My name is Carlos Alonso and I work as a high school ESL teacher. I studied English Philology and started teaching foreign languages in 1988 when I got a Spanish Language Assistantship at Grinnell College in Iowa (United States). It was then when I first learnt about the Internet. After that I became a secondary teacher here in Spain and, since then, I’ve been teaching at different public high schools in Palencia, Burgos, Valladolid and now in Ourense. Between 1998 and 2002 I was teaching in the United States (North Carolina and Texas) and there I seriously started using information and communication technologies applied to foreign language teaching.

I believe new technologies could be really interesting and useful to be used in the classroom. We shouldn’t be afraid of them. When I started using a computer for the first time, it was a very unique experience for me. I found out that a lot of very different things can be done with hardware and software. At the beginning I made several serious mistakes but I finally learned that it isn’t important to make mistakes but believe in yourself and accomplish it without fearing that you are going to do something wrong. My personal experience has been curious. I have never attended any courses or workshops about computers or ICT. My technique has been to learn by trial and error. Even today I still do it.  I do work with image, video, audio editing software, among others,  with no fear, and both on PC & MAC.  It’s up to you. If it goes wrong, you start over again and that’s it. It doesn’t bite. It doesn’t hurt. Believe in yoursef. It’s like you have to swim. The first thing one must do is to keep one’s head out of the water and one’s arms and legs moving inside. If not, you may sink and drown.  Let’s do it, guys. It is feasible. I’m with you!!!!

I’d like to share different resources related to the English language I have been searching for a long time. This is for my students and students in general, teachers or anybody who wants to use those. Besides, I’ve also included ICT (information and Communication technologies) stuff (TIC in Spanish) because I reckon these can be used along with the English or any other class.

If this is useful for you, we – you and I – will have accomplished our goal. Thank you for your time and for stopping by.

Every week I’d like to update this site with new and interesting sites related to the ESL teaching and learning. TAKE IT EASY, GUYS!!!!