EFL Classroom's Blog – May 2010 Archive (8)

60 Second Recap - Literary books for "digital types"

60 Second Recaps is a neat concept. You can find there most high school English literature - classic books like Animal Farm, Hamlet, To Kill a Mockingbird etc.... What's cool is that they are explained in 4-6 neat 60 second recap videos. Think Coles Notes for the digital native!

The recaps are very engaging. However, she speaks quite fast for second language speakers, so filter as necessary. Still, they are done in very… Continue

Added by EFL Classroom on May 27, 2010 at 5:03am — No Comments

LiveTyping

Added by EFL Classroom on May 21, 2010 at 4:00pm — 8 Comments

Music makes the world go sound.

\

I spent a good bottle of red wine and some time (and whatever you are told, don't believe 'em - time is cheap) watching 60 Minutes and this gem about how classical music and the spirit of Gustavo Dudamel is trying to bring " the system" to America and make despair into hope.

I'd like to say how this relates to education but first a confession, a coming clean. I love my parents but have always resented that I didn't learn a musical… Continue

Added by EFL Classroom on May 17, 2010 at 10:30am — No Comments

Akinator

Akinator is a guessing game site

that is super simple and easy to use in the class or at home. Much like 20q.net which I've used very successfully

in class - the Akinator will guess whatever celebrity/fa

mous person you

have chosen. Guess by asking questions. Very simple set up of responses

( Yes, Probably, Don't know, Probably not, No). He guessed everyone I

choose (Obama,… Continue

Added by EFL Classroom on May 17, 2010 at 3:53am — 1 Comment

Flikr Poet

Flikr poet is so simple it is astonishing! A great example of how web 2.0 applications are transforming our teaching and classrooms. No doubt, Flikr Poet makes learning happen - happen quicker, better, faster than many other methods.

What is it? Well, Flikr Poet gives you pictures for the words you type in. It makes a nice collage that you can use for…

Continue

Added by EFL Classroom on May 16, 2010 at 3:00pm — 6 Comments

Scorms - Student Read Video Stories!

Smories is fabulous! I've always believed that the most beneficial thing for those learning language through video was 2 fold: 1. strong context 2. faces . Smories gives both in spades.

Find there native speaking students, young learners, reading video stories. There is a grade level (for EFL I recommend grade 3-4). You only see their face, as they read. Lovely! It is also a… Continue

Added by EFL Classroom on May 11, 2010 at 12:00am — No Comments

Sortfix - a REALLY cool way to search

I guess this week I'm all into search engines! I'm beginning to promote our own "intelligent" and social search engine for ELT only and now Sortfix - a very intuitive and new way to search.

Sortfix allows you to breakdown the search into what you REALLY want. A multi step search.

1. Search a…

Continue

Added by EFL Classroom on May 5, 2010 at 10:29pm — 1 Comment

SafeShare.TV - a perfect Youtube helper

Safeshare.TV is a wonderful tool for teachers.

Safeshare.TV allows you to hide the youtube "junk" that is on the page surrounding the video. The ads, the other thumbnails, comments, banners etc.... This can be really distracting to students and using Safeshare.TV makes life easier.

Here's an example of a regular youtube video:… Continue

Added by EFL Classroom on May 4, 2010 at 1:25am — 1 Comment