the rest of the teachers (and for FREE!). Greetings from Greece

    • Hi Evanthia, thank you so much for leaving such a nice comment! I’m really glad to hear you like the blog and my lesson ideas. I hope you’ll be a regular visitor 🙂

    • Hello Gosia! I teach English in St-Petersburg, Russia. I’ve just found your blog with great ideas for teaching grammar and supportive material which is possible to borrow for FREE. Thank You So Much! Tomorrow I’m going to introduce Modals of deduction and speculation topic to my students. I’m sure they will enjoy learning grammar through your creative activities.Thanks a lot!)))

      • Great, Liudmila, so nice to hear this! I hope you and students enjoy the class.

  2. Gosia, I stumble into your blog from the link in my Twitter feeds. This is dedicated work on Business English. I salute to you for your many creative activities. I teach ESP and usually adapt textbook activities to fit the culture and interests of my adult learners.

    • Hi Ken,
      Thank you so much for stopping by, I’m glad you’ve found something interesting for your students here. I agree, very often adapting the coursebook is necessary to meet our students’ needs and objectives. I’ve spent a lot of time on email writing and presentation skills. I hope this wasn’t your last visit to this website 🙂

  3. I’m an ESL teacher here in Valencia, Spain. Originally from the United States…….the more I teach….the less i use a coursebook (though I am obligated to use one) and i stumbled across your website and love it!! There are soooo many good esl blogs but i find myself returning to yours….. along with Tim’s Free English………..your site has made class more fun!!!!

    • Hi Joe, I’m so happy to hear that! Making learning and teaching more fun was one of my aims for starting this website. I love Tim’s blog and I’ve used his brilliant idea for helping CAE students with reading tasks (check it out!).

      • thanks for the timely response…Keep up the good work and know that in the land of Paella you have a big fan!!!

        • It means a lot, especially the paella bit 🙂 (I lived in Barcelona for 3 years!)

          • just curious….what are the main differences between ESL students in Germany and Spain? and if you are ever in Valencia I owe you an Horchata or Agua de Valencia at the least

          • I haven’t worked here for long, but so far I’ve noticed two differences: my students’ level (more students with a solid intermediate or higher level of English) and variety (in Bcn I haven’t taught one student whose L1 wouldn’t be Spanish, here people come from a variety of countries and cultures. I’ve just started a course with two gentlemen from Sudan.) Thanks for the offer, I’ll take you up on that 🙂

          • one final question…or else you will think …..”jeez i have an ESL stalker”………… do you use any transmedia tools like Flight paths, Interactive Alice or Olive Green and how important do you find pronounciation tasks to be in your lessons? i tend to give them the short shrift as I focus on lexical chunks or exam prep

          • No to the first one, but thanks a lot for letting me know about these three, I’ll definitely check them out. What’s your experience? As for the pronunciation practice, I’ve always tried to introduce it through games and focus on main issues which would make my students’ speech hard to understand (in case of my Spanish sts: long vs short vowels, “th” sound, “s” at the beginning of the word, word and sentence stress). I’ve never used phonemic charts though or make pronunciation the focus of the class.

  4. Greetings from a fellow English teacher, who also happens to be Polish! I just wanted to thank you for sharing all those great ideas and worksheets. I really appreciate all the work that you put into your teaching materials. Hope that your blog grows – we definitely need more creative teachers like you! : )

    • Hi Paweł, great to see you here! Do you also teach abroad? Thanks for your kind words, blogging has been a lot of for me and I’m happy other teachers find this little website useful.

      • Oh, no – I don’t teach abroad. Let’s say I’m a kind of a home-bird when it comes to living in Poland. : ) Have a great holiday and keep up the good work! : ))

  5. Hi Gosia, I’m a fellow ESL teacher from Italy. I’ve recently discovered your blog thanks to Pinterest and I must say, it’s one of the best! I’m definitely going to try some of the activities, they all look well-thought-out and incredibly useful! Thank you for sharing 🙂

    • Hi Chiara, thanks for your kind words! It really means a lot to me to see other teachers interested in using my ideas. Let me know how they worked out for you in practice, please. I hope you visit frequently!

    • Hi Luke, thanks for stopping by it’s great to see you here! Hope my ideas work out for your classes as well. Let me know how it goes, please. Also, your podcasts have been on the ‘assigned listening’ list for my students for some time now and I mentioned them in my ‘January 3-2-1’ post. Thanks a lot for your hard work!

