St. Valentine's Day... again

Each year on February 14^th many people around the world celebrate St. Valentine's Day. It began as a liturgical celebration but now the day is associated with romantic love and people exchange cards, flowers, gifts... with their special valentine.

Internet gathers and disseminates educational resources about this celebration which may be helpful for ESL or EFL teachers to motivate students. After all, love is a universal theme.

This list is just a small sample of them:

Websites:

http://www.isabelperez.com/valentine.htm

http://busyteacher.org/classroom_activities-vocabulary/holidays_and_celebrations/saint_valentines_day-worksheets/

http://bogglesworldesl.com/valentines_day_worksheets.htm

http://www.teacherplanet.com/resource/valentines.php

http://www.esolcourses.com/topics/valentines-day.html

http://www.henry4school.fr/Celebrations/valentine/valentine.htm

http://lessonplanspage.com/valentines-htm/

On Pinterest:

https://www.pinterest.com/queenslace/crafts-february-st-valentines-day/

https://es.pinterest.com/debchitwood/kids-valentine-s-day-activities/

On Symbaloo:

http://www.symbaloo.com/mix/valentine1?searched=true

Change4Life. Snack Swaps

Would you like ideas, recipes and games to help you be healthier and happier? Snack Swaps provides you with a range of educational resources to help teach the importance of making healthier choices.

These resources will help teachers and families to find new and exciting ways to teach children why it’s so important that they eat a balanced diet and not one high in sugar, saturated fat and salt.

Downloadable resources: 

http://www.nhs.uk/change4life/pages/schools-partners.aspx

Change4Life on Twitter: 

https://twitter.com/change4life

Change4Life on Facebook: 

https://www.facebook.com/change4life?sk=app_210465912321187

Getty Publications Virtual Library

Interested in Art and English? This resource can be good news for you and for your students.

In 2014, Getty Publications launched its Virtual Library with more than 250 titles spanning its forty-year publishing history. Titles are searchable by title, author, and keyword and include full descriptions, tables of contents, links to read online, to purchase the print book, to find in a library, or to download the complete PDF for free for personal use. 

Only those titles that could be offered in their entirety were included in the initial launch of the Virtual Library. More will be added as they can be made available. 

(Source: http://www.getty.edu/publications/about.html)

http://www.getty.edu/publications/virtuallibrary/index.html

MinutePhysics

MinutePhysics is a series of educational videos created by Henry Reich, an American physicist, mathematician and filmmaker, in 2011 and disseminated through YouTube. Reich's videos include time-lapsed drawing to explain physics-related topics in around one minute.

MinutePhysics is also available to download as a podcast on iTunes:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/minutephysics/id515562086?mt=2

MinutePhysics on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MinutePhysics

MinutePhysics on Twitter: https://twitter.com/minutephysics

https://www.youtube.com/user/minutephysics/videos

Reich has expended his webseries to a second channel named MinuteEarth, where he talks about Earth related facts and phenomena in a similar style to MinutePhysics.  

California Academy of Sciences. Teaching Resources

The California Academy of Sciences is a renowned scientific and educational institution dedicated to exploring, explaining, and sustaining life on Earth.

On its webpage short and lively activities and lesson plans are available.These resources are classified by grade and language and may be helpful in order to develope teaching activities related to the natural sciences.

http://www.calacademy.org/educators/teaching-resources

Encyclopedia of Life

The Encyclopedia of Life provides information about life on Earth. EOL is an awesome resource for text, images, video, sounds, maps, classifications and more, all freely available online. Users can create collections, start and join communities and share their stuff.

Visit EOL on: http://eol.org/info/ed_resources

EOL Blog: http://blog.eol.org/

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

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

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

On Vimeo: http://vimeo.com/groups/encyclopediaoflife

On Google+: https://plus.google.com/+EncyclopediaOfLife

On Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/groups/encyclopedia_of_life/

On Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/eoflife/

English Lesson Plan

Lesson plans for ESL/ EFL students (from level A1 to level B2 CEFR) by Emily Kruszewska, categorized according to language level, learner, activity, time, topic and materials and providing comprehensive information about their implementation in the classroom.

Lesson plans are based on YouTube videos which relate to English culture, English grammar, life skills, leisure...

http://englishlessonplan.co.uk/

Conselleria convoca 10.000 plazas de inglés online para docentes

La Conselleria de Educación, Cultura y Deporte abrirá durante esta semana el plazo para solicitar la realización de cursos online de inglés dirigidos al personal docente no universitario con el fin de apoyar su formación y competencia en este idioma. 

Se trata de 10.000 plazas incluidas en el Programa de Formación en Lenguas Extranjeras que podrá solicitar tanto el profesorado con destino en centros educativos sostenidos con fondos públicos, como el profesorado interino e inscrito en la bolsa de trabajo de la Conselleria. 

Tendrán prioridad para acceder a la formación en esta lengua extranjera los docentes de Educación Infantil así como el profesorado de Formación Profesional y aquellos docentes que ya hubieran comenzado sus estudios de inglés el curso pasado. 

Los cursos de formación permanente a distancia, que podrán solicitarse durante el mes de enero a través de la web de la Conselleria, ofrecerán desde el nivel A1 hasta el nivel C2 del Marco Europeo Común de Referencia para las Lenguas (MECR) y se llevarán a cabo entre el 16 de febrero y el 31 de diciembre. 

