the environment

Entries Tagged as 'the environment'

Forces of Change

June 30th, 2009 · No Comments

The Smithsonian’s Forces of Change online exhibit has lots of accessible information on various changes taking place on the Earth, especially those related to the climate. It has sections on the Arctic, the atmosphere, El Nino, and soils.
If I were using this in my class, I would probably first look under the “media library” […]

Rethinking Schools: Environmental Justice

June 29th, 2009 · No Comments

The summer 2009 issue of Rethinking Schools is based around the theme of environmental justice, and lots of the articles are available free on their website.
Highlights include The Big One an article by Bill Bigelow (author of Rethinking Globalization) on teaching about climate change. The article includes a description of several climate change activities, […]

Greening an Intensive English Program 2.0

June 4th, 2009 · No Comments

A couple of years ago, in Hawaii, I worked on making my IEP more environmentally responsible. Now that I’ve been at my new job for a little while, I’m trying to get involved with some similar things here.
First of all, let me say a little about the context. My IEP is housed within […]

New Internationalist: Global Issues for Learners of English

May 22nd, 2009 · No Comments

The New Internationalist has a collection of global issues articles written specifically for learners of English. They have articles on globalization, the environment, human rights and war. They haven’t updated the articles for several years, but the topics are still very relevant.
One example that I like is a series of 5 stories told […]

BBC Climate Change: Bloom

May 13th, 2009 · No Comments

Bloom offers a collection of actions that individuals can take to reduce their contribution to climate change. It’s visually interesting, and features actions in categories like food, shopping, travel and water. The language is fairly accessible, although some of the action explanations are not as clear as they could be. This would […]

Lesson Plans from the International School Studies Association

May 1st, 2009 · No Comments

The International School Studies Association at the University of Denver has a large collection of links to lesson plans that deal with global issues. They break them down thematically (Cultural Studies, Environmental Studies, Economics, etc.) and by grade level. There are tons of lessons available here, so there are bound to be some […]

Virtual Forest Challenge

April 13th, 2009 · No Comments

Virtual Forest Challenge is a video game from Scholastic that takes students through a variety of daily life situations and asks them to make environmentally responsible choices. It doesn’t take that long to play through, and it’s got a good variety of daily behaviors for students to think about. There are also some […]

Environmental Racism Activities from Teaching Tolerance

April 9th, 2009 · No Comments

As Earth Day approaches, one topic that is often left out of the discussion is environmental racism. Teaching Tolerance has three lesson plans designed for different grade levels.

Fair is Fair (K-5) is a good introduction to the concept for children.
Progressive City Planners (6-8) puts students in the role of urban designers, and includes some […]

The Startling Effects of Going Vegetarian for Just One Day

April 8th, 2009 · No Comments

In The Startling Effects of Going Vegetarian for Just One Day, Kathy Freston gives a variety of interesting statistics on the consequences of all Americans not eating meat for just one day. Any serious discussion of climate change has to include diet, and this short article could be a great starting point.
Some highlights:
If everyone […]

Meal Plan: Resources for Teaching and Learning about Food

April 2nd, 2009 · 3 Comments

Yes Magazine has a collection of articles on food that would be great to use with students. Some might need to be adapted, but the topics are good and there is a nice variety. One deals with bringing fresh, healthy food to an urban environment, another with 8 ways to join the local […]

ESL etc.

Global Issues and Activism in English Language Teaching