Really, Honestly, Truly
When something captures your interest, you immediately want to know more about it. A friend has fantastic news - you pester them with questions. Why, what, where, when? CNN announces a headline that catches your ear - you immediately turn up the volume on the TV and focus your attention on it. Two of the Thomson Reuters stories featured in our lessons this month have that quality. They are true stories of people who have had amazing things happen to them: the 3-year-old boy who wandered away from his family and ended up floating 12 kilometers down a river on his toy truck. Two hours later, he emerged unhurt and excited to see police. ('A River-Truck?', Elementary Instant Lesson)

And the man who lost his wedding ring in the sea but went back again and again to look for it. His wife wanted to buy him a new ring but... well, you'll have to do the lesson with your students to find out why his friends now call him "Lord of the Ring". ('Lord of the Ring', Pre-Intermediate Instant Lesson) Stories like these ones fascinate students.

On a topical note, we look at the release of the video game 'The Beatles: Rock Band' ("The Beatles Leap Online", Intermediate Instant Lesson) and at the problems with providing health insurance for all in the USA. ('Health Insurance For Everyone?' Upper Intermediate Instant Lesson)

And for gold members there are resources on conditionals, a new vocabulary worksheet on going to the doctor, an Instant Workbook rehabilitation in prisons and clothes and a weekly warmer memory card game.

We hope that all of you who are back from vacation, are refreshed and ready for your students, while those of you who are coming out of a winter down under have managed to avoid winter flus and ills. Wherever you are, we hope our resources will help you help your students and capture their attention.

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Newest resources in the Teachers’ Room include:

A River-Truck?, Elementary Instant Lesson
A 3-year-old boy was unhurt after he floated down a river riding on his toy truck. Vacations, bizarre stories, camping, past simple and past continuous tenses, phone calls.

-Lord Of The Ring, Pre-Intermediate Instant Lesson
A man searched and found his wedding ring more than a year after it slipped off his finger and sank to the sea floor. Losing and finding things, love stories, first conditional and if and when, relative pronouns.

- The Beatles Leap Online, Intermediate Instant Lesson
"The Beatles: Rock Band," marks the legendary band's first leap into selling their music digitally leading to much speculation on which songs would be used. Video games, music, The Beatles, modal passives.

-Health Insurance For Everyone?, Upper Intermediate Instant Lesson
Bethany Whitehead is aware of the contentious national debate about U.S. healthcare reform, but the young Minnesotan has solved her own problems -- by joining a healthcare cooperative. Healthcare and health insurance.

-Snatched Gold Returned, Advanced Instant Lesson
The "Mother of Judo" waited 50 years to get the gold medal that was snatched from her in her first serious competition, a gender injustice that fueled Rusty Kanokogi's winning crusade for women's judo in the Olympics. "This should never, never happen to a woman again in sports," she said about the rage she felt back. Women in sport, discrimination, biography, judo.

- Nice To Meet You - Weekly Warmer
A Pre-Intermediate resource in which students use memory cards to make a dialogue on meeting someone for the first time.

-1st & 2nd Conditionals - Anna Grammar Worksheet
A Pre-Intermediate worksheet with explanations and practice exercises on the first and second conditionals.

-A Second Chance - Instant Workbook
An Elementary lesson which looks at two different dressmaking projects in prisons. There are 5 exercises to do which focus on reading comprehension and vocabulary - clothing words.

- Max Vocabulary Worksheet - Medical Care
An Intermediate worksheet with vocabulary and exercises about visiting a doctor.