ESL etc.

EarthPulse is a great website by National Geographic that provides an overview of many global issues. It starts with a series of essays by Thomas Hayden. He takes a much more strongly anti-consumerism stance than I expected from National Geographic.
…here we are, too far into the new century to pretend any longer that […]

[Read more →]

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. […]

[Read more →]

ACT Responsible is a Swiss non-profit that attempts to use the talents of advertisers to address environmental sustainability and social responsibility. Their gallery is full of images and short videos that could be great visual prompts for activities on a wide variety of issues. For starters, check out highlights in The Best Adverts […]

[Read more →]

I just came across an interesting article about Daniel Suelo, an American who has been living without money since 2000. The article offers a brief and accessible biography. Suelo also has a blog and there is also a short documentary on him. I think this would be an interesting way to bring […]

[Read more →]

I was recently asked for suggestions for materials that could be used with younger learners. Here are a few of my favorites.

Facing the Future has a collection of activity-based, global issues lesson plans for students of all ages. In addition to the great stuff they offer for sale, they have a ton of […]

[Read more →]

The Newseum has a flash feature that displays newspaper front pages from around the world. Simply hover over a city on a map and see a photo of today’s front page. This could be a great and quick way to get a sense of what stories are being covered where on a given […]

[Read more →]

Time Magazine has a slideshow showing photos of 15 families alongside a week’s supply of food. Each pictures is accompanied by information about the country in which it was taken, the amount of money that the family typically spends on food per week, and a favorite recipe of two. The images are taken […]

[Read more →]

Photographer Chris Jordan has three series of striking pictures, each of which could stimulate students to think about a variety of issues.
Each picture in Running The Numbers depicts an America statistic by showing an extremely high number of a mundane item. For example, there is a picture of 1,000,000 plastic cups (the number used […]

[Read more →]