El curso se iniciará con un test que permitirá conocer los conocimientos del alumno y ubicarlo en el nivel que le corresponda. Cada curso constará de dos módulos que se realizarán de febrero a junio y de julio a diciembre, y cada uno de ellos será equivalente a 60 horas de formación. 

Fuente: http://www.cece.gva.es/es/agenda.asp?id=2971

Tripppin.com

Tripppin is a platform that connects online and offline activities in a story around the world.

It’s been designed to complement English courses everywhere, from a low intermediate level to advanced.

What if learning were a trip? Find out for yourself on:

http://www.tripppin.com/

A good review on Tripppin.com

A presentation on Tripppin.com

Tripppin.com on Twitter: https://twitter.com/tripppin

Course designer: https://twitter.com/maubuchler

Tackk

Tackk is a simple tool that allows you to instantly create and share your content on the web. It is almost like designing a one-page website. What is most interesting is the fact that no design skill is required. You can personalize the look of your content, add tags, upload pictures, paste a link to a video, embed songs... 

To create a Tackk page you do not need to register for an account, but unregistered Tackk pages expire after one week. Free registration allows multiple Tackks.

https://tackk.com/education

Some ways to use Tackk in the classroom

https://tackk.com/20waystousetackkclassroom

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

On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Tackk.it

On Google+: https://plus.google.com/+Tackk

On Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/tackk/

Tackk tutorial on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=poildGfG8zY

How languages evolve

There are currently about 6000 languages, some spoken by millions, some by only a few people. How do they evolve? Evolutionary linguistics has studied both the origins and development of language inspired by the natural sciences.

In this four-minute video Alex Gendler explains how linguists group and study languages and language families.

You can view the full lesson with activities and extra resources on: 

http://ed.ted.com/lessons/how-languages-evolve-alex-gendler#watch   

Crickweb: free online education resources & games

More than 250 free educational interactive teaching resources and activities for Primary/ Elementary Schools. 84 free to use fun kids games/activities for kids aged 4 - 11. Links to free interactive teaching activities, educational games, image and software resources. 

Most are written with Adobe Flash and therefore can be used on any brand of interactive white board.

Subjects including: Maths, English, Science, History, Geography, R.E., D.T., I.C.T, French and Spanish. 

Available on: http://www.crickweb.co.uk/

Learn American Holidays. Christmas Day

Merry Christmas

Itellyouastory.com

Stories have an incredible educational value due to the their influence on memory, but also because they allow to face a wide variety of topics and contexts. Of course, this is very interesting when learning a new language.

On this page you will find a nice selection of tales and fables to read in English. The collection contains also audios and videos.

Webpage: http://www.itellyouastory.com/

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

App available on the AppStore: 

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/english-bedtime-stories/id595458766?l=it&ls=1&mt=8

Android App: 

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.itellyouastory.android

Didapages

Didapages is a very useful tool for course authors. This software provides many opportunities, such as adding text, images, audio and video to create your own interactive book. It can be very interesting for self-study or distance learning, especially, I would say, for language learning.

Here you can see a selection of Didapages based resources to learn English:

As Christmas approaches...

http://chagall-col.spip.ac-rouen.fr/IMG/didapages/christmas/index.html

On vocabulary (French resource): 

http://histgeodaudet.free.fr/banque/didapages/site/didavocabulary.html

Symbaloo webmix on vocabulary and grammar:

http://www.symbaloo.com/mix/didapagesanglais1?searched=true

ChronoZoom. Visualize time from the Big Bang to the present day

ChronoZoom is a free open source project owned by the Outercurve Foundation that visualizes time on the broadest possible scale from the Big Bang to the present day. Conceived by Walter Alvarez and Roland Saekow, this project has been funded and supported by Microsoft Research Connections in collaboration with University California at Berkeley, Moscow State University and University of Washington Information School (iSchool), and The Center for Web and Data Science (WDS) departments.

ChronoZoom is inspired by the study of Big History, and it approaches the documentation and visualization of time and history in the same way that Google Earth deals with geography.

ChronoZoom allows users to see the true scale of time over cosmic, geologic, biological and social periods.

(From Wikipedia “ChronoZoom”: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ChronoZoom) 

History Teachers

Simply awesome! An approach to teaching History by reworking lyrics to popular songs. The videoclips are entertaining and instructive.

Amy Burvall teacher of Le Jardin Academy in Honolulu, Hawaii and Herb Mahelona, also a teacher, have narrated some of the greatest events in History by rewriting pop songs.

Webpage (lyrics available): http://historyteacherz.com/

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

On Twitter (hashtag): https://twitter.com/hashtag/historyteacherz

Amy Burvall: @amyburvall

Herb Mahelona: @HerbMahelona

An example:

Sesame Street. Sesame Playlists

Sesame Playlists are a collection of fun and educational games and videos organized around a curricular theme. Each playlist includes seven games and videos. You can choose a topic and age range in order to use this resource in a more individualised way.

http://www.sesamestreet.org/playlists#media/playlist_1204

Grammar Lessons With Food

Let’s learn a few important grammar lessons with the help of yummy, delicious food by Jeff Wysaski. More funny stuff on: http://www.pleated-jeans.com/