  6. Greetings Gosia from India, I am an English specialist who teaches English Online and Offline. I am so glad to have come across your page, what wonderful ideas and thoughts you have, amazing resources!
    Would love to be In touch with you, sharing knowledge is the only thing I feel leads us to where we are today, thank you in all humbleness, I also wish you the best in all your endeavours.
    With regards,
    Anita

    • Thank you so much for your kind words, Anita! I’m very happy you find my website useful.
      It’d be great to keep in touch and exchange teaching ideas. What’s the best way to reach you online?

  7. Hi Gosia,
    I stumbled upon your website about a month ago in search of some more engaging speaking exercises for my exam prep students, and you have now become one of my favorite resources for lesson plans and ideas. Not only that, both my students and I love your designs and I think they might actually enjoy working on grammar because of them 🙂

    Keep up the great work!
    Teresa

    • Hi Teresa,
      Thank you so much for leaving such a kind comment. It means a lot to me to hear from other teachers who’ve used my ideas and activities with their students. Keep coming back for more ideas!

  8. Hi Gosia, thank you for this blog which is full of useful stuff. I am a native English speaker teaching business English online in France. Your ideas and lesson plans are very helpful. Thank you so much!

  9. Hello Gosia,
    I came across your blog while looking for some new FCE speaking activities to make practice more fun. Thanks a lot for sharing your ideas!!
    Eleonora

  10. Hi Gosia,
    I stumbled across this website yesterday. I don’t know why I had never found it before as I search for new sites all the time.Anyway I have to say that you’ve shared some very interesting lessons which are very refreshing.
    Thank you!
    Rohan

  11. One of the best content resource sites I have found, and I have found many. Congratulations!

  12. Hi dear Gosia,
    This website was introduced to me by the head teacher of my Institute. I have been working professionally as an English teacher for almost three years, and I want to express my gratitude by leaving this comment. Thank you so much! you are a true inspiration.

  13. Greetings from Russia, Gosia!

    Your attitude towards teaching English is so much close to my own. I’ve already used some of the techniques and strategies from your blog and want to say how thankful I am for your work and inspiration!

    Lots of luck to you on this wonderful path!

    • Hi Evgeniia, thank you so much for leaving this lovely comment. It’s wonderful to hear you’ve found this blog useful and so much in tune with how you yourself teach. I hope you keep coming back and enjoying the materials and ideas here. Please, consider joining my mailing list to receive some bonus resources.

  14. Hi Gosia
    I’m an English teacher from India.
    I got know about this place from Pinterest.
    It’s just fantastic.
    Thanks a lot.

  15. Hi Gosia. I found your site while searching for some supplementary materials to help explain FCE Use of English Part 2 to my class. Then I realised I recognised you from summer school 🙂 Cheers for the materials. I used them in class today.

    • Hi Kerry, great to hear from you! Hope the class went well 🙂 See you soon!

  16. Hey! I just wanted to com here and thank you for your time doing this blog on lesson plans! I’ve been using it for quite some time and I always think to myself “this person ha my eternal gratitude” for saving me some time when planning my lessons. So, there you go: THANKS! 😀

    • Hi Larissa,
      thank you soooo much for such kind words! It’s wonderful to hear and I am equally grateful to you for following this website and trusting my lesson plans enough to use them with your students.

  17. Hi Gosia,
    I have just very recently discovered your website while looking for material for one on one lessons and honestly I find your work great really, really good! Thanks so much, it is amazing what youre doing!
    I dont have enough words of gratitude!

    • Hi Silvia,
      Thank you so much for your wonderful comment. I hope you keep coming back for more ideas and lesson plans!

  18. Hi Gosia,

    Thanks fo rsharing such good quality resources which make our lesson prep far easier. Surprisingly enough, I often find myself spending too much time getting ready for my lessons and I reckon I’m not as efficient as I’d like to. Do you have any tips on efficiency and timesaving lesson preparation?
    Thanks a lot for your help. Greetings from Spain!

    • Hi Gill, thanks for that comment. You’ve actually given me a lot to think about regarding my lesson preparation process and I think I’m going to try and share my thoughts in a separate post. Hope you find it useful!

  19. Wspaniały blog, materiały i pomysły na lekcje, Gosiu! Dopiero Cę odkryłam i jestem zachwycona:)

  20. Wspaniały blog. Właśnie odkryłam. ja uczę angielskiego on line we Włoszech od wielu lat i ciagle poszukuje nowych pomysłów i inspiracji. Użyłam już 4 twoich materiałów. Ten o kolorach również ze studentami włoskiej filmówki. Bardzo dziękuję i gorąco pozdrawiam.

  21. Hi Gosia.
    Just had a look at one of your lesson plans, which I’ll be using this afternoon for one of my lessons. The materials look great and I’ll be coming back for more, no doubt.

    Thanks for making these things available to the wider teaching community for free.

    Best regards from sunny Sardinia.

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