Surfing the net I have found this useful tool and I would like to share it with you. With ESl Search for English as a second Language you will be able to find ESL related information in a fast and easy way. As it is powered by google it is very reliable. It is great because it only searches sites about learning and teaching English as a second language. Apart from that, it is extremely easy to use. Just as you use any other search engine: type your search word into the box and then click search. And there you’ve got plenty of results to start looking at. Hope you like it and find it useful!

I have prepared this lesson plan based on the song “Fire Coming Out of a Monkey’s Head” by Gorillaz, because one of my students asked me to. However, I have to admit that I ended up enjoying the song a lot (thanks Fernando!!!!). It is a very cryptic song, full of hidden meanings. It is hard work trying to find out its true meaning. Yet, it is also great fun, very engaging and motivating. Here goes a video of the song and at the end of the post you’ll find a copy of the lesson plan. Hope you enjoy it.

Leave us a comment sharing with us your experience with the song and your interpretation of it.

lesson_plan

It’s been a long time since my last post. I’m sorry but I’ve been extremely busy. Well, in fact,  I’m still busy but I’ve found a great resource online that I would like to share with you. If you are a fan of web 2.0 (just like me), and I’m sure you are. If you are always on the lookout for great new webpages, blogs, and so on and so forth. You will cherish In Suggest as much as I do.

In Suggest is an online tool that helps you find new websites based on your personal taste. You will just have to enter the addresses of your favourite websites, and you will instantly get recommendations for new ones. It is also possible to do the same with images from flickr and also with… your bookmarks in delicious (remember that I’m sabridv in delicious, if you would like to be part of my network)!!! It’s amazing. I’ve already tried it out and found lots of interesting sites related to esl, efl and tefl.

EXTRA BONUS: To make up for all the time I’ve been away from this blog, I will share with you another resource I’ve found using In Suggest. Esl pod tv is a great podcast for learners and teachers of English as a foreign or second language. There you will find short video clips and mp3 sound files which are available to download from the site as podcasts. The lessons are aimed at students with an intermediate to advanced level of English and are also supplemented by online interactive exercises. In addition there are PDF files of lesson plans based on the podcast materials that teachers can use in the classroom.

Hope you find it useful and don’t hesitate to share with us the wonderful resources and webpages you’ll find using In Suggest.

Don’t think that it is something complicated. In fact, sharing your pics, word documents, power point presentations and others with your Twitter friends is at one-click distance. It is extremely easy with this new application: Tweet Cube. “Tweetcube allows you to share files on Twitter. Blast out your images, videos, music and more with just a couple of clicks.” Apart from that, it is 100% FREE!!! The only drawback is that you can currently upload only 10 mb. However, you can upload as many files as you want. Take into account that the files will be deleted after 30 days. Hope you enjoy it. And remember, if you want to start following me, I’m sabridv at Twitter.

Surfing the net I came across an excellent tool: TIME TUBE. If you enter a key word, the system creates a timeline for you with videos taken mainly from you tube. I haven’t used it yet in any of my classes, but I believe it has a great potential for the English classroom (and for most of other subjects too). You can use it for practising narrative tenses, dealing with history topics, current news and whatever you can imagine. I’m planning to use it for discussing with my students the economic situation in our country (Argentina). I’m sure that you will have plenty more ideas. Why not share them with us?

Today is Bono’s birthday, so let’s take this opportunity to bring a bit of music into the classroom. I have prepared some activities for the song Bono has dedicated to his father: “Sometimes you can’t Make it on your Own”. You will find activities for teaching vocabulary, listening comprehension and grammar (don’t have to vs. mustn’t). Download the file, play the video from You Tube and that’s it.

A great fun lesson to enjoy with your students. Don’t forget to tell us how it works and if you have any other idea : SHARE IT WITH US

PDF File: You_can\’t_make_it_on_your_own

If you are a Twitter addict or fan, you will most probably get surprised once you use this great and fun tool: Twitter Charts. You are asked to enter your Twitter ID (which must be publicly available) and then, the system generates lots of charts providing information about your tweets by month, day of the week and hour. It also specifies who you have been twitting with. A nice toy to play with and realise how much time we spend in front of the computer without realising it.

NOTE: Emapey has written a good post about this in his blog : Online Sapiens

If you are a busy teacher, with no time in your hands… If your old flashcards are getting yellowish and you believe it’s time to renew them, but you are constantly putting it off…If you don’t want to spend too much time preparing them and at the same time you want to give them a high quality look… Here is the solution to all your problems: The Cambridge English Online Flashcard Maker.

It allows you to prepare flashcards using drawings from an image library, making your own drawings or just by inserting text. It also has a great feature: You can include the phonetic transcript of the word!

I’m sure there are other great tools out there in the web 2.0 world for creating flashcards: are you using any? What are the advantages and disadvantages of these tools? Can you share them with us? Looking forward to your comments.

The 3rd May is “World Press Freedom Day” so why not take the opportunity to discuss this important issue with our students? A great film we can use to bring about this topic is “All the president’s men”. Here you will see the trailer of the movie.

You may decide to watch the whole film with your students or concentrate on the scene in which Carl Berstein confronts the public relations executive and secures information about Mr. Dahlberg (at about one hour into the film). Before watching the film, you can discuss the meaning of free press and explain to them that they are going to watch a scene from a film about the of role the press. Students will need to have information about the Watergate case. If you find it necessary, provide them with some background information (e.g from Wikipedia)

Divide them into 4 groups and ask each group to view the film from one of the following perspectives: the investigative reporters, the editors, the people being investigated, and US Citizens. They should collect information for a debate about:

1) The techniques used by investigative reporters. What type of questions do they ask? What ethical standards do they follow?

2) What risks are involved in running a controversial story such as this? What ethical standards do editors follow?

3) How people being investigated respond to the press? How are they feeling? Are they honest?

After watching the film, give them some time in groups to organise their ideas for the debate. Then, make a whole class debate. To sum up the discussion, you might pose the following questions: What values seem to conflict with freedom of press? What can we do to ensure free press? What limits, if any, do you think we as a society should place on the press?

If you don’t have acces to a VCR or DVD player and you still want to deal with this topic, there are several lesson plans on the net. The ones I liked the most are the following two:

1) An article on press censorship in the bbc learning englich central website.

2) An article or listening activity at Breaking News English ESL Lesson Plans.

Hope you find it useful. If you have any other idea, don’t hesitate to leave a comment.

Have you ever wondered how much “nature” your lifestyle requires? Why not take this opportunity (Earth Day, which is on 22nd March) to reflect upon what we are doing to our planet? You can start the class with a short warm up activity. This Ecological Footprint Quiz estimates how much productive land and water you need to support what you use and what you discard. Beware, you may be surprise at the results!

A good film that fits perfectly with this topic is Al Gore’s documentary “An Inconvenient Truth”. Here you will find a list of questions that you can use to discuss with your students after watching the movie. You can finish the class by watching this video, which I have found in video jug, in order to promote some action. What can they do to help solving this problem?

Finally, if you want to revise making predictions (using goign to and will) you can find out whether they are pessimistic or optimistic about the future of our planet. Ask them to make some predictions. They can talk about the climate, the anvironment, energy, health, transport, agriculture and many others.

Hope you find it useful and don’t forget to share your ideas or experience with us.