ESL etc.

Teach UNICEF is a new website that shares a bunch of UNICEF teaching materials by topic and grade level. Topics include child labor, armed conflict, poverty and sanitation, to name a few. Most topics offer materials for grades 6-8 and 9-12, and some include K-2 or 3-5. You can also browse by media type. I [...]

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March 31st was Cesar Chavez’s birthday, and Larry Ferlazzo updated his list of the Best Sites for Learning about Cesar Chavez. His list includes a lot of great stuff, including readings, audio and video clips. One that caught my eye is something from the Smithsonian on the banning of the short-handled hoe. I have to [...]

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Drop the Weapons is a collection of audio and video clips aimed at convincing young people not to carry guns and knives. The speech in these clips is very natural, making it a nice change from scripted recordings. Some of the videos are “choose your own adventures” where viewers interact by choosing what to do [...]

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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 second, Academic Integrity, [...]

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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 the purple [...]

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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, [...]

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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 a Dylan-esque [...]

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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 the [...]

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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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