ESL etc.

I just came across the January 2011 issue of English Journal (vol. 100, num. 3), which had the theme of Green English. The journal is aimed at middle and senior high school English teachers, but a lot of the ideas and activities are totally relevant to ESL or EFL contexts. Several of the articles discuss [...]

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I just went through the journals and professional organizations pages to update them and fix all the broken links. I found some great stuff while poking around in there. For one thing, JALT’s GISIG has huge portion of their newsletter archives up on their website. I also added a link to the collection of ESL [...]

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Global Eye is a (now defunct) magazine aiming to bring global issues to primary and secondary schools. Thus, the language is pretty accessible and a lot of it could be used with English language learners. As a magazine, the materials are primarily readings and pictures / graphics, but there are some writing activities in there, [...]

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Developing a Global Perspective for Educators (DGPE) is a website based out of the University of Ottawa that has a bunch of K-12 lesson plans created by students in the education program. These include a handful of thematic packages, which are sets of lesson plans spanning multiple grades that cover similar themes. A lot of [...]

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This month, Green Teacher is offering a series of free one-hour webinars. All of these events begin at 7:30 PM EST. May 10 : FROG SONGS: Poetry and Essays, Field Ecology and Entomology – “Learn to use haiku to teach entomology. Learn to use poetry to help students write clearer more exciting essays. This simple [...]

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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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A friend just sent me this article in Grist about how cycling can help in America’s health care crisis. One paragraph in particular caught my attention: A recent analysis of the health savings resulting from the bicycle infrastructure in Portland, Ore, came up with stunning results. If the city builds out only the infrastructure it [...]

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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 [...]

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George Monbiot just put together a proposal for an agenda for an upcoming rally in the UK that will include a number of different organizations. He did this in recognition of the fact that it is important to be FOR something, not just AGAINST things. This parallels something that I’ve long wondered: how can politicians [...]

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A recent article in the Guardian reveals some of the changes being made on Capitol Hill by the new Republican House. Among other things, they have reinstituted styrofoam coffee cups. These had been replaced with a biodegradable corn starch alternative four years ago. Next on the Republican agenda of environmental retro moves? Lightbulbs. House Republicans [...]

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