NCTE's Comprehensive Resources for Navigating Complex Classroom Discussions

In today's diverse and dynamic educational landscape, fostering open and thoughtful discussions on complex topics is more crucial than ever. The National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) recognizes this need and offers a wealth of resources designed to support educators in facilitating meaningful conversations that promote critical thinking and civic engagement. 

NCTE provides an extensive collection of web-based materials aimed at equipping teachers with the tools necessary to address challenging subjects effectively. Find them on:

https://ncte.org/resources/

English on the Rocks

Si tienes interés por trabajar recursos y ejercicios prácticos en inglés relacionados con la gramática, el léxico (vocabulario, falsos amigos, diferencias entre inglés americano y británico, slang...), curiosidades sobre la lengua y hasta un repertorio de canciones esta página podría responder a tus necesidades a través de sus muy diversos materiales, especialmente orientados al público de habla castellana.

En Twitter: https://twitter.com/EnglishOTR

En Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/englishontherocks

En Google+: https://plus.google.com/+EnglishOTR/posts

Canal en YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/EnglishOTR

Visita: http://www.englishontherocks.com/

Timeglo.be

Developed by Misha Wagner, with the help of Joe Groocock and based on an idea by Hoagy Cunningham, Timeglo.be uses data from Wikipedia and Dbpedia to show the location of over 20,000 historical events on an interactive 3D globe. 

You can search for events by date and by key words. More detailed information on Wikipedia is also provided, 

This resource lets you explore the history of the world in a very visual way. Very interesting tool for History teachers in CLIL programmes. 

https://timeglo.be/

LitCharts

LitCharts is an online site from the creators of SparkNotes.

It provides literature guides for more or less 300 literary classics. Its charts can be viewed online and downloaded in a PDF file. Each chart presents a bulleted-list-style summary of every single plot point in the book side-by-side with analysis and color-coded themes for each point. The interactive data visualizations of books are awesome.

http://www.litcharts.com/

Blog: http://www.litcharts.com/blog

On Twitter: https://twitter.com/litcharts

On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/litcharts

App on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/litcharts/id867311750?mt=8

Gif Lingua

Interesting site based on animated GIF images as a good resource to provide visual contents for English language learning.

Images are arranged into categories: Pronunciation, News, Music, Videos and Levels 1-6. Have a look at a section called Books. You will find many extra supporting materials.

http://giflingua.com/

Gif Lingua on Twitter: https://twitter.com/giflingua

Gif Lingua on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/giflingua

Gif Lingua on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJyfx_kTGYbw-JMt-bwULOA

Colorín Colorado

Colorín Colorado is a US bilingual website in English and Spanish serving parents and teachers of English language learners in grades PreK-12. It receives major funding from the American Federation of Teachers and National Education Association.

Colorín Colorado provides free multimedia materials on bilingual education (videos, toolkits, activities, articles...) and advice to parents and schools.

On Twitter: https://twitter.com/colorincolorado

On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ColorinColorado.org

On YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/colorincolorado

http://www.colorincolorado.org/

ELT Resources on Pearltrees by Verónica Alconchel (@Veronica_elt)

Pearltrees is a visual and collaborative curation tool that allows you to organize, explore and share any URL, as well as to upload photos, files, notes, etc. It is a very useful tool when collecting and sharing learning & teaching resources for ELT students.

This amazing collection by Verónica Alconchel Pertejo, an ESL teacher from Zaragoza, will help you find the best resources organized by categories.

http://www.pearltrees.com/valconchel#l427

Don't forget to visit her blog:

http://myenglishbackroom.blogspot.com.es/

Also on Pinterest:

https://www.pinterest.com/valconchel/

Philosophers in the Schools Program

The University of Washington's Center for Philosophy for Children developes this program dedicated to introducing philosophy to K-12 students by using chindren's books and activities to inspire explorationof life's essential questions.

On their web site lots of resources are available:

Over 100 lessons plans for using literature to introduce philosophy:

http://depts.washington.edu/nwcenter/lessonsplansdiscussquestions.html

Games and exercises:

http://depts.washington.edu/nwcenter/lessonsclassroom.html

Philosophy with Young People (Blog):

http://philosophyforchildren.blogspot.com.es/

Links to interesting sites about philosophy for young people:

http://depts.washington.edu/nwcenter/

Cram. Online flashcards

Flashcards can be fun and effective when learning a foreign language. They are great resources to study, memorize and test yourself. There are many ways of using them both with individuals and groups. On the benefits of flashcards in learning:

http://www.cram.com/about

The internet is a great source of flashcards. You'll find many places on the web that offer them, for example, Cram.

Cram, originally called Flashcard Exchange was founded in January 2001. Since that time, the site has grown into the largest online source of flashcards and a thriving community of educators, students, and all types of enthusiastic learners.

On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CramMode

On Twitter: https://twitter.com/flashcards

On Google+: https://plus.google.com/+CramMode/posts

You can also find other mobile flashcards for your Android or iPhone device:

Web site:

http://www.cram.com/

Cram (Tag: English)

http://www.cram.com/tag/english

Ask Smithsonian

Founded in 1846, the Smithsonian is the world's largest museum and research complex, consisting of 19 museums and galleries, the National Zoological Park, and several research facilities.

