ESL etc.

I love these! Designer Candy Chang’s Tenants’ Rights Flash Cards come in sets of 30, with each one explaining a different right. They would make a great addition to a class for adult immigrant students. Some of the laws referred to are specific to New York, but a lot of the information […]

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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 […]

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Af-flu-en-za n. 1. The bloated, sluggish and unfulfilled feeling that results from efforts to keep up with the Joneses. 2. An epidemic of stress, overwork, waste and indebtedness caused by dogged pursuit of the American Dream. 3. An unsustainable addiction to economic growth. 4. A television program that could change your life.
Affluenza is a […]

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I’m a fan of statistics as conversation / writing prompts, and Worldometers features a bunch of interesting stats. The main page provides real-time stats on a variety of issues, including consumption (military expenses, car production etc.), the environment (CO2 emissions, forest loss, etc.) and food (number of overweight people, number of people who […]

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The Institute for Humane Education has a great collection of activities, many of which could be used with English language learners. Most of them are aimed at younger learners, but many could also be used effectively with adults. I haven’t yet had a chance to go through the whole site, but I took […]

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I just became aware of A Young People’s History of the United States,a version of Howard Zinn’s classic targeted towards younger readers. I haven’t seen the book myself yet, but I suspect that it would work well with English learners, too.

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Howard Zinn passed away on Wednesday. He is one of my favorite authors and educators, and he will certainly be missed.
Recently, Rethinking Schools and Teaching for Change launched the Zinn Education Project, a collection of resources for teaching A People’s History of the United States. There are tons of great materials here for […]

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Larry Ferlazzo recently posted two Christmas themed infographics. The first focuses on the economy. The second looks at a broader range of statistics. Either (or both) could be used to introduce a variety of global issues around the holidays.

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Perhaps it’s just the collapse of Copenhagen, but this slideshow seems quite relevant this time of year. It addresses the consequences of travel, trees, gifts and food, among other things. Strangely, though, the food section does not mention anything about eating meat.
Sorry to be a scrooge!
Thanks Larry

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Here are a bunch of quick links that I have been meaning to post for a while:
Strange Maps is a great blog that features, well, strange maps. The pictures are really interesting, and the accompanying text is usually informative. A Road Map to Success and Bridge to Nowhere: a Map of Golden Gate […]

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