My wife and I just watched a great documentary on PBS called My Life as a Turkey. It tells the story of naturalist and wildlife illustrator Joe Hutto and his experience as “mother” to a brood of wild turkeys. The video powerfully reveals the complex and sophisticated lives of wild turkeys. I think this should be required Thanksgiving viewing (preferably before dinner).

I’ve embedded the first chapter above, but you can watch the whole video for free on the PBS website. I would absolutely use this as part of a Thanksgiving lesson, or in a unit that addresses animal intelligence. In our program, we use the Quest series of books by McGraw-Hill. In Quest 1(which we use in some of our low-intermediate classes), there is a unit on biology that covers animal behavior, communication and learning. This video would fit in perfectly.

I think this is an effective way to get students to look at the ramifications of their consumption, and it also serves as a powerful reminder that slavery is not a thing of the past. I would absolutely use this in class, perhaps following it up with a reflective writing assignment.

Thanks Larry

Thanks Krista

Business Insider has a page that features a ton of different charts and graphs on wealth inequality. It would work great in conjunction with an activity on Occupy Wall Street. The graphs start off showing how unemployment is at an all-time high (since 1940), then they look at CEO pay and corporate profits.

The graph I have included here compares corporate profits and CEO pay rates to production worker income and minimum wage. It makes a clear statement against the argument that a rising tide lifts all ships. Corporate profits and CEO pay have risen tremendously since 1990, but the trickle down of jobs and middle class income has not materialized.

Another interesting chart (far down the page) is one that compares wealth inequality in the US to that of other countries. We currently rank 93rd, behind China, Iran and Russia. Even further down is some information about how banks are using the money they are borrowing from the government at virtually 0% interest to buy treasury bills, profiting from free loans with zero risk.

These charts could be used in a wide array of activities on business, wealth and poverty, globalization, and worker’s rights. The page as a whole is probably too much, but a few carefully chosen graphs or charts would make a great addition to a reading or discussion activity.

Thanks Khalid!

If I were doing a unit on business or the economy, I would absolutely use materials from this site. Many of the readings are fairly short, and the language is pretty down to earth.

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 charity, choice, and education, just to name a few. In addition to the various content areas that these lectures could be used in, they would be a great addition to activities working on lecture listening and note taking.

Unfortunately, I didn’t find the RSA website so easy to navigate. For example, I couldn’t find a page that indexed all of the animated lectures. That said, there are many articles and other materials on the website that would be interesting to use in class, so poking around a bit is not a bad thing. If you’re looking for a shortcut, though, here is a search that highlights the RSA Animate lectures. Another approach is to browse through their YouTube channel, which includes many non-animated lectures as well.

Along the same lines, Yes Magazine has an article about 5 acts of performance-based protest. I’m not thrilled with the tone of the article (“laughtivism” seems overly reductive) but the events themselves are very interesting. For one thing, it is great to show students that activism has many different faces. I tend to emphasize the activism that we take in our everyday actions, and it is important show students the range of responses that are available.

This is the question posed by Sibylle Machat via her website, where she displays drawings of people’s imagined answers. She invites people to submit their ideas via postcard. This would be a great class activity, and the images Sibylle has already collected would make great writing or discussion prompts. Plus, students would probably get a kick out of seeing their work displayed online. This would obviously fit in well with a global issues class, but it would also work as part of a unit on community or activist art.

Thank Tom (via IATEFL’s GISIG)

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 great stuff: true cost economics, the wastefulness of our “efficiency” of scale, and the importance of local communities. For more information, there is a recent review in Yes Magazine.

The other movie (thanks Khalid) is I AM.

It’s directed by the director of The Nutty Professor and Ace Ventura and the trailer is a little melodramatic, but the premise is interesting. He went to a wide variety of people (including personal favorites like Howard Zinn and Noam Chomsky) and asked them two questions:

1. What’s wrong with the world?
2. What can we do about it?

The ultimate conclusion seems to be that we are all very interconnected, and that we find happiness and health through taking care of each other. I think both of these movies (or at least clips from them) would work well in a unit on happiness and global issues.