Hi Phil. Thanks for having me. As with most people who come to Thailand, I came here on holiday and fell in love with the place and all it had to offer. I was lucky to be able to travel for so long. I did have a small business in England which helped me stay out here. Being young and having time to really explore Thailand was a great opportunity.

I used to go back quite often at first, but as time goes by I find myself going back to England less and less. It’s a fair way to travel and these days I prefer to visit other countries. I have friends and family come to Thailand from time to time, so I prefer to be the host and show them around.

I got my first teaching job at a newly-opened weekend language school in Siam Square back in 2001.

They were hiring a mixture of new and experienced teachers and I managed to get one of the jobs. It was a really nice place to work. The teachers were friendly and always willing to share activities and help you out.

The school had lots of resources and it was quite easy to generate engaging lessons for the students. I learned a lot from teaching there. I was working all day Saturday and Sunday. The money was great at the time. 700 Baht an hour! I lasted fair few years there, but eventually gave it up as I wanted my weekends back.

Yes, I made quite a few contacts at the language school, which opened many doors for me. Through a friend at the school, I landed my first university lecturer position.

Teaching at university was very different to the language school. The classes were certainly a lot bigger, but on the plus side, I had a lot more freedom. I was left to my own devices and literally became my own boss.

Teaching at university helped me become more responsible and thorough in my work.

Indeed. Doing corporate evening work really boosts your income and it's enjoyable to teach English within a business setting. The students are motivated to learn English to help them in their work.

It's also very rewarding because the students can directly put into practice what you have taught them. You also get to meet a variety of characters and even though they are all professionals, most of them still love to play games and have fun when they are studying.

That's right. You can only go so far with a Bachelor's degree under your belt. Most universities expect you to continue your education. So I spent my evenings studying hard for my Master's Degree in ELT.

I learned a great deal about teaching ESL on the course and it really helped me grow as a teacher. I put into practice much of what I'd learned on the various courses.

One day, I couldn't find a suitable activity in my resource books so I went online. I found almost every resource website was a minefield to navigate. To get access to a resource you had to either join a site, pay to join a site, or submit something yourself and if you managed to get a resource without doing any of that, it was usually substandard.

So, I thought to myself, I could make something better than this. It wasn't that easy though. I had to teach myself how to build a website and then create enough materials to start it off. That took six months, but eventually I launched the site and Teach-This.com was born.

Actually, I didn’t spend much time promoting the site. I was too busy creating materials and getting the website running properly.

The key to the success of most websites is content. If you have good content that people like, Google will rank you higher. As the WebPages of Teach-This.com got better rankings more teachers saw the site.

Also, I think word-of-mouth helped Teach-This.com gain popularity. I received many emails from teachers who really liked what I had done and they helped spread the word.

Yes, I agree. I prefer quality over quantity. Choice is a good thing, but too many resources created for the sake of filling up a site only dilutes the quality of resources.

I have seen some sites boast having thousands and thousands of resources, but how many of them are decent quality materials your students will learn something from?

I like to take my time with all the resources I produce for Teach-This.com. I try to add an element of fun and creativity to every activity so they are interesting to the students and teachers.

I think what makes Teach-This.com stand out from the rest is how direct all the resources are to access.

Usability is a key difference of Teach-This.com compared to other sites. I looked at what many other sites were doing and did the exact opposite. Everything is made straightforward for the teachers who are searching for resources and activities. All the resources are completely free and easy to download.

Every teaching resource comes with a brief description to help the teacher decide on which resource will match their needs best. The materials have been designed to be easily adapted to students of different countries and cultures and every resource is offered in a PDF format. Just click and print or save for later.

Furthermore, all the teaching resources are tested out in the classroom before they go online and each activity is made to be engaging and enjoyable for the students. On the site, teachers can find lots of new teaching ideas and activities to help keep their classes imaginative and interesting.

Well, the user experience mostly. Visitors to a website like things to be simple and easy to navigate. Teachers don't want to jump through hoops to get resources.

Also, the quality of a lot of resources online is an issue. I'm sometimes quite shocked at how bad some of the resources are.

Not really. I could make the Teach-This.com a paid website, but that goes against my reasons for starting the website in the first place.

Teach-This.com is free and accessible to all. I make a little money from advertising and donations. I wrote two e-books, an ESL games book and a teaching resource book. When people donate, they get a copy of the two books sent to them as a thank you.

That's a tough question. I don't think there is one. If there was, we would all be using it! I try not to get stuck using the same activities over and over. I'm always looking to try new activities in the classroom to see which ones work well and which don't.

I think with a class of low-level teenagers, I would use a variety of games and activities to help motivate them to learn English and boost confidence to communicate. Any activity that gets students out of their chairs and using English in a way that's meaningful to them is a winner in my book

I have tons of ESL games that always liven things up in the classroom.

My favourite games are translation race, hot seats (a different version of hot seat) and stop the music, because they can be easily tailored to any level or topic.

These games are great for getting students involved in the lesson and students love playing them.

The main goal is to keep adding quality teaching resources and expanding the categories. In the near future, I want to redesign the site as it's starting to become quite big and needs more organising.

I also intend to add a section for students and an international jobs section.