'Since joining Macmillan English Campus as training assistant three and a half months ago, I've been on a steep learning curve. There wasn't much time to idle before I started training MEC teachers and administrators. I've been involved in one in-school training session so far, but perhaps I'll be in your school next!

MEC is a fantastic place to work with a friendly and supportive team. There's lots of opportunity to meet our customers and help them get the most out of what, I think, is an invaluable resource for anyone learning or teaching English. As a recent recruit, however, I can still vividly remember how it feels to look at Campus and wonder "How will I ever find my way around 2800 (and rising) resourses at six different levels?" Well, as many of you will know by now, it doesn't take so very long.

For those who are still feeling a little shaky about their Campus expertise, allow me to offer you five tips on getting the best from the Macmillan English Campus.

• Make sure you bookmark your favourite exercises. Use the categories so that you can sort through them easily. (Bookmarks are in your MEC work area.)
• If you need some professional development look no further than the Methodology database. This is a huge resource of seven major ELT titles, all free in MEC. (Click the link in your work area, type in the subject you're looking for and download the relevant article.)
• Try using MEC Basics worksheets as lessons, to ensure your students are effectively using their MEC work area. (Find these under resources on the support site.)
• Integrate the Dictionary into your lessons. It's a vast resource and good fun too. Just make sure your computer speakers are on so you can use the pronunciation facility! (Click the dictionary link above your work area.)
• Web projects are always very popular with students and can be set either as homework or as a group exercise in class. (Key "web project" into the word and phrase search)

If you're still unsure, take a look at the support site. There's a wealth of information there including downloadable lesson plans, the MEC guide and (for any Administrators who may be reading) the Portal guide. Part of my job is to make sure this site stays useful and is constantly updated with the information and resources that teachers need, so if you have any requests do let me know. You can leave a comment on this post or speak to us through the Contact us section of this blog.'

What are your favourite MEC resources? Do you have any tips for other teachers using Campus? What do you think of the support site resources and what would you like to see added? Leave a comment.

MEC Commissioning Editor and recent CELTA graduate, Jenny Lovel, writes:

'Day one of the CELTA course at International House is strangely reminiscent of my first day at school. Perhaps it's the new stationery I'm carrying, complete with OHP markers in colours I'll never need (pink) and an impractical notebook. There are ten of us CELTA students in the class - three men and seven women, who vary in age from 18 to 60. I had expected everyone to be a recent graduate, staving off their inevitable move into 9 to 5 drudgery with an exciting few years spent teaching abroad, but my fellow students' motivations range as widely as their ages. Some are taking CELTA before starting a university course; some for a change of career; and others are relocating abroad. The first thing our tutor does is give us each a letter from a former CELTA student that contains some words of advice. Mine opens with "Dear CELTA student, I pity you, for you have just signed away four weeks of your life". The future has looked brighter.

CELTA isn't renowned for easing students in gradually, and on day two my "teaching practice" (TP) group and I are teaching a two hour unobserved lesson as a carousel. I have to teach the students vocabulary relating to family relationships. I decide to draw a simplified version of my family tree, with a liberal dollop of poetic licence. My brother suddenly has a wife and two children, conveniently a boy and a girl. Add in a couple of family snapshots for that personal touch and I feel quite satisfied with my handiwork. A lesson is born.

Before the carousel I feel so nervous I would happily do a three hour job interview rather than walk into the classroom. But the name game we've prepared is good fun and puts me at my ease. We divide the students into five groups, and I teach each group for twenty minutes. I run out of material in the first group after fifteen minutes and have to adlib about family resemblances while the students look at me sympathetically. In the next group the conversation turns to vocabulary such as "my step-mother's fostered children" and "my sister-in-law is pregnant" making me wonder if I have bitten off more than I can chew. But the two hours go surprisingly quickly and I feel I have really got to know the students.

Over the next few days we have input sessions in the mornings, in which we are taught how to teach, and then in the afternoon we take it in turns to teach a 40 minute lesson. In week one we are not expected to do an assessed lesson plan, so preparing for the lessons largely involves queuing for the photocopier and pasting pictures to coloured cardboard. My first lessons go reasonably well, but my attempts to use gesture, mime and enthusiasm make my lessons strangely similar to a one-woman comedy routine. No matter - I've survived week one.'

Does this remind you of your first week of CELTA, or did you have a different experience? How different is the CELTA from the DELTA? Leave us a comment.

'The first MEC country fair, at IH Seville, was a hugely enjoyable event. There was a real sense of warmth and camaraderie amongst the participants, from schools across the south of Spain (Seville, Huelva, Cordoba and Malaga) as well as Madrid.

A number of things struck me during the day. One was how completely different everyone's individual experience of the Campus is. The participants (teachers, Directors of Studies, School Directors and Campus co-ordinators) have access to the same material, work for the same organisation, teach students with the same cultural and linguistic background, and yet the range of questions, ideas, thoughts and comments during the day was extremely diverse. I see this as positive. We not only discussed what Campus is, but also its potential.

Many barriers were mentioned during the day which could prevent teachers using technology successfully. At times these could seem insurmountable. However, in this group of creative practitioners, there was always a sense of "positivism" with people constantly suggesting constructive ideas.

There was a lot of excitement about the new lesson plans available on the MEC support site. These should prevent re-inventing the wheel. However, I think it is also important for individuals to work through a series of challenges first - how to set up the data-projector, how to exploit the materials, how to unleash the potential of MEC to transform classroom practice, etc. Each teacher in each school will be at a different point on their own, personal learning curve.

Some big questions also emerged: Can "best practice" be proliferated through (say) the support site? Or, are some teachers condemned to always finding technology a frustrating and ultimately negative experience? I came away with a positive glow and a sense of optimism. I believe others were also enthused by the potential of MEC.'

The participants

From left: Helen Rouse, Dos IH Malaga; Mike Green, MEC Training Manager; Linda Harper, Director IH Huevla; Christina Anistadiadis, Dos Adult Students IH Madrid; Simon Armour, DoS IH Cordoba; Jenny Dobson, Teacher and IH Campus co-ordinator IH Cordoba; Colin Dobson, DoS IH Seville; Pete Sharma.

Do you have something to say about your experience of Campus? What do you think of the support site and new MEC Basics worksheets? Do you find technology frustrating or empowering? Leave us a comment!