ESL etc. » natural building

Dancing Rabbit Blogathon – March 26 / 27

Dave — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 14:06:16 +0000

Dancing Rabbit is an intentional community in northeast Missouri that is dedicated to living sustainably. They eat (and grow) local, organic food, practice natural building techniques, and host educational seminars. I stayed there for three weeks a couple of years ago and loved it. It is truly something worth supporting.

Their website also features past issues of their newsletter, photos and videos, all of which are great ways to introduce a variety of issues. Dancing Rabbit was also featured on an episode of in the first season of 30 Days called “Off the Grid”.

They’re having a fundraising blogathon this Friday and Saturday. $5,000 in matching donations have already been pledged, so please join them on Sustainablog this Friday and Saturday and help raise $10,000 for sustainability education.

One Man’s Trash

Dave — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 14:20:44 +0000

One Man’s Trash is a neat article in the NY Times about Phoenix Commotion, a construction company run by Dan Phillips that makes low-income housing using discarded building materials and other types of “trash”. The article isn’t too long, and could easily be used as part of an activity on consumerism or natural building. The houses are beautiful, and a great slideshow is also available.

(Thanks Larry!)

Podcast #23 – Working Online and a Job Interview Activity

Dave — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 09:20:44 +0000

mp3

In this podcast I talk about what I’ve been doing for the past several months. I talk a bit about my time at Dancing Rabbit, a community based around environmental sustainability with a website full of photos and articles. I also talk about two online jobs, as a tutor for TalkBean.com and as a rater for the iBt TOEFL exam.

I next talk about my new job as the Technology Coordinator for the English Language Institute at the University of South Florida. Check out the new website I’ve been working on.

Finally, I talk about a low-prep job interview discussion activity that I recently did. We began by brainstorming questions as a class, going over vocab and grammar as needed. I also taught some terms related to benefits, and also told students about certain topics (age, marital status) which were illegal to broach in America. I then had students do interviews in pairs, and wrapped up with a class discussion about “difficult” questions — What is your biggest weakness? Why did you leave your last job? etc.

The last thing I mention is a new planner made for teachers interested in social justice.

If you have any questions, or other low-prep activities that work well with all sorts of classes, please let me know.

Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage

Dave — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 20:42:42 +0000

“Dancing Rabbit is an ecovillage set amid the hills and prairies of rural northeastern Missouri. Our goal is to live ecologically sustainable and socially rewarding lives, and to share the skills and ideas behind that lifestyle.”

I spent three weeks at Dancing Rabbit, and had an amazing time. Folks were very welcoming, and I learned a lot about both sustainable and communal living. Their website offers a ton of resources that could be used in class for activities to do with sustainability or environmental issues.

Their newsletter is full of short articles that discuss a wide array of issues in personal ways that I believe would be engaging for students. There are also videos which introduce some techniques for sustainable living and natural building. A section of the photo tour could be useful as a discussion or writing prompt.

When I resume teaching, I am planning to use some of this material for global issues activities. One article in the latest newsletter that caught my attention is Yoga Offsets. It could be used as part of a unit on climate change or in a health and fitness class.