No, the concepts presented can be useful for teachers of English from any angle. So far, we’ve based our methods on ESOL standards, but they can be applied to English in general. Before long, we’d like to have material tailored more toward homeschooling, toward standardized tests like college entrance exams, and towards English language exams like TOEFL, IELTS, and YLEs.
No! All Insights to English resources exist to supplement your curriculum. If you’ve been teaching out of a book, continue doing that. When you reach a topic that could use a different approach because your current materials simply aren’t getting through to some of your students for whatever reason, that’s when you use our videos.
There are some great websites out there that provide resources you can simply hand to your students. This isn’t one of them. We don’t do worksheets because the point of Insights to to revitalize the ways in which you present grammar topics. When it comes to practicing those topics, it’s up to you to find the materials to do so.
You are welcome to use them, as we’re sure they can be helpful to you. But understand that our resources are meant for educators. To get the most out of these methods, it’s best to have a teacher or tutor work with you.
As of now, we are not registered as a 501(c)(3) organization for logistical reasons. However, we do run the business as a nonprofit: after covering expenses, every dollar we make goes back to producing and distributing more resources for educators.
Yes, that would be a more acceptable collocation for most other situations. However, the additional syllable throws off the rhythm; ‘Insights to English’ just sounds better.
Furthermore, our name implies from obtaining insights to producing English, which is what we’re going for.
Just because a teacher can speak English well doesn’t mean they can give students all the answers at the drop of a hat. Maybe you’ve been asking yourself all kinds of questions about how English works even if you’ve been speaking it your whole life. Or maybe you’ve just delivered a fantastic explanation on a particular grammar point, only to be met with blank stares from half the class. Maybe you’ve explained the same topic multiple times, but a couple students still can’t grasp it.
Whatever the reason, sometimes it simply helps to try a new approach. That’s all our videos are: different approaches.
The purpose of the videos is for teachers to learn new methods of teaching various topics. We suggest teachers watch the videos on their own, then adapt the method presented therein to suit their own teaching styles and classroom needs. That said, most videos were designed so that students could follow along as well, especially if you turn the subtitles on. You can try showing a video to your students to see if it works well enough for them, but it should be far more effective if you teach our methods yourself.
First of all, we think there’s a huge benefit for students hearing or reading English without the aid of a translation. While it can making things slower in the short term, it can reap great benefits in the long run.
Second of all, as we mentioned before, the videos aren’t meant for English learners, but for English teachers.
The videos are all about the approach you take to presenting a grammar topic. Next you have to apply it. Consider all the other methods you have for teaching English and incorporate our approaches into them. Your own teaching style is crucial, so don’t set that aside. Think of it this way: in our videos we recommend what to say to your students; how you say it to them is completely up to you.
If you wish, you can use our slideshows to present the grammar point with the same visuals as the video used. You can also give your students some handouts that summarize key points of the video or that show a more detailed list of time expressions, for instance. Also, our bonus notes can tell you some of the finer points like exceptions, constrains, alternatives, and more in case those things come up in class.
Finally, practice the grammar points with your students (both controlled practice and free practice). Go back to your course books or find some worksheets for practice exercises, or use your own ideas!
Unfortunately, free trials aren’t really a possibility. What we offer are information and ideas; once you’ve received those, you can’t exactly decide you don’t want them anymore.
Instead, Insights has tons of free resources freely available to everyone, including 20 of our How-To-Teach-Grammar videos, dozens of Teaching Tips, and scores of Student Project ideas. We believe that’s enough to interested persons a sense of the content, style, and quality of our resources, so hopefully you feel confident in purchasing a subscription!
Yes, both monthly and yearly subscriptions new automatically. You are free to cancel at any time.
Once you’ve received the information and ideas we have to share, you can’t exactly return them; you can’t unlearn what you’ve learned. Even digital resources like our printouts can’t truly be returned. For this reason, we generally don’t offer refunds.
However, we occasionally make exceptions, such as if a customer accidentally purchases the same thing twice. If you believe you have a special situation for which a refund should be allowed, please contact us directly, and we will evaluate your particular case.
Take advantage of every method, idea, tip, and trick we have to offer teachers. We’ll keep you informed of every new resource we release. Plus, by subscribing you get A FREE GUIDE on bringing Insights into your classroom!
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