I just read this account of an English teachers experience participating in a conference session using Reacting to the Past. Reacting to the Past is an approach to teaching history and critical thinking skills using historical roleplays. From their pedagogical introduction: Reacting games last from four to fourteen class sessions, although most games are in […]
Entries Tagged as 'cultural issues'
Reacting to the Past
April 3rd, 2015 · 1 Comment
Tags: blog · books · cultural issues · ESL activity · history · human rights · lesson plans · poverty & wealth
New Internationalist Easier English Wiki – Update
July 7th, 2014 · 1 Comment
I first posted about the New Internationalist Easier English Wiki about a year and a half ago. Since then, they’ve added a lot of great materials to their site. The New Internationalist is a magazine focused on promoting global justice and, through their easier English wiki, they make articles more accessible to English language learners […]
Tags: blog · climate change · consumerism · cultural issues · environmental justice · fair trade · finance · food and hunger · global issues activities · global issues resources · human rights · infographics · lesson plans · peace and war · politics · poverty & wealth · protests · the environment
BART Summer Symposium 2013 – Feeding International Students with the Language they Need
June 7th, 2013 · No Comments
I’m giving the presentation I did at TESOL this year on providing international students the food-related language they need at the BART Summer Symposium. My premise is that we focus on the language for expressing preference, describing cultural foods, and understanding recipes, despite the fact that these are not the most pressing food-related needs that […]
Tags: BART Symposium 2013 · cultural issues · ESL activity · food and hunger · global issues activities · health · presentations · reading · the environment · vegetarian / vegan
TESOL 2013 – Feeding International Students with the Language They Need
March 21st, 2013 · No Comments
Here are the materials from my TESOL presentation on giving international students the food-related language they need. My premise is that we focus on the language for expressing preference, describing cultural foods, and understanding recipes. In fact, these are not the most pressing food-related needs that our students have. I propose that food lessons should […]
Tags: blog · cultural issues · ESL activity · food and hunger · global issues activities · health · presentations · reading · the environment · vegetarian / vegan
The Weirdest People in the World
March 5th, 2013 · 5 Comments
Joseph Henrich, Steven Heine and Ara Norenzayan recently published a paper on The Weirdest People in the World. Here, weird is an acronym meaning Western, educated, industrialized, rich and democratic. Henrich et al question the conclusions reached by social science experiments conducted largely at American universities. They propose that many of the fundamental truths arrived […]
Tags: blog · cultural issues · global issues activities · happiness · health · infographics · reading
After Capitalism
September 17th, 2012 · No Comments
After Capitalism is a series of short animated videos available from The Guardian. Each video features a student animation of an impression of post-capitalist society. I was particularly struck by this one. The text of each animation comes from various authors and economists, including one of my favorite journalists, George Monbiot. The videos are short […]
Tags: blog · consumerism · cultural issues · fair trade · food and hunger · global issues activities · happiness · health · human rights · imagined future · listening · politics · poverty & wealth · racism · the environment · video · visual prompts
Youth Xchange: Training Kit on Responsible Consumption
October 24th, 2011 · No Comments
Youth Xchange is produced by UNEP and UNESCO, and it has links to loads of educational resources aimed at young people. Topics include the environment, consumption, body image, nutrition, and much, much more. I haven’t nearly explored it all, but there is a lot of good stuff here. It is mostly profiles of people and […]
Tags: blog · climate change · consumerism · cultural issues · food and hunger · global issues resources · health · k-12 · poverty & wealth · statistics
RSA Animate
July 28th, 2011 · 5 Comments
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 […]
Tags: art as activism · audio · blog · climate change · consumerism · cultural issues · global issues activities · global issues resources · happiness · health · human rights · infographics · listening · politics · poverty & wealth · the environment · video · visual prompts
Developing a Global Perspective for Educators
June 2nd, 2011 · No Comments
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 […]
Tags: blog · climate change · conferences · consumerism · cultural issues · fair trade · food and hunger · global issues activities · global issues resources · health · human rights · k-12 · poverty & wealth · the environment · water
“The Economics of Happiness” and “I AM”
April 20th, 2011 · No Comments
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 […]
Tags: blog · climate change · consumerism · cultural issues · fair trade · food and hunger · global issues activities · happiness · health · human rights · listening · politics · poverty & wealth · the environment · video · visual prompts