How to use online flashcard feature for recently learned vocabulary from class

open and closed classes

1) The AM & PM and Saturday classes are all now closed! (That is, they are full now).
You can apply for the waiting list. 


3) The Saturday class is now also closed. (This class is at Norman Thomas High School located at 111 East 33rd Street on the 5th floor. This class will begin on 09/26/09).

What Do Andy's Students Say? (Veronica)

What do Andy's Students Say? (Fernando)

What do Andy's Students Say? (Ariy)

(Note: Mark no longer does drama with Andy's students as part of the class but he does teach drama in groups classes that you can join separately form my classes. Mark's Drama Classes are NOT free but are low cost and are very helpful to improve your accent and confidence. Email me for more information)

What do Andy's Students Say? (Johannes)

What do Andy's Students Say? (Hee Ja)

Welcome Message

Hi.



(Note the new hours are 8:30 am to 12:00 pm and 12:30 pm to 4:12 pm. And NO NIGHT classes anymore. All classes are five days a week, Mon-Fri and are FREE. All of Andy's Classes are now advanced. Andy also teaches a Saturday class form 9 am to 1 pm at Norman Thomas HS).



This is Andy Bell. I am an ESL teacher at Hartley House in Manhattan. I have 2 free ESL classes that meet 5 days a week, Monday through Friday. My intermediate AM advanced class is in the mornings from 8:30 am to 12:00 pm. My PM advanced class is in the afternoons from 12:30 pm to 4:12 pm. (We do not offer a beginning class at Hartley House.) Please read all the information below in this web site to learn more about my classes. I look forward to meeting you and possibly teaching you English.





Click to hear the teacher read this message:

Directions to Hartley House

TRAVEL DIRECTIONS HERE:

Hartley House is located at 413 W.46th Street. This is on the West Side of Manhattan near 9th Avenue. The closest subway stop is the 42nd street stop of the blue IND line (A,C, or E trains). If you are coming downtown, sit in the last car and go out the 44th Street exit. You will be at 44th Street and 8th Avenue.

You can also take the N, R, or W (the yellow line) to 49th street and go out at the the 47th Street exit. You will be at 47th Street and 7th Avenue.

Or you may take any train that goes to Times Square, 42nd Street. The school is a short walk away.





Hopstop is a great free service that will give you subway or directions to go places in NYC. Enter where you want to go (413 West 46th Street, NYC, NY 10036) and the address where are coming from and they will give you travel travel directions.

See a hopstop map here: 413 West 46th Street

What Kind of Classes Do I Teach?

We try to emphasize listening and speaking skills the most. If you are looking for a class that will do a lot of reading, writing, and grammar, then my classes would NOT be a good choice for you. You should take a college ESL class that specializes in those areas.


My classes are free to people who live in NYC with New York City addresses. You must have a NYC address when you fill out the registration form.

 We try to improve our listening through listening to music and learning songs and also by watching parts of movies on DVDs. In addition, the students do a lot of oral presentations. Each day one student comes in front of the class and presents for 10 to 15 minutes. The oral presentations are often supported pictures from a Google Presentation on line that the student made (like Microsoft Power Point, but free. We don't use Power Point in class. I prefer everyone to use Google Presentations when they want to use pictures to make it simple for everyone).


We do not really use textbooks since we emphasize listening and speaking in the class. But we read newspapers (we get the NY Times free every day), but mostly so we can learn new vocabulary and to get topics for conversation. We try to learn a lot of new words. We try to spend apart of every day doing conversation in groups. I also believe learning about American culture is equally important to learning English in order to really understand things and people.


The students generally have a lot of fun and enjoy the classes a lot.

I post general plans for my classes a couple of days in advance so that students can prepare for the lesson if they like. See my planning blog here at eslplans.blogspot.com if you are curious.

Here are some youtube videos I made of the kinds of typical conversation topics we might have in class.

Contact Info

See my complete blog here at nycesl.info. You can find information about my free ESL classes there including the schedule and you can also sign up for the waiting list. There is also information about me, my students, and testing information.

If you still have questions after reading all the information at nycesl.info, and you need more information, please contact me by email at:

andy.nycesl@gmail.com Reading emails is much easier for me and it is easier to keep track of our conversations that way).

nycesl.info (Complete info) including application for the waiting list.

(You can see pictures of me and my students there and you can also see videos of my students)

Check out my vocabulary blog...

I try to post the words that we go over in class to a vocabulary blog. I prefer that my students NOT spend all their time in class with their noses attached to a dictionary. I believe that class time, as much as possible, should be for actually using the language. I want students to listen and speak as much as possible during the class.

For this reason I try to take the responsibility for posting the most important words we learn in class on a blog. I also try to make an mp3 audio post of the words for each class. I usually post every day. Sometimes things get busy and then I catch up on the weekend.

Would you like to see the blog? Click here.


If you have iTunes, you can subscribe to my vocabulary podcasts here.
Don't have iTunes? Download it here for free

You can also see my videos on youtube for discussion topics for my classes. go to http://www.youtube.com/user/nycesltalk

About the Teacher...

Andrew Bell is a NYC licensed and appointed teacher of ESL to adults. He has a BA with a major in linguistics and a minor in anthropology from SUNY at Stony Brook and an MA in TESOL from Hunter College. He also completed most of the coursework for an MA in counseling but didn't finish the degree. He is married and has two children.

He was a private tutor for several years to a family with 3 students in college at the same time. They had diverse majors such as art history, music, and accounting/economics. He helped them with English for their various classes. He feels that was a kind of second college education for himself because he helped that family with so many different types of college classes from philosophy, to art, to business, and more. (He no longer tutors privately.)

He has been teaching ESL in NYC to adults for 20 years for the NYC Department of Education. He loves his job. He prides himself on using many creative methods to try to help his students learn as much as possible. Andrew is convinced that almost any topic can be useful in learning English if it is done right and the students are involved.

He also believes in helping the students to learn how to continue learning on their own after they finish the program. One way he does this is through his podcasts on iTunes. One podcast is for the daily vocabulary (eslwords.blogspot.com) we learn in class.

He has a special interest in using technology in the classroom. To that end, he has several blogs, a class "wiki", and a "ning.com" social network site that he uses with his students.

In his classes, Andrew has a primary focus on improving oral skills (listening & speaking). Andrew tries to maintain a diverse class with many different languages and cultures represented.

We CANNOT give I-20s

I am sorry, we cannot give you an I-20 student visa. We are a free program from the NYC Department of Education. We DO NOT give out student visas. If you need a visa, you will need to go to a program where you need to PAY. Some colleges can give you a visa to study ESL. And many private schools in NYC can give you a student visa. WE cannot give you an I-20 visa. I also cannot recommend any specific schools that can give you a visa either. Sorry.