What is MES?

MES Inc. is a company that provides a collection of printable resources, services and applications for teachers, parents, and students. MES was founded in 2002 and is a collection of materials created by Mark Cox and provided with a few simple goals: All materials should have both reason and purpose. Every page should contain something teachers want to have in their arsenal. This website should be informative and to the point. And that's it!

The current list of official MES sites:

Who is Mark Cox?

I am American, raised in Oklahoma and studied pharmacy at university (at UCONN.) After moving to Japan in 1999, I got TEFL certification and started working as an language teacher. Later, I received Masters in Applied Linguistics in the spring of 2010. I currently work at MES's private English conversation school and I teach classes at two different colleges.

I started teaching English in Japan in 1999. I worked for 2 years full-time in the public school system (elementary schools and junior high schools) and then opened up my own English conversations school. Astounded by the cost of teaching materials, I decided to make everything myself. I made my own curriculum for my children's classes, and what you see throughout the MES network are the materials and activities that I have made to support that, plus collections of resources from other teaching environments I've worked in.

I started making web pages and flash animation intros for my personal web site (which would now be called a blog I guess.) In 2002, I started my own English conversation school in Nagano, Japan. I made some FLASH games and a second web site for the MES English conversation school. Three years later I began MES-English.com to provide the materials that I have made, hoping other teachers will find them useful. I'm married and have 4 children. My own children serve as the inspiration at times and as the fun inspectors on most materials. I've found the materials very useful and I hope you do too.

Why does MES provide its products for free?

I like to make stuff :) and these materials worked really well for me. MES is supported by donations and advertisements. These make it possible to cover server costs, time, and programmer fees. I love to use these materials and I love to see them being used. In the end, providing these resources should be helpful to teachers and parents, then indirectly benefit the students and our future.

I wanted to share what I have made so that maybe it will help you as a teacher, parent or student. Maybe these materials will inspire you, help you in your classes, and give you more time. Hopefully that time can be used to help some student(s) who need you, or maybe it just gives you a break and reduces your stress level, all of which leads to a healthier and happier class. I hope MES sites and resources do that.

Where is MES-English headed and what can I expect?

MES is fundamentally a printables provider and that will not change. However, moving forward MES will focus on providing more online services for both teachers and students.

What does MES stand for?

MES is just MES. The MES logo was designed for Mark's English School and I used the branding on my original materials. When I decided to create a site for teachers, I decided to keep 'MES' and tie everything together. So, originally 'MES' stood for Mark's English School, but in 2010, MES Inc. was founded with no legal ties to any meaning behind MES.

What restrictions are there with MES materials?

MES materials, resources and websites are for personal use only. Use of MES websites and MES resources is provided under the free End User License Agreement and the additional paid license agreement offers some added options. You can read the End User License Agreement by following the link above.

Does MES keep any personal information or other information about its visitors?

You don't need to give any personal information to use any MES site. However, all sites run site statistic tracking software and ads from Google Adsense and possibly other third party advertisers may use cookies. To view the MES Privacy Policy outlining what information is obtained and how to opt out of such services, please go to the MES Privacy Policy page.