3 years ago, we all meet in a coffee shop in Japan to think of new idea for a website.  In those early days we had some heady ideas about what EnglishSpark.com could be.  Eventually after a few months of trial and error we created EnglishSpark.com.  It was conceived with the notion of being a website for teachers by teachers.  We would like to keep to that motto.

We have made a lot of changes along the way.  Some of those changes have been popular, some of the changes haven't been so popular.  Now, it's time to do some housecleaning.  We need your help to do that. We value your opinions on what we should do with Englishspark and we hope you value EnglishSpark enough to let us know what you think of the site.  Could you please help us out by taking a short survey?

Quick Survey on EnglishSpark

We will definitely be removing some features from the website simply because we do not have the resources to maintain them.  If you value any of what we have to offer, please let your voice be heard.  The survey should only take a few minutes to complete.  Alternatively, you could let us know your thoughts in the comments below.  It only takes a few minutes and all ideas will be heard.

Thank you for your time, and I personally look forward to spending 3+ more years with you all.

Murray Kendall

I just recently got back from Techday, an event that is hosted by the local Osaka JALT.  What seemed very interesting to me was the use of more and more video games in learning contexts.  There was a presentation on a flash game that was being re-written to be more friendly to learners of English.  It seemed like a great idea because they can practice listening to the dialog and practice their comprehension.  The project hadn't been completed yet, but the finished product was to include the ability to even go back and re-listen to parts of the dialog to comprehend it more.

About 2 years ago, I thought I was going to change the world by cataloging most of the worksheets and lesson plans on the web.  It seemed like a simple idea and one that could potentially pay off.  I've had a lot of trouble trying to find a good worksheet from time to time.  It's hard to sift through the search results and get that one worksheet you want.

I began work cataloging massive amounts of worksheets and lesson plans.  However, after doing about 100 or so, I quickly realized that the task was simply too immense of an undertaking.  I resorted to listing the key places to find worksheets and lesson plans around the web in our material directory under weblinks.  This was all right for awhile, but I discovered people were coming to my blog and still looking for that particular worksheet or lesson plan and I wasn't really addressing their needs.

I am always trying to create new tools for English teachers to make use of. There has been an enormous community of ELT bloggers that have sprung up of late. I personally find this to be very welcoming and encouraging to see so many people contributing new and fresh ideas to the community.

English teachers are an unusual group of professionals. We are spread out all through the world and deal with different cultures and teaching styles. We ourselves often come from a diverse background from native speakers in North America to those in the United Kingdom and Australia to bilingual teachers from practically every country. We quite literally herald from the four corners of the map.