Ask Smithsonian is a part of Smithsonian website which provides a collection of educational videos for common questions about History, Science, Nature, etc. Each of them is answered with the help of interactive and funny videos. All the videos range from 60-80 seconds in length.

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/videos/category/ask-smithsonian/?no-ist

Teachers TryScience

Teachers TryScience is a collaborative web site developed by the New York Hall of Science, IBM Corporation and teachengineering.org to bring best practices in design-based learning to schools in order to challenge students to engineer solutions through their knowledge of Science, Technology, Engineering an Math (STEM)

It provides elementary school students with a collection of free and engaging lessons and science activities. You can browse them by topic, by age and by estimated time required.

http://www.teacherstryscience.org/

NeoK12

Comprehensive collection of educational video clips and games (quizz games, puzzles, vocabulary…) for kids that are in grades kindergarten through 12th grade, covering the subjects of science, math, health, social studies and Engilish.

All videos and lessons linked are safe for kids and have been reviewed by teachers. They can be viewed on other sites but it is easier to find them here.

Access to some of their items require a paid subscription.

Good stuff to make lessons more exciting and visual.

http://www.neok12.com/

Happy Pi Day

Pi Day is an annual celebration of the mathematical constant pi π in the US. Pi Day is observed on March 14 (3/14) since 3, 1, and 4 are the first three significant digits of π. 

The earliest known official or large-scale celebration of Pi Day was organized by Larry Shaw in 1988 at the San Francisco Exploratorium. 

Pi Day can be celebrated in a number of ways, most commonly by eating pies, discussing its significance, holding math quizzes etc.

Some ideas and resources to celebrate Pi Day in English:

http://www.piday.org/

https://es.pinterest.com/amyla16/pi-day/ 

https://www.pinterest.com/profwilcox/pi-day-activities/

http://www.ck12.org/search/?q=Pi&source=ck12 

http://www.educationworld.com/a_lesson/lesson/lesson335.shtml 

Wizer.me

Wizer.me is a free simple and quick online tool that allows teachers to create their own interactive worksheets. To begin using this tool, you need to create a free account.

http://app.wizer.me/

The following video shows how to start creating worksheets by adding relevant materials and customize them to your needs. You can use different types of activities or tasks to make as many worksheets as you like.

LinkEngPark

Free to use resource organized according to various levels (from Elementary to Adavanced) where you find ESL audios and videos with English transcript.. It is updated regularly. It can be a very interesting site if you want to improve your listening skills. It offers podcast, audiobooks and videos

http://linkengpark.com/

On Google+

https://plus.google.com/+LinkEngPark/posts

On Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/LinkEngPark/

On YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/user/LinkEngPark

Study Zone (ELC-University of Victoria)

Interesting web with lessons and practice exercices for students of the English Language Centre (ELC) at the University of Victoria. 

The site is designed for their adult English language learners, but all are welcome to read the lessons and use the exercises.

First, you choose your level. Then, choose a topic. Finally, choose a lesson. Each level has language topics. Each topic has lessons. Lessons include exercises to help you improve your English.

http://web2.uvcs.uvic.ca/elc/studyzone/

Study Jams (Math)

Fantastic built on Flash resources provided by Scholastic that cover elementary mathematics topics (numbers, addition & subtraction, multiplication & division, fractions, decimals & percents, algebra, geometry, measurement, data analysis, probability and problem solving).

These resources consist mainly of videos and interactive activities.

http://studyjams.scholastic.com/studyjams/jams/math/index.htm 

Thanksgiving

Gracias al increíblemente útil blog Free Technology for Teachers, una vez pasados los miedos de Halloween, hemos tenido noticia de un recurso que aborda otra celebración importante en América del Norte (Estados Unidos y Canadá): el Día de Acción de Gracias (Thanksgiving Day).

The First Thanksgiving es un material audiovisual muy atractivo para conocer a través del inglés el origen de la celebración y sus raíces. Descubrir las tradiciones y la cultura nos ayuda a conocer también la lengua de las comunidades que las consideran parte de ellas mismas y de su historia y a comprender mejor a estas comunidades en su contexto. 

http://www.scholastic.com/scholastic_thanksgiving/daily_life/ 

Lexipedia

Lexipedia is an online visual semantic network with dictionary and thesaurus reference functionality. Lexipedia presents words with their semantic relationships displayed in an animated visual word web. Lexipedia supports English, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Spanish languages. (Source: Wikipedia)

You can hoover with mouse over words to view their definition, hear right pronunciation and usage within a sentence.

Each word type has it own color on the chart: nouns are red, verbs are orange, adverbs are green and adjective are blue.

Lexipedia is a useful tool in any classroom setting. It is an excellent place to increase your student's vocabulary and work understanding.

http://lexipedia.com/english

Simple English Wikipedia

When you learn a language reading can also be very helpful. You can learn vocabulary in context, texts that you read show you new expressions that you can use when you write, you can learn at your own speed, etc.

Sometimes the level is too high and you should read something simpler. Simple English Wikipedia is a subdomain of the regular Wikipedia It uses simple English words and shorter sentences. It is for everyone. That includes children and adults who are learning English.

You can find more than 115.000 articles on Simple English Wikipedia.

It seems like a great idea.

https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page