Facing the Future is offering Buy, Use, Toss, a 10 lesson unit on consumption, for free download. It looks very good, and features some old favorites like The Story of Stuff and Chris Jordan. It’s aimed at grades 9-12, and seems like it would be perfect for adult ESL learners. The lessons ask students to [...]
Entries Tagged as 'blog'
Buy, Use, Toss – Free 10 Lesson Unit from Facing the Future
September 2nd, 2010 · No Comments
Tags: blog · consumerism · fair trade · global issues activities · k-12 · pictures · poverty & wealth · reading · statistics · the environment · video · visual prompts
Gulf Oil Spill Lesson Using Cartoons
August 30th, 2010 · No Comments
The Choices Program has just published a free lesson on the Gulf oil spill based on political cartoons. I love using political cartoons with students, as they are often very efficient ways to understand complex issues. The lesson includes a handout on analyzing political cartoons, a slideshow of the eight cartoons, and links to a [...]
Tags: Gulf oil spill · blog · climate change · consumerism · global issues activities · health · the environment · video · visual prompts
Creating “Safe Zones” for LGBTQ ESL Students
August 4th, 2010 · No Comments
At our last teacher development day, my wife gave a presentation on helping LGBTQ students and instructors feel comfortable and respected in our classes, and in our program as a whole. Below, you can find PDFs of the different materials she used. Her presentation was based in part on USF’s Safe Zone program. We started [...]
Tags: blog
Gapminder
July 13th, 2010 · No Comments
I’ve long been a fan of visual prompts. I like materials that enable quick understanding of issues, so that students can move into discussion, writing, etc. Gapminder is a great site that shows a range of statistics in very accessible ways. The main section of the site is Gapminder World. The default graph compares life [...]
Tags: blog · climate change · finance · food and hunger · global issues activities · health · human rights · natural disasters · poverty & wealth · slideshow · statistics · the environment · visual prompts · war · water
How I Plan a Lesson
July 1st, 2010 · 2 Comments
I was recently asked in an email how I approach planning a lesson. At first, I struggled to put it into words. I don’t really think there is any one right way. For me, I usually approach lesson plans the same way I approach planning courses. I start from the big picture. What are our [...]
Tags: ESL activity · blog · reflection · theory
Downfall
June 20th, 2010 · No Comments
Downfall is a new gameshow on ABC that tosses un-won prizes off the side of a building. Cars, TVs, motorcycles smash on the street below. It is unbelievable that, in 2010, ABC thought a show glorifying such environmental and economic waste was a good idea. To make it even more surreal, it’s hosted by a [...]
Tags: blog · consumerism · cultural issues · global issues activities · video · visual prompts
Teach UNICEF
June 16th, 2010 · No Comments
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 [...]
Tags: audio · blog · child labor · cultural issues · fair trade · finance · food and hunger · global issues activities · global issues resources · health · human rights · listening · maps · natural disasters · pictures · politics · poverty & wealth · reading · slideshow · statistics · video · visual prompts · vocabulary · volunteering · war · water
Cool Earth Infographic
June 15th, 2010 · No Comments
This great infographic from Our Amazing Planet ties together a lot of interesting facts. Scrolling town from the upper edge of the atmosphere to the bottom of the deepest ocean trench, a lot of things are put in perspective. For example, I found it amazing to see just how close to an airliner the highest [...]
Tags: blog
The Money Gusher / Oil Spill Resources
June 8th, 2010 · 1 Comment
The Money Gusher, George Monbiot’s latest column, draws interesting parallels between the financial crisis and the ongoing Gulf oil spill. Pollution has been defined as a resource in the wrong place. That’s also a pretty good description of the company’s profits. The great plumes of money that have been bursting out of the company’s accounts [...]
Tags: blog · climate change · environmental justice · finance · financial crisis (2008) · global issues activities · health · infographics · maps · poverty & wealth · reading · slideshow · statistics · the environment
Dropbox
June 3rd, 2010 · 3 Comments
Dropbox is free software that helps you keep your files synced. I like Google docs, but if you ever want to edit them in something else, the formatting is a mess. Instead, I find myself emailing documents back and forth between home and work, trying to make sure I’m always working on the latest version. [...]
Tags: blog · software · teacher tools