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 [...]
Entries Tagged as 'listening'
Occupy Wall Street
October 4th, 2011 · 2 Comments
Tags: blog · consumerism · finance · financial crisis (2008) · global issues activities · happiness · infographics · listening · pictures · poverty & wealth · reading · slideshow · video
RSA Animate
July 28th, 2011 · 4 Comments
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 [...]
Tags: art as activism · audio · blog · climate change · consumerism · cultural issues · global issues activities · global issues resources · happiness · health · human rights · infographics · listening · politics · poverty & wealth · the environment · video · visual prompts
“The Economics of Happiness” and “I AM”
April 20th, 2011 · No Comments
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 [...]
Tags: blog · climate change · consumerism · cultural issues · fair trade · food and hunger · global issues activities · happiness · health · human rights · listening · politics · poverty & wealth · the environment · video · visual prompts
Happiness and English language teaching
April 13th, 2011 · 1 Comment
My wife went to the recent TESOL conference in New Orleans, and one of the sessions she went to was a talk by Marc Helgesen on language teaching and positive psychology. Positive psychology is a relatively new movement in psychology that basically looks at the science of happiness. On his website, Helgesen shares a variety [...]
Tags: blog · global issues activities · happiness · health · lesson plans · listening · reading · speaking · visual aids · writing
Got Coal? • Teaching About the Most Dangerous Rock in America
March 24th, 2011 · No Comments
The latest issue of Rethinking Schools features a description of a great activity by Bill Bigelow (of Rethinking Globalization) teaching students about coal mining. Bigelow’s activity starts with a game created by the coal industry, asking students to mine cookies for chocolate chips. Students buy a cookie and a mining implement (paperclip, toothpick, etc.), then [...]
Tags: blog · climate change · global issues activities · lesson plans · listening · speaking · the environment
Corporations vs. Democracy
March 3rd, 2011 · No Comments
The Story of Citizens United v. FEC is a new video by Annie Leonard (of the Story of Stuff fame) about how corporations have gained undue influence in American democracy. She looks at it historically and also looks at the 2010 Supreme Court case of the (ironically named) Citizens United v. FEC. As a result [...]
Tags: blog · global issues activities · history · listening · politics · poverty & wealth · 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 · lesson plans · listening · maps · natural disasters · pictures · politics · poverty & wealth · reading · slideshow · statistics · video · visual prompts · vocabulary · volunteering · war · water
The Best Sites for Learning about Cesar Chavez
April 4th, 2010 · No Comments
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 [...]
Tags: audio · blog · child labor · cultural issues · food and hunger · global issues activities · health · human rights · listening · pictures · politics · poverty & wealth · racism · reading · slideshow · video · visual prompts
Drop the Weapons
March 30th, 2010 · No Comments
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 [...]
Tags: audio · blog · guns and knives · listening · video
A Class Divided
July 22nd, 2009 · No Comments
A Class Divided is a wonderful episode of Frontline that shows an ingenious two-day activity undertaken by the third grade class of teacher Jane Elliot. In this activity, devised the night Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, Elliot divides her class into blue-eyes and brown-eyes. On the first day, the blue-eyed students are given preferential [...]
Tags: blog · cultural issues · global issues activities · k-12 · lesson plans · listening · politics · racism · speaking · video