A good ESL book matters!

I teach English (ESL) once a week and talked about a great book that I use (English in Action) which will unfortunately be phased out because they want the entire city to use the same one (why fix something that isn't broken?!).

Since I have a crazy work schedule, I really don't want to spend a ton of time thinking of activities for the class, so I really depend on the book to guide the class, and students like it. Last semester, all of the students said in their class evaluation that they thought the "class materials" (which were just the book and workbook) were helpful.

Before this semester started, we had to go to a seminar, and an experienced teacher was giving us all these ideas to use in the classroom. If I were teaching every day, I would use other materials and activities, but for a class that meets once a week, I don't need to. And the important thing is: I don't *want* to.

Why make things more complicated? If you have a good text book, you don't have to add anything. Plus, it makes the students' purchase worthwhile. I don't like having to buy books for a class, only to find out that it's just a small part of what we'll be doing. That's a lot of money for slight use.