ESL etc.

Larry Ferlazzo just posted two multimedia plagiarism resources that could be useful for English learners. The first, Plagiarism, is an interactive slideshow that talks about what is and is not plagiarism. The information is all presented visually, which is nice because English learners can go through it at their own pace. The […]

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I just heard about the book Purple Hearts: Back from Iraqon the World. It’s a collection of photographs and interviews with injured American soldiers returning from Iraq. A short (4:45), powerful slideshow features many of the photos along with recordings taken from the interviews.
More photos are available at Nina Berman’s website. Check […]

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The Interdependence Project is a New York based non-profit group that brings together meditation and activism. I became aware of them through their podcast, 21st Century Buddhism.
In January, they are conducting their 2nd month of responsible consumption. The tenets of the month are:

Daily meditation.
Limiting use of plastic bags, disposable coffee cups, electricity, and […]

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Scott Cook, a friend, musician and English teacher from my days in Taiwan, has just released a CD. It’s honest bluesy folk, and Scott is a wonderful storyteller. Imagine if Tom Waits liked hiking and hacky sack. It’s great, but don’t just take my word for it.
Long Way To Wander resonates with […]

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I just listened to an interview with Larry Sabato on The Diane Rehm Show. They discuss his new book, A More Perfect Constitution. In the book (and interview) he outlines 23 suggestions to improve the Constitution to make it fairer.
If I were teaching ESL students in the US, I think this could be […]

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The K12 Online Conference is a free online conference inviting participation from educators around the world interested in using Web 2.0 tools and technologies in their teaching. The 2007 conference began with a pre-conference keynote on October 8.
Over the following two weeks (October 15-26) forty presentations will be posted online to the conference blog […]

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Kira just told me about LibriVox, a website offering free audio recordings of public domain books. Needless to say, this could be useful for language learners, and also for English teachers living abroad looking to immerse themselves in some native culture.
In addition to the mp3 files, each LibriVox entry also includes a link to […]

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mp3
First, I answer a listener’s request for ideas on getting larger classes to speak. Specifically, I talk about a pronunciation activity, pair/groupwork and roleplays.
Next, I talk about week two of my sophomore English for Tourism conversation classes. I’m trying to improve students acquisition of vocabulary and sentence patterns by covering the same content […]

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Each episode of Grammar Girl: Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing addresses one problematic grammatical issue. As an English teacher, grammar instruction is a weak area for me, and Grammar Girl explains things very clearly and concisely. There are extensive archives, and each show is short (5 minutes or so) and easily digestible.
Past topics […]

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Here are two sites full of free Buddhism resources.
BuddhaNet - Tons of free eBooks and audio files. The eBooks cover general Buddhism, meditation, Theravada Buddhism, Mahayana Buddhism and even children’s books. The audio files include chanting, meditation instruction, Dharma talks and even songs.
Dharma Seed - Tons and tons of wonderful Dharma talks, organized by […]

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