Featured Teacher - Neil Millington

My name is Neil Millington and I’m an English teacher at a university in Japan. I originally come from the UK, but I have been living in Japan now for over 12 years.

I decided to leave the UK and go to Japan for a career change and to see a little more of the world. Before coming to Japan I worked in retail management. I enjoyed my job, but I wanted a new challenge, so I came to Japan.

I love my current job because I have an amazing bunch of students. I am amazed at how hard they work and how enthusiastically they respond to our lessons.

Dreamreader.net

I started a website called dreamreader.net with a friend and colleague of mine. We launched the site in September 2014, and it has been growing very quickly since then.

The idea for the site came about when we were developing materials for a reading and vocabulary course. We looked online for materials to supplement the course, but we couldn’t find enough suitable free materials.

As of June 2015, we have over 300 free lessons on the site. There are lessons for all levels of EFL learners, and each lesson can be done online, or we provide a free printable version too. Each lesson also has a free audio recording and quiz.

In the eight months since the site has been up and running, we have received a lot of positive feedback from the teaching community and learners around the world. This gives Brad and I the motivation to add more free lessons.

Our goal is to have over 500 free lessons on the site by the end of the year.

Advice for New Teachers

My first piece of advice for first time teachers is to first prepare well. If you are well prepared, you will have more confidence going into the class. Confidence is really important as a teacher.

My second piece of advice is to have fun! If you are enjoying the class, then the learners probably will too.

My final piece of advice is to keep your lessons simple at first. Don’t try any overly complicated activities in the first few weeks. Keep it straightforward and the students will follow what you want them to do, and hopefully do it.

Good luck to any new teachers reading this!

Check out Dreamreader.net

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