ESL etc.

This Valentine’s Day activity from Teaching Tolerance provides insight into Valentine’s Day’s roots as a holiday of resistance. It also highlights the injustices that can occur during this holiday — “moments of exclusion and ostracism, assumptions of a heterosexual norm” — and draws a parallel between the ban on gay marriage and the ban on […]

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IATEFL’s Global Issues Special Interest Group just added a great new feature to their website: eLesson Inspirations. These inspirations take of the form of video clips, each accompanied by several ideas for how they could be used in a class. Five videos have been posted, and they will add new ones every Saturday. One that […]

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YES! Magazine just added a great new activity based on the above picture to their curriculum section. It would work well in an ESL or EFL classroom. It’s simple, it requires critical thinking, and it makes a great speaking or writing prompt. First, show students the above picture and ask them what they notice. Then, […]

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On a recent episode of Moyers and Company, Bill Moyers sat down with Wendell Berry. Berry is a writer, farmer and environmental activist who has been active in the US for over 50 years. The interview is pretty long (~40 minutes) but sections of it would be great in a lesson on the environment, food, […]

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IATEFL’s Global Issues Special Interest Group is hosting Food Issues Month this October. They’re asking teachers from around the world to shares lessons and activities related to: Hunger and food scarcity Food safety and food regulation Food advertising and labels Meat Genetically modified (GM) foods Diets and food lifestyle choices Obesity and eating disorders Sustainable […]

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Two quick links today. The first (thanks Rob!) is a collection of 40 maps. I love using visual prompts with students, and these maps quickly and clearly communicate a wide range of information about our world. One in particular that I liked (#17, pictured above) is a map of the highest paid US public employees […]

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I’d like to share a couple of articles about the ongoing crackdown by Russia’s government on homosexuality. This article summarizes the issues well, detailing the various laws that have been passed. These include a ban on adoption by gay parents and a law allowing police to arrest tourists and hold them for up to two […]

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For those of you in or near Japan, this is a great opportunity! The deadline for proposals has been extended to August 30. Kip Cates and George Jacobs (two longtime favorites of mine) are on the list of invited speakers. Peace as a Global Language Conference Dates: November 16 – 17, 2013 Venue: Rikkyo University, […]

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The Story of Bottled Water is a video by Annie Leonard and Free Range Studios (of The Story of Stuff fame) on the issue of bottled water. It is relatively short (about 8 minutes) and the language is fairly accessible. They also offer an annotated script that students could read along with. Anthony Lavigne (LinkedIn) […]

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Food MythBusters covers a wide range of topics, including things like hunger and food security and marketing and advertising. They have resources in a variety of formats, including videos, infographics and fact sheets. The blog is also full of great information. This is definitely a site I’d look through if I were putting together a […]

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