ESL etc.

As we close in on the American holiday of Thanksgiving, the Greater Good Science Center at Berkeley offers some ideas for a variety of gratitude activities. These would be great to include around the holiday, or just in general. And be sure to check out the rest of the education section of the Greater Good […]

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I am a huge David Foster Wallace fan, and I think this video adapted from a commencement speech he gave in 2005 is fantastic. I would especially considering showing it to my college- or grad-school-bound students. It’s a bit long, and it’s certainly not the easiest thing in the world to understand, but I love […]

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I love Shane Koyczan. I first heard his work in a collaboration with musician Dan Mangan called Tragic Turn of Events / Move Pen Move. His most recent work is a project based around his poem To This Day, where he collaborated with numerous volunteers to make a video that powerfully addresses the issue of […]

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Joseph Henrich, Steven Heine and Ara Norenzayan recently published a paper on The Weirdest People in the World. Here, weird is an acronym meaning Western, educated, industrialized, rich and democratic. Henrich et al question the conclusions reached by social science experiments conducted largely at American universities. They propose that many of the fundamental truths arrived […]

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With all the talk of Black Friday (here in the US), I always like to do a short lesson on Buy Nothing Day around this time of year. One place to get materials is the Adbusters’ campaign page, where there are a number of protest ideas and posters. Developing Teachers has a 90-minute lesson based […]

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After Capitalism is a series of short animated videos available from The Guardian. Each video features a student animation of an impression of post-capitalist society. I was particularly struck by this one. The text of each animation comes from various authors and economists, including one of my favorite journalists, George Monbiot. The videos are short […]

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The Simplicity Exercises is a free PDF full of lessons that engage students with the concept of simplicity. Produced by the Simplicity Institute, it covers areas such as mindfulness, the environment, money and time, asking students to consider simplicity and sufficiency. Some of the activities are experiential. For example, a lesson called Silence and Solitude […]

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Occupy Wall Street is a protest in New York City that has been going on for 18 days. On Saturday, 700 protesters were arrested, following the arrest of 80 protesters the week before. The occupation involves members of a number of different groups, and the main thrust is a frustration with the fact that American […]

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The RSA Animate series of video clips is an interesting way to present some very sophisticated ideas to learners. The visual nature of the lectures helps comprehension and helps hold student interest. The lecture above looks at how recent developments in cognitive science change our understanding of human nature. Other lectures deal with concepts like […]

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I just became aware of two documentaries that would fit nicely into a unit on happiness. The first is The Economics of Happiness. This documentary links a number of global issues (climate change, terrorism, etc.) with personal issues (depression, loneliness, etc.). I haven’t seen the whole thing, but the trailer brings up a lot of […]

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