Last Tuesday I started a new volunteer job, teaching ESL at the Thai Welfare Association in Sydney. I have been becoming increasingly desperate to get out of the house and do something useful for a while now, for I find my other volunteer work not especially challenging.

Just being in the space with the freshly-arranged tables and expectant white board and students arriving was exciting enough for me, and would have been sufficient. But the lesson (only two students could attend) was a delight and I hope that I can continue with classes into the future.

Searching for and adapting resources for this level of student has also been surprisingly interesting - not a chore all! I have been amazed and gratified by the sheer volume of ESL-based worksheets of all stripes. Not all are up to scratch but the fact that other teachers have gone to the trouble to create and publish their work shows a generosity that I hope to repay in the near future.